Effects of synthetic speech, gender, and perceived similarity on attitudes toward the augmented communicator

This study investigated the effects of gender of augmented communicator, listener gender, and perceived similarity on the attitudes of nondisabled individuals toward an augmented communicator. Subjects (n = 95) viewed one of four videotapes depicting an adult voice output communication aid (VOCA) user having a conversation with a normal-speaking individual. The voice synthesizers used in the respective videotapes were DECTalk™ “Beautiful Betty” and “Perfect Paul.” The Attitudes Toward Nonspeaking Persons Scale (ATNP) was used as the dependent variable. Results showed that greater perceived similarity has a positive impact on attitudes toward the augmented communicator. Further, greater similarity produced more favorable attitudes when the gender of the listener and augmented communicator matched. There were no effects for gender of synthetic voice on the attitude scales.

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