Shadowing unfamiliar speech from familiar speakers
Orhun Uluşahin, Hans Rutger Bosker, James M. McQueen & Antje S. Meyer2022Abstract
Despite the infinite variability of speech, listeners are capable of dealing with variation due to perceptual adjustments on a talker-by-talker basis (e.g., Zhang & Holt, 2018). However, the extent to which these adjustments can affect production remains largely unknown. This study examined whether female native Dutch speakers imitated sub-categorical shifts in F2 of the Dutch vowel /e/. 40 participants first performed a short reading task to establish baseline F2 the vowel /e/, then shadowed 120 target words (alongside 360 fillers) which contained one instance of a manipulated vowel /e/ where the F2 had been shifted down to that of the vowel /ø/. Finally, to ensure that our manipulation did not trigger perceptual category shifts, participants categorized 40 words containing either the vowel /e/, the vowel /ø/, or the manipulated vowel as being closer to /e/ or /ø/. We used a linear mixed-effects model to test whether exposure to manipulated stimuli predict ed convergence. Although responses to the categorization task (96% congruent) suggested that the manipulated vowel was perceived as /e/, we found no effect of task or trial number on F2 frequency. Thus, exposure to manipulated stimuli did not significantly predict any gradual change in F2 in either task and participants’ F2s were not lower in the shadowing task compared to “baseline” reading task measurements. We discuss multiple factors that are likely to have contributed to these results and evaluate implications for a proposed follow-up which would implement a familiarity manipulation.
References
- Zhang, X., & Holt, L. L. (2018). Simultaneous tracking of coevolving distributional regularities in speech. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44(11), 1760.