bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Speech perception assessment and training system (SPATS-ESL) for speakers of other languages learning English.
Authors: Miller James D. , Sillings Roy , Watson Charles S. , Kewley-Port Diane
Published: October 2013

The SPATS software system, originally developed for the hearing-impaired, has been modified for use with ESL learners with TOFEL (pbt) scores near and well above 500. SPATS-ESL includes the identification of syllable constituents: onsets, nuclei, and codas, as well as sentence recognition. The syllable constituent tasks include the progressive introduction of increasing numbers of constituents until the learner becomes adept at the identification of 45 onsets, 28 nuclei, and 36 codas presented by eight talkers in a variety of phonetic contexts. The sentence task emphasizes increasing speed and decreasing errors in the recognition of short, meaningful sentences spoken by a variety of talkers. The sentences are presented in a background of multi-talker babble at five signal-to-noise ratios: +10, +5, 0, −5, and −10 dB. The syllable constituent and sentence tasks are interleaved throughout training. In constituent training, SPATS uses a proprietary training algorithm, Adaptive Item Selection (AIS), which automatically focuses training on individuals’ items of intermediate difficulty and is independent of their language history. Proctored tests allow certification of a learner’s English speech perception in relation to native-speaker performance.
A cross-language study of compensatory response to formant-shifted feedback.
Authors: Mitsuya Takashi , MacDonald Ewen N. , Purcell David W. , Munhall Kevin G.
Published: October 2013

Previous experiments in speech motor learning have demonstrated that the perception of our own voice while we speak plays a role in the control of fundamental and formant frequencies and vocal amplitude. When feedback is changed in real time, subjects alter speech production in attempt to compensate for the perturbation. By testing Japanese talkers in their native and a less familiar language (as well as English-speaking controls), we examine how this perception-production process is influenced by language. In the first study, native Japanese speakers produced an English word with formant-shifted feedback. In the second experiment, native Japanese speakers produced a Japanese syllable with altered feedback and produced an English word that contained a similar vowel with normal feedback. The results were compared with data from English controls and suggest that the compensatory behavior is not language dependent.
Acoustic similarities between front rounded and back unrounded vowels as evidenced by French /o// and /u/ produced by Japanese-speaking learners.
Authors: Kamiyama Takeki
Published: October 2013

French high back rounded /u/ is characterized by a concentration of energy in the low frequency zone (< 1000 Hz) due to the grouping of the first two formants, and midhigh front rounded /o// by a balanced distribution of formants, with F2 located around 1500 Hz. Japanese-speaking learners of French (JSL), who have difficulty differentiating /o// and /u/ both in perception and production, tend to produce, for both, Japanese-like /u/, which is fronted and less rounded, with a formant structure similar to that of French /o//. Our perception experiment using 18 tokens each of /u y o// produced by five JSL shows that the 16 native speakers of French (NF) tested perceived mainly /o// when they heard those stimuli intended as /u/ by JSL but produced with a high F2 between 1100 and 1600 Hz, with a mean goodness rating of 2–4.5 out of 5 for /o//. Another perception test conducted with stimuli synthesized using Maeda’s articulatory synthesis (VTCalcs) shows that the 16 NF examined tended to identify vowels synthesized as front rounded vowels and back unrounded vowels both as front unrounded ones (/o// and /æ/, respectively), which indicates the acoustic similarities of both types of vowels.
Accounting for the accented perception of vowels: Universal preferences and language-specific biases.
Authors: Bohn Ocke-Schwen , Polka Linda
Published: October 2013

