TOUCH AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR HEARING IN THE INTERPRETATION AND CONTROL OF SPEECH

Abstract

I shall attempt here to give a comprehensive account of experiments relating to a new method of understanding speech and of controlling vocal expression in which I have been engaged more or less uninterruptedly for about three years; during the last year in Washington under the auspices of the National Research Council, and prior to that in the psychologic laboratory in Northwestern University. The "new method" employs sensations of touch on the skin as cues or suggestions of the meaning of speech. In my experiments, the vibrations of a speaker's vocal apparatus are transmitted through a suitable electrical device to the skin of a "listener." He feels the very vibrations that occasion normal people to hear. So one might speak facetiously of "hearing through the skin," and I have been asked why I devote my time to developing a method whereby people can "hear through their skins" when so