Abstract

There is a perception that the rate of speech affects the level of comprehensibility of a listener. If the rate of a speaker during a speech or lecture does in fact affect the level of comprehension, then the speaker would have to modify his/her rate of speech in order to benefit the ears of all his/her listeners. In the present study, 40 participants listened to four passages, taken from www.testpreview.com all recorded at varying speeds, after which they answered 10 questions that corresponded with the passages. Results found that speech rate had no effect on comprehension. However, findings based on one passage suggest that there may be a link between speech rate and content.

Recommended Citation

Adams, Jamilah and Weber, Michelle (2006) "The Effects of Speech Rate on Comprehension," Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 4, Article 9.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/psych_journals/vol1/iss4/9