Strange things happen in cross-language and second-language vowel perception: Nave non-native listeners have been reported to rely on acoustic properties which are nonfunctional in their L1 and dysfunctional for the perception of non-native vowels; naïve non-native listeners’ perception is guided by a preference for vowels that are peripheral in the articulatory/acoustic vowel space; and, in general, naïve non-native listeners’ perception is not well predicted by comparative analyses of vowels of the native and the non-native language. This presentation reviews the accented perception of vowels by focusing on two forces which shape non-native vowel perception: universal perceptual preferences which non-native listeners (and infants) bring to the task of vowel perception, and perceptual biases which non-native listeners transfer from their native to the non-native language. Strange and her colleagues have shown that these biases cannot be predicted from acoustic comparisons; rather, they have to be examined directly through assessments of the perceived cross-language similarity of vowels. This presentation addresses several of the still unresolved questions regarding the design and the interpretation of perceptual assimilation tasks used to account for the accented perception of vowels. [Work supported by Danish Research Council for the Humanities, Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.]
Perceptual training really matters: evidence of a study with English as a foreign language (EFL) vowels.
Authors: Nobre-Oliveira Denize , Rauber Andreia S.
Published: October 2013

This study aimed at: (i) investigating the perception of English vowels by Brazilian English as a foreign language (EFL) highly proficient speakers, and, based on the findings; (ii) designing and testing perceptual training tasks that could possibly minimize perception difficulties by EFL learners. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 tested vowel perception by means of an identification test elaborated with synthetic stimuli. The results showed that the vowels most often misidentified were /i/, /I/, /E/, /æ/, /U/, and /u/, and that duration does not seem to play a role on the perception of each vowel, suggesting that participants rely primarily on spectral cues. Experiment 2 then tested the effect of perceptual training of the difficult vowels by means of exposure to both natural and synthetic stimuli (with spectral manipulation). The training on these vowels was given over a 3-week period to 29 Brazilian EFL learners, which were divided into the natural stimuli (NatS) group and the synthesized stimuli (SynS) group. The results show that: (i) both experimental groups improved significantly after training; (ii) there was more improvement in the SynS group than in the NatS group; and (iii) knowledge acquired with artificially enhanced stimuli was transferred to stimuli produced naturally. [Work supported by CAPES (Committee For Postgraduate Courses in Higher Education, Brazilian Ministry of Education) grants to both authors.]
Perception of English voiceless alveolar and postalveolar fricatives by Korean speakers.
Authors: Suh Yunju
Published: October 2013

Korean lacks place contrast of coronal fricatives before i. Yet three alveopalatal fricatives, fortis, lenis, and labialized, occur in this context. Fortis and lenis alveopalatals are intermediate between English alveolar and postalveolar in spectral peak location, though fortis has peak at higher frequencies, and thus is closer to English s. Peak location of labialized alveopalatal is the lowest, largely overlapping with that of English ∫. The presence of L1 contrast among alveopalatals seems to facilitate Korean listeners’ perception of English si-∫i contrast, especially that between plain and labialized alveopalatals. Korean listeners were presented with eight-step continuum of English si (step 1) to ∫i (step 8), and asked to identify them with an L1 category. The percentage of fortis answer gradually decreased from steps 1 to 4, as lenis answer gradually increased. Labialized answer appeared below 3% until step 4, and increased above 68% at step 5, indicating categorical change of the percept from plain to labialized alveopalatals. There was no categorical change from fortis to lenis, presumably because Korean fortis-lenis contrast involves complex acoustic cues such as vowel f0, frication duration, and amplitude difference between harmonics, in addition to frication noise frequency.
Perception of complex word-initial onsets in English by native speakers of Japanese.
Authors: Sperbeck Mieko
Published: October 2013

