Temporal Predictability in the Perception of English Speech

Buxton, Hilary

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-69103-4_9

Cited by 33 publications

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“…Reaction times in such a case should be shorter. Another alternative would argue that the presence of the glottal segment breaks the natural flow of English (as argued in some pronunciation textbooks) and produces the effect similar to that reported by Buxton (1983): rhythmically impaired utterances lead to longer reaction times in word-monitoring experiments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

The Effect of Word-Initial Glottalization on Word Monitoring in Slovak Speakers of English

Volín

Uhrinová

Skarnitzl

2012

RiL

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The study investigates the impact of glottal elements before word-initial vowels on the speed of processing of the phrases taken from natural continuous speech. In many languages a word beginning with a vowel can be preceded by a glottal stop or a short period of creaky voice. However, languages differ in the extent of use and functions of this glottalization: it may be used to mark the word boundary, for instance, or to add special prominence to the word. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether the presence of the glottal element can influence reaction times in a word-monitoring paradigm. Users of different languages - Slovak and Czech learners of English, as well as native speakers of English - were participating in perception testing so that the influence of the mother tongue could be determined. The results confirm the effect of both glottalization and the L1 of the listeners. In addition, a significant effect of test item manipulations was found. Although the phrases with added or deleted glottal stops displayed no obvious acoustic artefacts, they produced longer reaction times than items with naturally present or absent glottalizations. We believe that this finding underlines the importance of inherent stress patterns, whose alterations lead to the increase in processing load.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

The Effect of Word-Initial Glottalization on Word Monitoring in Slovak Speakers of English

Volín

Uhrinová

Skarnitzl

2012

RiL

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“…Conversely, incorrect lexical stress can disrupt processing for adults (e.g. Birch & Clifton, 2002;Buxton, 1983). In addition, several studies show that the prosodic contour of the entire phrase or utterance can affect listeners' processing of individual words (e.g.…”

Section: Prosodic Cues In Sentence Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowing what a novel word is not: Two-year-olds ‘listen through’ ambiguous adjectives in fluent speech

Thorpe

Fernald

2006

Cognition

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Three studies investigated how 24-month-olds and adults resolve temporary ambiguity in fluent speech when encountering prenominal adjectives potentially interpretable as nouns. Children were tested in a looking-while-listening procedure to monitor the time course of speech processing. In Experiment 1, the familiar and unfamiliar adjectives preceding familiar target nouns were accented or deaccented. Target word recognition was disrupted only when lexically ambiguous adjectives were accented like nouns. Experiment 2 measured the extent of interference experienced by children when interpreting prenominal words as nouns. In Experiment 3, adults used prosodic cues to identify the form class of adjective/noun homophones in string-identical sentences before the ambiguous words were fully spoken. Results show that children and adults use prosody in conjunction with lexical and distributional cues to 'listen through' prenominal adjectives, avoiding costly misinterpretation. KeywordsLanguage development; Speech processing; Ambiguity resolution; Eye movements; Eye-tracking; On-line measures; Speed of processing; Adjectives; Prenominal adjectives; Form class; Prosody; Lexical development; Grammatical development Adults interpret spoken language incrementally, assigning structure to linguistic input continuously as the speech signal unfolds. Although the process of comprehension seems effortless to the fluent adult, incremental processing in fact leads inevitably and continuously to potential problems of ambiguity as the listener attempts to interpret the meaning of a spoken utterance. Because speech unfolds from moment to moment, it is frequently the case that a number of alternative interpretations are possible at a particular point in time, only one of which will be correct. In a sentence such as Susie fixed her back porch, there is ambiguity at multiple levels of linguistic structure at different time points. For example, halfway through the verb, fix-, the sentence could go on to describe how Susie either fixes or fixates something, and on hearing Susie fixed her back-, the listener might prematurely infer that Susie had consulted a chiropractor rather than a carpenter. For adults, the process of recognizing words and resolving temporary ambiguities in spoken language is remarkably fast and efficient, enabled by the use of predictive cues from multiple sources of information in the speech stream. Using extensive knowledge of language and the world, adults can typically rely on linguistic and contextual information to constrain the possibilities of interpretation, so that understanding happens accurately and effortlessly as the sentence unfolds (e.g.

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“…Y. Liberman & Prince, 1977;Selkirk, 1980Selkirk, , 1984. A problem with this type of conceptualization is that, owing to its wide span, the layered structure could not be disentangled fast enough during on-line processing (Buxton, 1983;M. Y. Liberman & Prince, 1977).…”

Section: Stressed Syllables Initiate Sequential Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of time during lexical processing and segmentation: A review

Mattys

1997

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

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Speech, by its very nature, is a time-based phenomenon. Speech sounds are temporally distributed, with the presentation of one sound roughly conditioned by the fading of the previous one. In this review, three classes of models are discussed with respect to the sequential nature of speech. It is argued that the three resulting conceptions of time are linked to the type of segmentation process proposed by these models to deal with speech continuity. In the first one, lexical activation is viewed as perfectly synchronized with the temporal deployment of speech. This type of model corresponds to the traditionalleft-to-right (proactive) account of lexical processing. Because serious segmentation problems exist for such an approach (e.g., car and card are embedded in cardinal), the second type of model treats word recognition as the result of a mechanism that sometimes delays commitment on word identity beyond word offset. Lexical activation, instead of shadowing the unfolding of time, lags behind it until an unambiguous decision can be made. The temporarily unprocessed information is stored in a memory buffer. In the third approach, a prosodic cue (lexical stress) contributes actively to speech segmentation and lexical processing. Every stressed syllable encountered in the signal is postulated as a word onset and thus constitutes the starting point of lexical activation. However, with non-initial-stressed words, retroactive procedures going "back in time" must be used. Finally,the use oftime (including proactive, delayed, and retroactive procedures) is discussed in light of cross-linguistic phonological differences.How spoken words are recognized is a major concern in psycho linguistics. Models posited to explain this complex cognitive skill have traditionally ascribed a central position to the notion of lexical processing, which corresponds to the multiple steps that lead to the recognition of a word (Frauenfelder & Tyler, 1987). Lexical processing includes three stages: (l) the initial contact between the input signal and the mental lexicon, (2) the activation ofcandidates in the lexicon and their progressive selection, and (3) the recognition of the actual word. The term lexical access is usually reserved to describe the moment at which lexical information becomes available to the speech processor.Approaching lexical processing and segmentation from a time perspective is unconventional in the field of word recognition. Traditionally, research has mainly focused on the informational side ofspeech processing (amount of information, number of phonemes, type of perceptual units, quality of the input, etc.). However, it is possible to examine and classify the models built on this type of evidence along a time-based typology. In this review, I have This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant ROI MH516630 I. I am very grateful to Arty Samuel for his supervision of this work and to the following members of the speech laboratory: Donna Kat and Lee Wurm. Thanks are also due Susan Brennan, Richard G...

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Temporal Predictability in the Perception of English Speech

Cited by 33 publications

References 0 publications

The Effect of Word-Initial Glottalization on Word Monitoring in Slovak Speakers of English

The Effect of Word-Initial Glottalization on Word Monitoring in Slovak Speakers of English

Knowing what a novel word is not: Two-year-olds ‘listen through’ ambiguous adjectives in fluent speech

The use of time during lexical processing and segmentation: A review

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