Use what you can: Storage, abstraction processes, and perceptual adjustments help listeners recognize reduced forms

Contains fulltext : 129530.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Three eye-tracking experiments tested whether native listeners recognized reduced Dutch words better after having heard the same reduced words, or different reduced words of the same reduction type and whether familiarization with one reduction type helps listeners to deal with another reduction type. In the exposure phase, a segmental reduction group was exposed to /b/-reductions (e.g., minderij instead of bindenj, "book binder") and a syllabic reduction group was exposed to full-vowel deletions (e.g., p'raat instead of paraat, "ready"), while a control group did not hear any reductions. In the test phase, all three groups heard the same speaker producing reduced-/b/ and deleted-vowel words that were either repeated (Experiments 1 and 2) or new (Experiment 3), but that now appeared as targets in semantically neutral sentences. Word-specific learning effects were found for vowel-deletions but not for /b/-reductions. Generalization of learning to new words of the same reduction type occurred only if the exposure words showed a phonologically consistent reduction pattern (/b/-reductions). In contrast, generalization of learning to words of another reduction type occurred only if the exposure words showed a phonologically inconsistent reduction pattern (the vowel deletions; learning about them generalized to recognition of the /b/-reductions). In order to deal with reductions, listeners thus use various means. They store reduced variants (e.g., for the inconsistent vowel-deleted words) and they abstract over incoming information to build up and apply mapping rules (e.g., for the consistent /b/-reductions). Experience with inconsistent pronunciations leads to greater perceptual flexibility in dealing with other forms of reduction uttered by the same speaker than experience with consistent pronunciations.17 p

Compensation for assimilatory devoicing and prosodic structure in German fricative perception

Contains fulltext : 85959.pdf (author's version ) (Open Access

Perceptual learning of liquids

Contains fulltext : 99592.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Previous research on lexically-guided perceptual learning has focussed on contrasts that differ primarily in local cues, such as plosive and fricative contrasts. The present research had two aims: to investigate whether perceptual learning occurs for a contrast with non-local cues, the /l/-/r/ contrast, and to establish whether STRAIGHT can be used to create ambiguous sounds on an /l/-/r/ continuum. Listening experiments showed lexically-guided learning about the /l/-/r/ contrast. Listeners can thus tune in to unusual speech sounds characterised by non-local cues. Moreover, STRAIGHT can be used to create stimuli for perceptual learning experiments, opening up new research possibilities. Index Terms: perceptual learning, morphing, liquids, human word recognition, STRAIGHT

Lexical status effects on compensation for fricative assimilation

Contains fulltext : 56571.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)In German, word-initial voiced fricatives may be devoiced if they follow /t/. This assimilation could make recognition of words beginning with /v/ harder, since there may be competing words beginning with /f/, but will not affect words beginning with /z/, since initial /s/ in German is illegal. Our previous research has shown that speakers indeed produce more assimilation across word boundaries than across phrase boundaries for /z/, but inhibit the assimiliation across word boundaries for /v/. In the present study, German listeners identified the fricative continua /f-v/ and /s-z/, across word versus phrase boundaries, in viable versus non-viable contexts for assimilation. Less voicing was required for a /v,z/ judgement in viable than in non-viable assimilation contexts. This context effect was larger after a word boundary than after a phrase boundary. Within the viable-context condition, a prosodic effect appeared for /f-v/, with less voicing required for /v/ judgements after a word than a phrase boundary, but no such effect appeared for /s-z/. This asymmetry reverses the difference observed in production. Thus listeners adjust phoneme category boundaries to compensate for prosodically-conditioned variation where such adjustment is functional for word recognition, but do not adjust where adjustment would have no functional consequences.1 p

The link between speech perception and production is phonological and abstract: Evidence from the shadowing task

Contains fulltext : 68314.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)6 p

The efficiency of cross-dialectal word recognition

Item does not contain fulltextialects of the same language can differ in the casual speech processes they allow; e.g., British English allows the insertion of [r] at word boundaries in sequences such as saw ice, while American English does not. In two speeded word recognition experiments, American listeners heard such British English sequences; in contrast to non-native listeners, they accurately perceived intended vowel-initial words even with intrusive [r]. Thus despite input mismatches, cross-dialectal word recognition benefits from the full power of native-language processing

How important is prediction for understanding spontaneous speech?

Contains fulltext : 206019.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

Native and non-native segmentation of continuous speech

Item does not contain fulltext1 p