Past studies have shown that English L2 learners whose native languages have relatively simple syllable structure have different degrees of difficulty in producing complex syllable and word onsets in English. For instance, more marked clusters (e.g., /bj/) were harder to produce than the less marked ones (e.g., /pj/) for Japanese learners of English [E. Broselow and D. Finer, Second Language Research 7, 35–59 (1991)]. However, what is unknown is whether such difficulties reflect problems in perceiving complex syllable structures. The current study tested Japanese L2 learners and American English controls in a categorial ABX discrimination test of eight contrasts between nonsense words with consonant cluster onsets CC(C)VCV versus CəC(C)VCV sequences (e.g., /spani/versus/səpani/) and included /sp, sk, pl, bl, kl, gl, spl, skl/ clusters. Words were imbedded in short sentences to increase task difficulty. Results showed that overall accuracy by the Japanese group was significantly poorer than for the Americans (72% and 98% correct respectively). Certain clusters were harder for Japanese listeners (e.g., 76% correct for /pl/ but 64% for /bl/). Productions of the words were also obtained and are related to perceptual performance.
Discrimination of Mandarin disyllabic tone contrasts by American English-speaking adults and children.
Authors: Berkowitz Shari
Published: October 2013

Most research on cross-language perception of Mandarin tones has used monosyllabic stimuli, despite the fact that Mandarin words are predominantly disyllabic. Previous work on disyllable discrimination (Berkowitz and Strange, 2007) suggested that perception by English-speaking adults is influenced by coarticulation and context effects. In this series of studies, subsets of stimuli were chosen to attempt to isolate the effects of fundamental frequency height, contour, turning point and timing on English speakers’ ability to perform a same/different task. Three balanced blocks of approximately 10 min each were given, to keep the task appropriate for preschoolers. Feedback conditions varied; some subjects received feedback throughout and others on the first block only. Early results suggest that discrimination of disyllabic Mandarin stimuli is easier for American English speakers if the differences between disyllables occur at onset or offset of the complete utterance; differences in the middle pose more of a challenge. Subjects appear to evaluate disyllabic contours as a whole, rather than on a syllable-by-syllable basis. Implications for future research and training protocols will be discussed.
Cross-linguistic evidence for the influence of native language prosody in infant speech segmentation.
Authors: Curtin Suzanne , Polka Linda , Abada Shani , Sally-Joy Reaper
Published: October 2013

Research using artificial languages with English-learning infants has shown both prosodic and distributional cues are used for speech segmentation by 7 months. When these cues conflict, infants younger than 7 months rely on distributional cues while older infants rely on prosodic cues). In the present study we assessed the role of prosodic information in segmentation when it is not favorably aligned with distributional cues, to determine whether language-specific rhythmic biases guide segmentation as suggested by studies using natural speech. Two continuous streams of naturally produced syllables (English and French) were constructed using nines syllables that are permissible in both languages. Within each stream statistical cues were manipulated independently of language-appropriate stress cues. English- and French-learning 8-month-olds were familiarized with their native language stream and then present test probe strings to determine what syllable sequences were extracted from the stream. Probes were selected to assess the role of stress cues in segmentation. Findings show that English infants make use of a trochaic template; Canadian-French infants show a weaker and less focused reliance on stress cues to segment words from connected speech. These cross-linguistic differences reflect processing biases that may be set by language experience and/or elicited by speech input properties.
Duration as a phonetic cue in the categorization of /i:/-/ɪ/ and /s/-/z/ by spanish/Catalan learners of English.
Authors: Cerviño Eva , Mora Joan C.
Published: October 2013

Previous research has shown that Spanish/Catalan learners of English (SCLs) rely on duration rather than spectral cues in the categorization of contrastive English vowel pairs such as /i:-/ɪ/, despite length being nondistinctive in Spanish/Catalan. Native English speakers (NESs) rely more heavily on V-C duration ratio than on glottal pulsing in the perception of voicing contrasts in -VC contexts. This study investigated whether SCLs’ overreliance on duration in vowel categorization also applied to consonants in contexts (-VC) where lack of closure voicing makes duration the main cue to voicing for NESs. SCLs (N=40) and NESs (N=15) participated in two lexical decision tasks consisting of /f/+V+/t/ stimuli drawn from two 8-step continua with shortened (/i:/) and lengthened (/ɪ/) vowels; and /p/+/i:/+C stimuli drawn from six 8-step continua with simultaneously and independently modified vowels and final consonants (/i:s/-/i:z/). Manipulating duration had a significant effect on SCLs’ categorization of /i:/ and /ɪ/, but not on SCLs’ categorization of /s/ and /z/, suggesting that SCLs made use of duration as a cue to vowel categorization, but did not use duration as a cue to voicing. These results are interpreted and further discussed in light of Bohn’s Desensitization Hypothesis and McAllister’s Feature Hypothesis.
Perceptual adaptation to foreign accented speech.
Authors: Baese-Berk Melissa
Published: October 2013

