A sentence verification task (SVT) was used to study the effects of sentence predictability on comprehension of natural speech and synthetic speech that was controlled for intelligibility. Sentences generated using synthetic speech were matched on intelligibility with natural speech using results obtained from a separate sentence transcription task. In the main experiment, the sentence verification task included both true and false sentences that varied in predictability. Results showed differences in verification speed between natural and synthetic sentences, despite the fact that these materials were equated for intelligibility. This finding suggests that the differences in perception and comprehension between natural and synthetic speech go beyond segmental intelligibility as measured by transcription accuracy. The observed differences in response times appear to be related to the cognitive processes involved in understanding and verifying the truth value of short sentences. Reliable effects of predictability on error rates and response latencies were also observed. High-predictability sentences displayed lower error rates and faster response times than low-predictability sentences. However, predictability did not have differential effects on the processing of synthetic speech as expected. The results demonstrate the need to develop new measures of sentence comprehension that can be used to study speech communication at processing levels above and beyond those indexed through transcription tasks, or forced-choice intelligibility tests such as the Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) or the Diagnostic Rhyme Test (DRT).

中文翻译：

---

自然和合成语音的理解：可预测性对控制可理解性的句子验证的影响。

句子验证任务 (SVT) 用于研究句子可预测性对自然语音和合成语音理解的影响，这些语音被控制为可懂度。使用从单独的句子转录任务中获得的结果，使用合成语音生成的句子与自然语音的可懂度匹配。在主要实验中，句子验证任务包括可预测性不同的真假句子。结果表明，自然句子和合成句子之间的验证速度存在差异，尽管这些材料在可懂度方面是等同的。这一发现表明，自然语音和合成语音之间在感知和理解方面的差异超出了以转录准确性衡量的分段可懂度。观察到的响应时间差异似乎与理解和验证短句真值所涉及的认知过程有关。还观察到可预测性对错误率和响应延迟的可靠影响。与低可预测性句子相比，高可预测性句子显示出更低的错误率和更快的响应时间。然而，可预测性对合成语音的处理没有预期的不同影响。结果表明，需要开发新的句子理解量度，可用于研究处理水平上的语音交流，这些处理水平高于通过转录任务或强制选择可懂度测试（如修改押韵测试 (MRT) 或诊断押韵测试（DRT）。