Audiovisual cues benefit recognition of accented speech in noise but not perceptual adaptation

In noisy settings or when listening to an unfamiliar talker or accent, it can be difficult to understand spoken language. This difficulty typically results in reductions in speech intelligibility, but may also increase the effort necessary to process the speech even when intelligibility is unaffected. In this study, we used a dual-task paradigm and pupillometry to assess the cognitive costs associated with processing fully intelligible accented speech, predicting that rapid perceptual adaptation to an accent would result in decreased listening effort over time. The behavioural and physiological paradigms provided converging evidence that listeners expend greater effort when processing nonnative- relative to native-accented speech, and both experiments also revealed an overall reduction in listening effort over the course of the experiment. Only the pupillometry experiment, however, revealed greater adaptation to nonnative- relative to native-accented speech. An exploratory analysis of the dual-task data that attempted to minimise practice effects revealed weak evidence for greater adaptation to the nonnative accent. These results suggest that even when speech is fully intelligible, resolving deviations between the acoustic input and stored lexical representations incurs a processing cost, and adaptation may attenuate this cost.

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Perceptual adaptation to foreign accented speech.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4784691 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 125 (4) ◽

pp. 2765-2765

Author(s):

Melissa Baese‐Berk

Keyword(s):

Perceptual Adaptation ◽

Accented Speech

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Recognition of foreign-accented speech in noise: The interplay between talker intelligibility and linguistic structure

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/10.0001194 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 147 (6) ◽

pp. 3765-3782 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dorina Strori ◽

Ann R. Bradlow ◽

Pamela E. Souza

Keyword(s):

Linguistic Structure ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Speech In Noise

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Specificity and generalization in perceptual adaptation to accented speech

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.5110302 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 145 (6) ◽

pp. 3382-3398 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jessica E. D. Alexander ◽

Lynne C. Nygaard

Keyword(s):

Perceptual Adaptation ◽

Accented Speech

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Rapid adaptation to fully intelligible nonnative-accented speech reduces listening effort

10.31234/osf.io/vbtnq ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Violet Aurora Brown ◽

Drew Jordan McLaughlin ◽

Julia Feld Strand ◽

Kristin J. Van Engen

Keyword(s):

Dual Task ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Perceptual Adaptation ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Lexical Representations ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Weak Evidence ◽

Processing Cost ◽

Dual Task Paradigm

In noisy settings or when listening to an unfamiliar talker or accent, it may be difficult to recognize spoken language. This difficulty typically results in reductions in speech intelligibility, but may also increase the effort necessary to process the speech. In the current study, we used a dual-task paradigm and pupillometry to assess the cognitive costs associated with processing fully intelligible accented speech, predicting that rapid perceptual adaptation to an accent would result in decreased listening effort over time. Both paradigms revealed greater effort for nonnative- relative to native-accented speech, as well as an overall reduction in listening effort over the course of the experiment, but only the pupillometry experiment revealed greater adaptation to nonnative- relative to native-accented speech. An exploratory analysis of the dual-task data that attempted to minimize practice effects, however, revealed weak evidence for greater adaptation to the nonnative accent. These results suggest that even when speech is fully intelligible, resolving deviations between the acoustic input and stored lexical representations incurs a processing cost, and adaptation may attenuate this cost.

Download Full-text