Previous research on native listener adaptation to foreign-accented adaptation has demonstrated that training on a single non-native speaker results in talker-dependent learning (i.e., training does not generalize to new talkers). However, training on multiple foreign-accented speakers from a single language background results in talker-independent, but accent-dependent learning (i.e., training generalizes to new speakers of the trained accent, but not to new accents). The current study extends these findings, examining whether training on multiple accents can result in accent-independent learning. Native English listeners were trained on recognition of foreign-accented speech by five speakers from different language backgrounds. They were then tested on the speech of two novel speakers. One of the speakers was a native speaker of a language included in the training set (Mandarin), and the other was a native speaker of a language not included in the training set (Slovakian). Listeners demonstrated better performance on both the Mandarin and Slovakian tests than untrained control subjects, demonstrating accent-independent learning after training on multiple foreign accents. This suggests that individuals in multilingual communities, who are exposed to significant variation in the input, may be able to achieve highly flexible speech perception systems.
Category formation and lexical encoding of a new contrast.
Authors: Darcy Isabelle , Dekydtspotter Laurent , Sprouse Rex A. , Kaden Christiane , Scott John H. G. , Schaefer Vance , McGuire Michael
Published: October 2013

The question whether category formation is a prerequisite for U.S.-English learners of French to encode a non-native contrast in lexical representations is investigated, looking at front [y-œ] and back [u-ɔ] rounded vowels. An ABX categorization experiment revealed no group difference between advanced (N=18) and inexperienced learners (N=18). Both made significantly more errors than French controls (p<0.01) on the [u-y] contrast, despite a good global discrimination (15% error). The possibility that minimal pairs of difficult contrasts (e.g., sourd [sur] deaf vs sur [syr] sure) are stored as homophones was tested in a lexical decision task with repetition priming. French words and non-words were paired with either themselves (repetition) or a minimal-pair-counterpart (minimal pair) in a 260 item list. Correct RTs were measured for each item. Given a comparable RT-advantage on the repetition and the minimal pair condition, merged lexical representations were assumed. Advanced learners, like native speakers, showed no RT-advantage for minimal pair conditions; inexperienced learners displayed significant facilitation for [u-y] and [ɔ-œ] minimal pairs (but not [i-y] control condition). This suggests that successful lexical contrast is possible for advanced English-French users despite persistent perception errors—the hallmark of an insecure category establishment—presenting an argument for the dissociation of both mechanisms.
Relationship of prosody by Spanish speakers of English as a second language on the perception of intelligibility and accentedness by native English listeners.
Authors: Edmunds Paul
Published: October 2013

The degree to which prosodic features related to English lexical stress affect the perception of factors such as intelligibility and accentedness by native English listeners was investigated. Acoustic analyses of English multi-syllabic words spoken by native Spanish speakers who learned English as a second language (ESL) were used to determine the values of the acoustic correlates of lexical stress of these speakers on a set of target words. Values for vowel duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency produced by the Spanish ESL speakers were compared to those values produced by native English speakers. Prosodic variation observed in the ESL speakers was used to formulate a range for manipulations to the target words. To focus solely on prosody and not take into account consonant and vowel quality, manipulations, using the PSOLA algorithm in Praat, were done to the voices of native English speakers. These manipulations captured increases and decreases in duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency on vowels that should or should not carry lexical stress in a particular target word. Listeners rated the resynthesized tokens for factors such as intelligibility and accentedness, and the results suggest that a speaker’s prosody alone can influence a native listener’s judgments on these variables.
Experience with computerized speech-perception training (SPATS-ESL) for speakers of other languages learning English.
Authors: Miller James D. , Sillings Roy , Watson Charles S. , Darcy Isabelle , Bardovi-Harlig Kathleen
Published: October 2013

