65 research outputs found

    Lexical knowledge boosts statistically-driven speech segmentation

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    How does cognitive load influence speech perception? : An encoding hypothesis

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    Two experiments investigated the conditions under which cognitive load exerts an effect on speech perception. These experiments extend earlier research by using a different speech perception task (four-interval oddity task) and by implementing cognitive load through a task often thought to be modular, namely, face processing. In the cognitive-load conditions, participants were required to remember two faces presented before the speech stimuli. In Experiment 1, performance in the speech-perception task under cognitive load was not impaired in comparison to a no-load baseline condition. In Experiment 2, we modified the load condition minimally such that it required encoding of the two faces simultaneously with the speech stimuli. As a reference condition, we also used a visual search task that in earlier experiments had led to poorer speech perception. Both concurrent tasks led to decrements in the speech task. The results suggest that speech perception is affected even by loads thought to be processed modularly, and that, critically, encoding in working memory might be the locus of interference

    Beneficial effects of word final stress in segmenting a new language: evidence from ERPs

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    Background: How do listeners manage to recognize words in an unfamiliar language? The physical continuity of the signal, in which real silent pauses between words are lacking, makes it a difficult task. However, there are multiple cues that can be exploited to localize word boundaries and to segment the acoustic signal. In the present study, word-stress was manipulated with statistical information and placed in different syllables within trisyllabic nonsense words to explore the result of the combination of the cues in an online word segmentation task. Results: The behavioral results showed that words were segmented better when stress was placed on the final syllables than when it was placed on the middle or first syllable. The electrophysiological results showed an increase in the amplitude of the P2 component, which seemed to be sensitive to word-stress and its location within words. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that listeners can integrate specific prosodic and distributional cues when segmenting speech. An ERP component related to word-stress cues was identified: stressed syllables elicited larger amplitudes in the P2 component than unstressed ones

    Calibrating rhythm: First language and second language studies

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    Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages

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    Rhythmic and prosodic contrast in Venetan and Sicilian Italian

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    We compared the Italian of speakers from the Veneto, in the north of Italy, and from Sicily, in the far south, looking for evidence of rhythmic and prosodic differences. We found no reliable differences in scores for rhythm metrics (VarcoV, %V, VarcoC) for Venetan and Sicilian, with both varieties having scores similar to French and indicative of a greater durational marking of stress than Spanish. However, we found much stronger prosodic timing effects in Sicilian Italian, with stressed vowels in nuclear utterance-final position twice as long as in prenuclear utterance-medial position. We also found evidence of differential patterns of vowel reduction: Sicilian showed greater modulation of F1 and F2 values according to stress and prosodic position, indicating greater vowel centralisation in prosodically-weak contexts than in Venetan Italian. Overall, the results indicated greater prosodic contrast in southern Italian, and suggest that multiple factors contribute to the perception of rhythmic differences
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