Temporal Attractors in Timing: Applying the HKB Model to Speech

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Robert F. Port
Mauri Kaipainen

Abstract

Performance is reported on two simple speech-initiation tasks - repeating the syllable "dah" along with a metronome signal and also alternating with the metronome. Subjects exhibit many properties observed in the well-explored task of wagging limbs such s the left and right index fingers. Haken, Kelso and Bunz (1985) presented a model to account for features of out-of-phase finger oscillations relative to in-phase oscillations that account for several details indicating out-of-phase oscillations become unstable at faster rates. Three verified predictions of the Haken-Kelso-Bunz model for two fingers wagging are demonstrated here for our analogous speech task: slippage from out-of-phase to in-phase as rate increases, critical fluctuations and critical slowing down. Observation of these predictions for a speech initiation task suggests that a descriptive scope of the HKB model extends well beyond coordination of mechanical limbs, and is compatible with the view that fundamental aspects of speech motor control resemble other kinds of motor behavior.

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