SPATS-ESL evolved as it was used by volunteers and as a supplement to classes in the Intensive English and English Enhancement Programs at Indiana University (Bloomington). These trials with eighty ESL-learners representing 12 L1s resulted in the curriculum described in the companion poster. Before training, the ESL learners exhibited significant problems with perceiving spoken English. These were greatest for syllable nuclei, least for syllable onsets, and intermediate for syllable codas. Recognition of spoken sentences was also inferior to that of native speakers of English. Improvement on all tasks including sentence recognition was proportional to the total time spent with SPATS. Based on the data and on reasonable extrapolations therefrom, many ESL-learners, after 20–30 hours of spaced practice with SPATS-ESL, appear to be approaching the performance of native-speakers of English on all SPATS-ESL tasks. Responses to questionnaires and comments indicate that the participants believed that SPATS-ESL training (a) was useful, (b) should be used in other classes, (c) helped them understand native speakers in real-life situations, and (d)would help them to improve their pronunciation of English. More advanced students were more enthusiastic about SPATS-ESL than less advanced students. Individual and group data supporting these generalizations and extrapolations will be presented.
The role of selective attention in the acquisition of English tense and lax vowels by native Spanish listeners: Comparison of three training methods.
Authors: Kondaurova Maria V. , Francis Alexander L.
Published: October 2013

This study investigates the role of two processes, cue enhancement (learning to attend to acoustic cues which characterize a speech contrast for native listeners) and cue inhibition (learning to ignore cues that do not), in the acquisition of the American English tense and lax ([i] and [ɪ]) vowels by native Spanish listeners. This contrast is acoustically distinguished by both vowel spectrum and duration. However, while native English listeners rely primarily on spectrum, inexperienced Spanish listeners tend to rely exclusively on duration. Twenty-nine native Spanish listeners, initially reliant on vowel duration, received either enhancement training, inhibition training, or training with a natural cue distribution. Identification results demonstrated that, although listeners in all training groups increased their reliance on spectrum while decreasing reliance on duration, inhibitory and enhancement methods were significantly better than natural distribution training. Adaptive training was also more successful than the other methods for increasing between category distinctiveness on a discrimination task. These results suggest that phonetic learning may involve two distinct cognitive processes, cue enhancement and cue inhibition, that function to shift selective attention between separable acoustic dimensions. Moreover, cue-specific training (whether enhancing or inhibitory) appears to be more effective for the acquisition of second language speech contrasts.
Perception-production loop in native–non-native dialogs: Phonetic convergence.
Authors: Lewandowski Natalie , Dogil Grzegorz
Published: October 2013

The present study investigated the relation between the ability to adapt to the speech of a foreign language dialog partner and the individual variable of language talent. It was assumed that the actual degree to which one can converge to another speaker’s pronunciation actually depends on his/her ability to pay attention to fine phonetic detail, to encode it, and to immediately reuse it in running speech—which was defined as phonetic talent. In order to analyze convergence in dialog, ten speakers of German (classified into two groups according to their proficiency and talent) performed a Diapix-task with a British and an American English conversational partner. Our main research goal can be described as follows: Does phonetic talent play a role in the perception-production loop and influence the process of accommodation towards a foreign dialog partner? The statistical analysis of the acoustic measurements revealed a significant effect for the factor talent across the American/British English conditions and also within the AE condition, indicating that the talented speakers have converged more. All results will be discussed assuming an underlying dynamic process, possibly involving a simultaneous interplay of convergence as well as divergence within a conversation.
Automatic selective perception (ASP) of first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) speech: A working model.
Authors: Strange Winifred
Published: October 2013

