Visuomotor tracking ability of young adult speakers

This study was conducted to (a) study the ability of young adult subjects to track target signals with the lower lip, jaw, or larynx, (b) examine subjects' abilities to track different sinusoidal frequencies and unpredictable target signals, and (c) test notions of response mode and predictive mode tracking reported for nonspeech structures by previous authors (e.g., Noble, Fitts, and Warren, 1955; Flowers, 1978). Twenty-five normal speakers tracked sinusoidal and unpredictable target signals using lower lip and jaw movement and fundamental frequency modulation. Tracking accuracy varied as a function of target frequency and articulator used to track. The results quantify the visuomotor tracking abilities of normal speakers using speech musculature and show the potential of visuomotor tracking tasks in the assessment of speech articulatory control.