scholarly journals Using Rational Models to Interpret the Results of Experiments on Accent Adaptation

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryann Tan ◽  
Xin Xie ◽  
T. Florian Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Rational Models ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Ideal Observers ◽  
Distributional Learning ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Phonetic Cues

Exposure to unfamiliar non-native speech tends to improve comprehension. One hypothesis holds that listeners adapt to non-native-accented speech through distributional learning—by inferring the statistics of the talker's phonetic cues. Models based on this hypothesis provide a good fit to incremental changes after exposure to atypical native speech. These models have, however, not previously been applied to non-native accents, which typically differ from native speech in many dimensions. Motivated by a seeming failure to replicate a well-replicated finding from accent adaptation, we use ideal observers to test whether our results can be understood solely based on the statistics of the relevant cue distributions in the native- and non-native-accented speech. The simple computational model we use for this purpose can be used predictively by other researchers working on similar questions. All code and data are shared.

scholarly journals Detection of Non-native Speaker Status from Backwards and Vocoded Contentmasked Speech

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-105
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Rojczyk ◽  
Andrzej Porzuczek
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Significant Contributor ◽  
Suprasegmental Features ◽  
The Status ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Vocoded Speech

This paper addresses the issue of speech rhythm as a cue to non-native pronunciation. In natural recordings, it is impossible to disentangle rhythm from segmental, subphonemic or suprasegmental features that may influence nativeness ratings. However, two methods of speech manipulation, that is, backwards content-masked speech and vocoded speech, allow the identification of native and non-native speech in which segmental properties are masked and become inaccessible to the listeners. In the current study, we use these two methods to compare the perception of content-masked native English speech and Polish-accented speech. Both native English and Polish-accented recordings were manipulated using backwards masked speech and 4-band white-noise vocoded speech. Fourteen listeners classified the stimuli as produced by native or Polish speakers of English. Polish and English differ in their temporal organization, so, if rhythm is a significant contributor to the status of non-native accentedness, we expected an above-chance rate of recognition of native and non-native English speech. Moreover, backwards content-masked speech was predicted to yield better results than vocoded speech, because it retains some of the indexical properties of speakers. The resultsshow that listeners are unable to detect non-native accent in Polish learners of English from backwards and vocoded speech samples.

scholarly journals Task-evoked pupil response for accurately-recognized accented speech

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Jordan McLaughlin ◽  
Kristin J. Van Engen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Speech Understanding ◽  
Pupil Response ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Accented English

Unfamiliar second-language (L2) accents present a common challenge to speech understanding. However, the extent to which accurately-recognized unfamiliar L2-accented speech imposes a greater cognitive load than native speech remains unclear. The current study used pupillometry to assess cognitive load for native English listeners during the perception of intelligible Mandarin Chinese-accented English and American-accented English. Results showed greater pupil response (indicating greater cognitive load) for the unfamiliar L2-accented speech. These findings indicate that the mismatches between unfamiliar L2-accented speech and native listeners’ linguistic representations impose greater cognitive load even when recognition accuracy is at ceiling.

scholarly journals When One Person's Mistake Is Another's Standard Usage: The Effect of Foreign Accent on Syntactic Processing

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 878-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Hanulíková ◽  
Petra M. van Alphen ◽  
Merel M. van Goch ◽  
Andrea Weber
Keyword(s):  
Speech Processing ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Grammatical Errors ◽  
Integration Problem ◽  
Native Speech

How do native listeners process grammatical errors that are frequent in non-native speech? We investigated whether the neural correlates of syntactic processing are modulated by speaker identity. ERPs to gender agreement errors in sentences spoken by a native speaker were compared with the same errors spoken by a non-native speaker. In line with previous research, gender violations in native speech resulted in a P600 effect (larger P600 for violations in comparison with correct sentences), but when the same violations were produced by the non-native speaker with a foreign accent, no P600 effect was observed. Control sentences with semantic violations elicited comparable N400 effects for both the native and the non-native speaker, confirming no general integration problem in foreign-accented speech. The results demonstrate that the P600 is modulated by speaker identity, extending our knowledge about the role of speaker's characteristics on neural correlates of speech processing.

scholarly journals Learning distributions as they come: Particle filter models for online distributional learning of phonetic categories

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave F Kleinschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Particle Filter ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Cluster Structure ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Rational Model ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Filter Model ◽  
Rational Models ◽  
Distributional Learning

Human infants have the remarkable ability to learn any human language. One proposed mechanism for this ability is distributional learning, where learners infer the underlying cluster structure from unlabeled input. Computational models of distributional learning have historically been principled but psychologically-implausible computational-level models, or ad hoc but psychologically plausible algorithmic-level models. Approximate rational models like particle filters can potentially bridge this divide, and allow principled, but psychologically plausible models of distributional learning to be specified and evaluated. As a proof of concept, I evaluate one such particle filter model, applied to learning English voicing categories from distributions of voice-onset times (VOTs). I find that this model learns well, but behaves somewhat differently from the standard, unconstrained Gibbs sampler implementation of the underlying rational model.