In this model, speech perception by adults is characterized as an active, information-seeking process whereby native listeners detect the most reliable acoustic parameters that specify phonetic segments and sequences, using highly over-learned, automatic selective perception routines. In laboratory perceptual tasks, differentiation of native (L1) phonetic contrasts is rapid and robust in suboptimal listening conditions even when the listeners focus on other levels of language structure, or indeed on another task. In contrast, late L2 learners must employ greater attentional resources in order to extract sufficient information to differentiate phonetic contrasts that do not occur in their native language. Phonetic and phonological modes of speech perception are described, which can be tapped in the laboratory by manipulations of stimulus complexity and task demands. These experimental manipulations reveal complex interactions between the linguistic experience of listeners and phonetic similarity relationships between L1 and L2 phonological inventories. Illustrative experimental evidence from studies of vowel perception using perceptual assimilation (cross-language identification), speeded discrimination, discrimination in speech babble, and brain indices of discrimination (MMN) will be presented to provide operational definitions of these concepts. Similarities and differences from other current theories of cross-language and L2 speech perception will be discussed. [Work supported by NIH, NSF.]
Infant magnetoencephalography studies exploring neural links between sensory and motor representations for speech.
Authors: Kuhl Patricia K.
Published: October 2013

The adult brain exhibits anatomical and functional specialization specific to speech, but we have little information regarding the infant brain. Recent adult neuroimaging studies show that speech processing is left-lateralized and that two regions of the brain, the superior temporal (ST, auditory area) and inferior parietal (IF, motor area), contribute to the brain’s response to speech. To explore brain activation to speech and nonspeech in infants, we used magnetoencephalography to image the whole brain. Experiment 1 examined infants at three ages: newborn, 6 months, and 12 months. Infants showed significant ST activation to both speech and nonspeech stimuli. IF activation was not observed in newborns but in the two older groups of infants we observed synchronous IF and ST activation that was unique to speech. Experiment 2 investigated the nature of this perceptual-motor coupling for speech—specifically, we asked whether synchronous activation reflects the detection of speech signals per se, or whether it signals the recognition of experienced (native-language) speech. Native, non-native, and nonspeech analogs were used to test these alternatives. Our results elucidate the developmental time course of the sensory-motor connections for speech, and address longstanding theoretical issues in speech perception.
Bilingual beginnings as a lens for theory development.
Authors: Werker Janet F. , Curtin Suzanne , Byers-Heinlein Krista
Published: October 2013

Phonetic categories become language specific across the first months of life. However, at the onset of word learning there are tasks in which infants fail to utilize native language phonetic categories to drive word learning. In 2005, we advanced a framework to account for why infants can detect and use phonetic detail in some tasks but not in others (Werker and Curtin, 2005; see also Curtin and Werker, 2007). In this framework, PRIMIR (processing rich information from multidimensional, interactive representation), we argue that by their first birthday, infants have established language-specific phonetic category representations, but also encode and represent both subphonetic and indexical details of speech. Initial biases, developmental level, and task demands influence the level of detail infants use in any particular experimental situation. On some occasions phonetic categories are accessed, but in other tasks they are not given priority. Recently, we have begun studying infants who are exposed to two native languages from birth (Werker and Byers-Heinlein, 2008). In the current paper, we will review recent work on speech perception and word learning in bilingual-learning infants. This will be followed by a discussion of how this research has lead to advances in, and changes to, PRIMIR.
Language preference in monolingual and bilingual infants.
Authors: Polka Linda , Valji Ayasha , Mattock Karen
Published: October 2013

