Prosodic Features of Speech Produced by Military Pilots during Demanding Tasks

Military fighter pilots have to function in environments that unavoidably have an effect on both production and reception of speech. Speech production is affected by for example g-forces, positive pressure breathing (PBG), background noise and workload. This can have an effect on the understandability of speech, which in turn can affect flight safety. This study seeks to analyse the changes in the production of speech by Finnish military aircraft pilots due to changes in various stressors present in the fighter cockpit. The speech of a total of 19 pilots was recorded, both on real flights and in a simulator. Several prosodic parameters were calculated for utterances produced in these exercises using F0Tool, a tool for the prosodic analysis of speech. Clear increases were observed in the F0 and intensity values in combat situations. Changes in the simulator were not as pronounced, most likely due to a less demanding set of stressors.