Pronunciation engineering: Investigating the link between jaw-movement patterns and perceived speaker charisma using the MARRYS cap

Abstract

Anchored in the field of communication engineering or, more specifically, pronunciation engineering and with the aim of evaluating and training public speaking performances, we apply a new device called the MARRYS cap. Using two transducer belts along the speaker's cheeks, the cap can measure articulatory details of jaw lowering and relate them to a time-aligned recording of acoustic charisma features. By linking the speech-production results of 14 speakers to speech-perception results of 34 listeners, the present paper provides, for the first time, empirical evidence for correlations between articulatory dimensions (of jaw lowering) and speaker charisma. Besides the practical implications of our findings, we discuss whether these correlations are direct or just reflect acoustic features that are indirectly (and not inevitably) related to the speaker's jaw movement patterns.