Previous research shows that infants in single-language families have some basic language discrimination abilities at birth which improve rapidly over the first 6 months of life, and that attention to the rhythmic properties of language supports these skills. Babies in monolingual families also prefer listening to their native language over an unfamiliar language when presented samples produced by one bilingual or two monolingual talkers. In this study we investigate the emergence of language-specific speech processing in bilingual infants by comparing language preference patterns in monolingual English, monolingual French, and bilingual English-French infants using a three-way language preference test. Listening times were measured to passages of adult-directed speech from three rhythmically different languages (English, French, Japanese; three talkers per language). Ten-month-olds in the monolingual groups listened equally to all three languages. However, 10-month-old bilinguals showed a significant preference for each native language over Japanese; listening times to English and French were not different. Individual bilingual 10-month-olds preferred the more prevalent native language in their input. These findings indicate bilingual infants listen more selectively when they encounter different languages. The implications of these findings for understanding speech processing in early bilingual acquisition will be discussed. [Work supported by SSHRC.]
The perception of Georgian ejective stops by native English speakers.
Authors: Doty Christopher S. , Guion Susan G.
Published: October 2013

The present study examined the perception of Georgian voiced, voiceless aspirated, and ejective stops by native speakers of English. It was motivated by the observation that languages with three stop-manner series often borrow voiceless aspirated stops as ejectives in a systematic manner. This is likely due to the perceptual similarity between aspirated stops in source language and the ejective stops in the borrowing language. To test the hypothesized perceptual similarity between aspirated and ejective stops, five English speakers were asked to listen to stops which varied in manner of articulation (voiced, voiceless aspirated, ejective) that were produced by a speaker of Georgian. Participants heard three productions at the same place of articulation, one of which differed in manner, and were asked to identify the the oddball stop. The results indicated that the contrast between voiceless aspirated and ejective stops was correctly identified less often than the other two contrasts (voiced versus aspirated, voiced versus ejective) [p<0.05]. No significant difference was found for the other contrasts. These data are supported by the results from a second task, in which the same participants performed a forced-choice identification and goodness rating task with the same productions.
Learn to Listen (L2L): Perception training system for learners of English as a second language.
Authors: Kewley-Port Diane , Nishi Kanae , Park Hanyong , Miller James D. , Watson Charles S.
Published: October 2013

Computer software (L2L) is being developed for comprehensive perception training of English by second language learners. Our goal is to facilitate generalization of post-training improvement of phoneme perception to the perception of running speech. Three studies are reported for two groups of adult listeners, one Korean and the other Spanish. In study 1, large sets of confusable phonemes were identified from an assessment task for each group. Then training sets for consonants in CV nonsense syllables and vowels in familiar real words were selected and recordings from multiple talkers were obtained. Materials for the word-in-sentence (WIS) task were developed with a single low-context carrier phrase which contained three words from the vowel training. In study 2 new Korean and Spanish listeners were trained using a protocol that included a pre-test, eight hours of training, a post-test, and one hour using the WIS task. Training results showed: (1) both Korean and Spanish listeners improved from pre- to post-tests for vowels and consonants; (2) in vowel identification, Koreans outperformed Spanish by 34% (3) vowel identification in the WIS task appeared easier than in word-only task, a result confirmed by a study using the WIS task without training (study 3). [Work supported by NIH.]
Prominence perception: Conflicting cues and linguistically encoded bias.
Authors: Kim Miran
Published: October 2013

Beyond the commonly known fact that prominent syllables are greater in amplitude, higher in F0, and longer in duration, this study examines cross linguistic patterns in the perception of prominence. Particularly, identification of stress placement is tested in a situation where F0 and duration happen to be in conflict (e.g., H+L* bitonal pitch accent). Three languages are selected considering their prosodic characteristics such as phonological role of prominence and rhythm (stress-timed/syllable-timed): English, Spanish, and Korean. A new-language-learning setting is devised to collect production data based on which the patterns of phonetic realization of stress are directly compared among the language groups. CVCVCV pseudowords, where C=m, n, k, s and V=a, (e, i), are used for both production and perception experiments. F0 and duration are manipulated in order to create conflicting cues that are suitable for the purpose of the perception experiment. Stressed syllables are consistently realized with higher F0 together with longer duration across the groups, though to different extents. The perceptual sensitivity to the durational manipulation is found to vary among the groups. Linguistic implications are discussed referring to the phonological role(s) of F0 and duration in each language as well as to the relationship between production and perception.
Predicting second language (L2) identification rates from first language (L1) mapping data: Similarity patterns for English and Korean obstruents in pre- and poststressed intervocalic, and postvocalic positions.
Authors: Park Hanyong , de Jong Kenneth J.
Published: October 2013

