Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

sciencemag.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 263 posts

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#111

Post by stormbeard »

bane wrote: post #107

I recall a moment when, as an adult, I thought it might be fun to watch some cartoons that were my favorite as a child. I actually ended up giving up fairly quickly because the rate of the speech in many cartoons is apparently geared to be very slow. I remember firing up the first episode of the classic Thundercats show and being really struck at how much slower the characters spoke than my memory of the show. On the…

Diane Rehm has spasmodic dysphonia, which affects the way she speaks. She's not just old.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#112

Post by SilasX »

dredmorbius wrote: post #91
knzhou wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known a lot of people that push podcasts, videos, and audiobooks to extreme speed. I knew a guy who'd turn video speed up to 8x so he could binge watch a season of generic anime in an hour flat. I knew a girl who'd get through paperback romance novels by scanning each page diagonally, in 10 seconds each. And here in this thread we have a lot of people bragging along the same lines. I just don't get the point. If…

Exceedingly slow narration, particularly what's normal for audiobooks, is annoying to me because it's slower than I process words. It's like walking with someone whose pace is far slower than your natural gait -- it takes more energy and concentration to slow down. It's why slow-talkers are so annoying. This isn't "how fast can I go through this" but "what is a comfortable pace"? So I bump the speed up, though usuall…

Yes, and the painful slowness becomes even more evident if you speed it up to the 1.25/1.5x range, get comfortable with it, and then go back to 1x. IME, it sounds like the speaker is going over-the-top to enunciate, like you're a small child or have learning disabilities or something.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#113

Post by dwighttk »

markussss wrote: post #79
knzhou wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known a lot of people that push podcasts, videos, and audiobooks to extreme speed. I knew a guy who'd turn video speed up to 8x so he could binge watch a season of generic anime in an hour flat. I knew a girl who'd get through paperback romance novels by scanning each page diagonally, in 10 seconds each. And here in this thread we have a lot of people bragging along the same lines. I just don't get the point. If…

I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks while doing other things; walking, cleaning, cooking, traveling, playing games, etc. Every time I try speeding up, even just to 1.25x, I don't enjoy it as much, as it feels rushed and stressful. I think it could be interesting to learn to listen and read at extremely high speeds, but nothing more than interesting, and I'm even doubting the usefulness of it.

heh, when I slow audiobooks down to 1x it sounds like the reader is drunk. I usually go with 1.5-2x depending on the reader.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#114

Post by dwighttk »

thegranderson wrote: post #60
colechristensen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I'd also like to develop / wish was integrated into audible and the like is silence trimming. Some speakers leave outsized pauses in their narration which can be significantly shortened effectively increasing speed with less distortion. I have the opposite problem where I have trouble paying attention to an audiobook at 1x. I get bored in between words and my mind wanders making it very difficult to keep tr…

Overcast (a podcasting app) has great features to optimize the high speed listening experience. They have variable speed, a great silence trimmer, and a voice boost that makes speech clearer.

I just wish I could listen to arbitrary audio with Overcast. As it is I have a blog set up to feed Overcast audio that I give it, but it feels super clunky.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#115

Post by bscphil »

nickjj wrote: post #110
ckosidows wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you from if people think you don't have an accent, if you don't mind me asking?

Long Island, New York. I'm not trying to plug my channel but here's my latest public video from the other week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_khHWovl4 I do believe audio quality plays a -huge- role in this. For comparison, here's the most recent Railscasts video from a few years ago by another screencast author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urPi4qZJeOE I can deal with him at 2x but it's mentally taxing becaus…

I agree, you have a very neutral American accent, not much like a New Yorker at all. Other things I noticed include that you are indeed pronouncing each word very clearly, but also that you're speaking a bit more slowly than I would consider a typical speech rate (though not necessarily slower than the average Youtube video). In this video, you're also speaking at a bit higher pitch than a typical male voice, which I think further aids clarity because "sharper" syllables come out very clearly instead of being muddled like they are in very deep voices.

