CDS/ADS Coding- Talker Variability
Introduction
You will be given a set of short sound clips to label. These are clips of speech taken from naturalistic audio and video recordings from infants' daily lives. To be clear, these are recordings of everything an infant heard, whether or not it was directed at them. Your job is to help us determine whether the clips sound like they were directed to an infant or young child (child-directed speech; CDS) or to another adult (adult-directed speech, ADS). Just do the best you can to label these as CDS/ADS, following the instructions below.
Your task as a labeler is to:
Judge whether the sound clips sound like speech that is directed to an infant or young child (child-directed speech; CDS) or another adult (adult-directed speech; ADS). We are specifically interested in the utterance that contains the target word, which can be found in the file's name
e.g. for file baby_0x785778.wav we are specifically interested in whether the utterance containing 'baby' is in CDS or ADS
if there are multiple speakers or utterances, focus on the one containing the word 'baby'.
If both there are multiple speakers both producing baby, label it as 'mixed'
If a single speaker produces multiple utterances containing baby, and they are all in the same type of speech (CDS or ADS), then label it as the appropriate CDS or ADS. If they differ, label it as 'mixed'
e.g. if a speaker says "baby" three times, and all three are CDS, then label it as CDS
If it's just noise, or just baby sounds, or silence call it junk.
If it seems ambiguous, but is not 'mixed' or 'junk', make a choice between CDS or ADS
Some examples:
baby_0xc93ca4: code as CDS
baby_0x085d11.wav: code as CDS
baby_0x789928.wav : code as ADS
baby_0x885248.wav: code as CDS - even though there is an infant in the background, the utterance containing baby is clear and in CDS
baby_0xb42ba9.wav: code as ADS
baby_0xf2aa6d.wav: code as CDS - even though there are two instances of 'baby', both are clearly CDS
Primary Criteria to Use to Decide Between CDS/ADS
If the segment sounds like it is directed to an infant or child under 8 years of age it should be tagged as CDS. We are forcing you to make a binary choice here, but in real life CDS/ADS is more of a continuous variable. So sometimes you will really be saying that a segment sounds more like CDS than like ADS with your codes. Because this is a “forced choice”, you need to make a choice even if you are really unsure. Just make your best guess.
You may use context as well as acoustic and prosodic (melodic/rhythmic) characteristics to help your decision-making. Some common characteristics of CDS include higher pitch, greater pitch variability, and slowed speech. CDS usually also has a “happy” sound and/or sounds very loving.
Don’t expect that all adult talkers will use the same way of talking for CDS, but do trust your ears. You are likely better at making this distinction in speech register than you think you are and certainly better than any machine! Keep in mind that:
Some adults may just raise their pitch, but not make it more variable when addressing children.
Some adults may lower their pitch or use whispered speech when addressing children.
Some adults may pronounce speech in a funny way (alter certain phonemes) when addressing children.
Some adults may do things we haven’t mentioned here. You can ask your PI or staff for clarification.
You can also ask yourself who the participants are based on what you learned from listening and the content of what is being said. This information may help you to determine the addressee if you are unsure.
Use this whole context (when available) to guide you in borderline cases. Consider whether the whole clip "feels like" CDS or ADS, and classify borderline cases accordingly.
You should code CDS whenever the acoustics strongly suggest it even when the speech is not actually directed to a child. (E.g., if an adult talks to a dog or to another adult the way they would talk to a baby, this should be tagged as CDS.)
The task
Okay, having read the instructions, go to the folder found at: /Volumes/Fas-Phyc-PEB-Lab/Talker_variability/ADS_CDS_Coding
Inside this folder, you will find many many wav files (way more than you'll possibly get through)
You will also find a csv file named "ADS_CDS_Coding_NAME.csv", with your name at the end
The codes you should use are in the csv file so they are easy to remember/refer to as needed
There is also a notes column in case there is something you want me to know about that clip!
Spend 20 minutes listening to sound clips, in order, and labeling them in csv with your name. I copied them in the order that they show up if you sort alphabetically, so just go in order, that way i'll be able to compare roughly the same ones for each of you
A nice trick for those who use macs, if you don't already know, is to select the file in Finder, and then click SPACE. This will automatically start playing the file for you without having to open it. Then you can hit DOWN ARROW to get to the next one automatically. This should speed up the process and allow you to get through more in 20 minutes
Let me know on slack when you are done!
Let me know if you have any questions about the instructions or the process before/during/after, as these will hopefully be shared with random internet strangers, and therefore all feedback is useful!
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