ISCA Archive AVSP 1998
ISCA Archive AVSP 1998

Working Memory and Visual Speech Communication

Bjorn Lyxell, Jerker Ronnberg, Ulf Andersson, Jan Andersson, Stefan Samuelsson

This paper gives an overview of the research that we have carried out at Linkoping University on cognitive aspects of visual speech processing. First, a cognitive, individual difference perspective on speechreading is introduced, with a specific emphasis on the cognitive architecture of speechreading skill. Second, common cognitive characteristics of exceptionally skilled speechreaders is described. In the final part, a working memory model for visual speechreading is outlined. The model includes three parts; one with amodal cognitive constraints, one with poorly specified language input, and a bottleneck between the modal and amodal parts that is constituted by a semi-abstract phonological processor.