The Effects of Speaker Accent and Target Predictability on Perception of Mispronunciations

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy M. Schmid ◽  
Grace H. Yeni-Komshian
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Initial Phoneme ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Processing Effort ◽  
Target Words

This study makes use of a listening for mispronunciation task to examine how native English listeners perceive sentences produced by non-native speakers. The effects of target predictability and degree of foreign accent were investigated. Native and non-native speakers produced English sentences containing mispronunciation. Mispronunciations (MPs) were constructed by changing the initial phoneme of target words by a single distinctive feature along the dimensions of voicing, place, or manner. Results showed that listeners (a) were more accurate and faster in detecting MPs produced by native than non-native speakers, (b) were more accurate and faster in detecting MPs in predictable than unpredictable sentences, and (3) were more accurate in detecting MPs produced by non-native speakers with milder accents, as compared to heavier accents. These findings suggest that listening to fairly intelligible but accented speech requires increased processing effort—possibly because of subtle differences in intelligibility and increased variability characteristic of non-native speech.

Accentism on Trial: Categorization/Stereotyping and Implicit Biases Predict Harsher Sentences for Foreign-Accented Defendants

2021 ◽  
pp. 0261927X2110227
Author(s):  
Carlos Romero-Rivas ◽  
Charlotte Morgan ◽  
Thomas Collier
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Processing Fluency ◽  
Implicit Association ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
Mock Trial ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Background White Noise

In this study, participants were presented with two tasks: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), and a mock trial task. In both tasks, the auditory stimuli were produced by native or foreign-accented speakers, and presented either free of noise or mixed with background white noise, to estimate the role of processing fluency on jurors’ appraisals. In the IAT, participants showed positive implicit biases toward native speech, and negative implicit biases toward foreign-accented speech. In the mock trial task, participants gave much harsher sentences to the foreign-accented than native defendant, but only when defendants’ statements were free of noise. Moreover, we found that participants’ implicit biases were a relevant predictor of the sentences they gave to the defendants. Our results suggest that categorization/stereotyping is the main mechanism responsible for the effect of defendants’ accents on jurors’ appraisals, and that members of an estimated group who violate social norms are punished more severely.

scholarly journals How does foreign accent affect template matching mechanisms? ERP evidence from Polish

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Hanna Kędzierska
Keyword(s):  
Template Matching ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Sentential Context ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Foreign Accents ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
The Brain

Sentential context is believed to have particularly robust effects on the processing of foreign-accented speech (Lev-Ari 2015). However, recent neurolinguistic studies investigating the relation between non-native speech and semantic predictability suggest that anticipation mechanisms are, in fact, hampered during the processing of foreign accents (Romero-Rivas et al. 2016). The current study is an attempt to shed more light on this issue and establish whether the mechanisms responsible for categorical template matching remain active during the processing of non-native speech. The study investigated neural reactions towards high cloze probability template endings (i.e., the endings of fixed phrases selected in a pre-test) and their unexpected counterparts. 120 Polish sentences were recorded by a native Polish speaker and a non-native (L1 Ukrainian) speaker of Polish in order to investigate the reactions towards an easily recognizable foreign accent. The brain activity of 28 monolinguals (L1 Polish) was recorded during the EEG sessions. In native-accented speech, violations of high cloze probability items resulted in a broadly distributed negativity followed by a P600 effect. No comparable effects were observed in the case of foreign-accented speech. These results are compatible with previous findings (Hanulíková et al. 2012; Romero-Rivas et al. 2016) as they confirm that linguistic anticipatory and reanalysis processes are hampered in the case of non-native speech.

scholarly journals The perception of native vs. non-native Danish speech: Bent and Bradlow’s matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit revisited

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-296
Author(s):  
Paweł Korpal ◽  
◽  
Mikołaj Sobkowiak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Language Pair

The main objective of the study was to test the applicability of Bent and Bradlow’s matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit to the Danish-Polish language pair. We aimed to verify whether it was easier for Polish students of Danish to understand a Danish native speaker or a Polish speaker with a proficient command of Danish. Sixteen Polish students, divided into two groups of eight, listened to two recordings of two Danish texts: one recorded by a native speaker of Danish and the other one — by a native speaker of Polish who is a graduate of Danish philology from a Polish university. Before the experiment, all of the recordings were evaluated in terms of traces of foreign accent using a 7-point Likert scale, the experts being native speakers of Danish. The evaluators assessed the Polish native speaker’s pronunciation as proficient, but they identified certain segmental and suprasegmental features in his speech that are common indicators of a foreign accent in Danish. During the experiment, participants were asked to fill in each recording transcript with twenty missing words. The analysis of the results revealed that the participants scored higher when listening to the text recorded by the Polish speaker. Hence, the matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit was observed in a study using Polish as L1 (native language) and Danish as a foreign language. The study may provide a valuable insight into the question of non-native speech perception, foreign-accented speech and the veracity of the matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit for the Polish–Danish language pair.

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