That said, I couldn't comprehend you well at all at 2x speed (using the Youtube controls). This might have just been to distortion caused by the Youtube player on my computer, I'm not sure. At 1.75x you were still very clear, though I suspect at that rate I would find myself pausing the video now and then to think about what you were saying.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#116

Post by CodeM0nkey »

charwalker wrote: post #108
SXX wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One thing I'd also like to develop / wish was integrated into audible and the like is silence trimming. I don't really use audible, but if you looking for good audio player on Android here is one that can do this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ph1b.audiob... https://github.com/PaulWoitaschek/Voice

Can you include the app name? I'm blocked from both links.

Voice Audiobook Player

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#117

Post by liability »

nickjj wrote: post #110
ckosidows wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you from if people think you don't have an accent, if you don't mind me asking?

Long Island, New York. I'm not trying to plug my channel but here's my latest public video from the other week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_khHWovl4 I do believe audio quality plays a -huge- role in this. For comparison, here's the most recent Railscasts video from a few years ago by another screencast author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urPi4qZJeOE I can deal with him at 2x but it's mentally taxing becaus…

I scoffed at the idea that somebody from Long Island would have no accent, but after listening for myself I have to agree. Interesting.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#118

Post by jimmaswell »

knzhou wrote: post #49
ilamont wrote: post #15

But, he says, instead of being limited by how quickly we can process information by listening, we’re likely limited by how quickly we can gather our thoughts. That’s because, he says, the average person can listen to audio recordings sped up to about 120%—and still have no problems with comprehension. Some years ago I worked on an accessibility project for an app and website designed for people with disabilities. One…

I've known a lot of people that push podcasts, videos, and audiobooks to extreme speed. I knew a guy who'd turn video speed up to 8x so he could binge watch a season of generic anime in an hour flat. I knew a girl who'd get through paperback romance novels by scanning each page diagonally, in 10 seconds each. And here in this thread we have a lot of people bragging along the same lines. I just don't get the point. If…

I can watch videos like Linus Tech Tips up to 2x speed and get just as much out of it as otherwise.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#119

Post by bscphil »

airstrike wrote: post #25
Aperocky wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really depends on language, if you're writing java, you'll be putting out a lot more than that due to how stupidly verbose it is.

So you're saying you're not a fan of RequestProcessorFactoryFactory.StatelessProcessorFactoryFactory? http://ws.apache.org/xmlrpc/apidocs/org/apache/xmlrpc/server...

That bit of text is 64 characters long. Do people who write in these languages just totally abandon line length restrictions? In Python, PEP8 dictates that lines of code be kept to 79 characters. Personally, I wrap at 72 characters in Python unless the entire statement can be placed on a single line of 79 characters or less.

Re: Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second

#120

Post by nickjj »

bscphil wrote: post #115
nickjj wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long Island, New York. I'm not trying to plug my channel but here's my latest public video from the other week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_khHWovl4 I do believe audio quality plays a -huge- role in this. For comparison, here's the most recent Railscasts video from a few years ago by another screencast author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urPi4qZJeOE I can deal with him at 2x but it's mentally taxing becaus…

I agree, you have a very neutral American accent, not much like a New Yorker at all. Other things I noticed include that you are indeed pronouncing each word very clearly, but also that you're speaking a bit more slowly than I would consider a typical speech rate (though not necessarily slower than the average Youtube video). In this video, you're also speaking at a bit higher pitch than a typical male voice, which I…

Thanks for the listen. All of my tests are always using Youtube's playback controls btw.

Were you able to listen to Joe Rogan's podcast at 2x? Skip somewhere in the middle and listen for 15 seconds maybe.

You are right in that I speak slower in that video. Most of my more recent Youtube videos are unscripted so I'm just thinking about things with zero preparation, where as I script my courses word for word (which leads to faster speaking generally) but I don't have any course videos with the same audio equipment to compare side by side.

I didn't read the paper but I wonder what they classify comprehension as. Personally I wouldn't listen to hardcore technical things at 2x because understanding the words isn't usually the goal of listening to it. It would be to fully absorb and understand what you're listening to so you can apply it on your own later. There's a big difference between a mechanical understanding of the words and really "getting" what you're listening to.

I typically reserve 2x for listening to tech talks where my goal is to get a high level overview of something quickly.

Post reply on HN