Park and de Jong [J.Phon, 36, 704–723 (2008)] found that listeners’ identification rates of second language (L2) categories can be predicted from mapping data, provided the L2 category has a high degree of subjective correspondence to native language (L1) categories. The current study examines whether identification rates can be predicted for consonants in different prosodic locations, and hence, whether the reliance on L1 categories is the same, regardless of prosodic position. Forty native Koreans identified /p b t d f v θo/ in pre- and poststressed intervocalic, and postvocalic positions, in nonsense English words, using both Korean and English labels, and also gave gradient evaluations of their identifications. The mapping data were used to predict confusion rates for the L2 identification data, finding results for prestress intervocalic consonants similar to the previous study for wordinitial consonants; stop identification rates were well-predicted, but fricatives are systematically much better than predicted. In poststress position, however, fricative identification rates were very well predicted, suggesting that fricatives were treated as “similar” to L1 categories. These results indicate that the degree of assimilation of an L2 to an L1 category is heavily dependent on prosodic location. [Work supported by NSF BCS-04406540.]
Acquisition of new phonetic categories by bilingual and monolingual groups: Role of metalinguistic awareness and feature generalization.
Authors: Gogoi Divya V. , Harnsberger James D.
Published: October 2013

The present study examines the role of feature generalization and metalinguistic awareness in the perception and learning of novel non-native speech contrasts by 40 bilingual speakers (Bengali–English and Spanish–English) and 20 monolingual speakers of American English. Bilinguals, unlike monolinguals, employ certain cognitive and linguistic skills during lexical processing and word learning attributed as metalinguistic awareness. This awareness in turn, can be applied in mastering unfamiliar phonetic features in a third language. A second issue concerns the role that native phonetic features may play in the development of new phonetic categories involving same phonetic features (feature generalization hypothesis). To explore both factors, a high variability perception training paradigm was used to examine the acquisition of novel non-native speech contrasts (containing dental/alveolar-retroflex place distinction in various manners) from a target language, Malayalam. A consonant identification procedure was used throughout the training and testing phases of the experiment to examine post-test and generalization performance across groups. Productions of the stimuli were also recorded at the pretest and posttest phases. In addition, perceptual assimilation patterns were analyzed from consonant assimilation and discrimination scores before and after training.
Experience effects on the categorization of a native vowel contrast in highly proficient Catalan-Spanish bilinguals.
Authors: Mora Joan C. , Nadeu Marianna
Published: October 2013

The present study investigated the effect of experience on highly proficient adult Catalan-Spanish bilinguals’ ability to categorize two contrastive native vowel categories, /e/ and /ε/. Experience was operationalized as self-reported amount of use of Catalan on a daily basis. Because Spanish has a single mid front vowel /e/ in the area of the perceptual vowel space of the Catalan mid vowels /e/ and /ε/, categorization and discrimination speed and accuracy was hypothesized to vary as a function of amount of use of Catalan and Spanish, more experienced Catalan speakers performing faster and perceiving the contrast more categorically. All participants (N=43) were L1-Catalan bilinguals, but differed as regards the amount of use of Catalan (N=14, M=62.1, range 40–70 vs N=29, M=91.4, range 80–100). Experience effects were assessed through the categorical perception paradigm: categorization and AXB discrimination tasks based on stimuli drawn from a 10-step vowel continuum (/e/-/ε/). Response latency data revealed that the high-use-of-Catalan group outperformed the low-use-of Catalan group, suggesting that greater use of Catalan on a daily basis improved bilinguals’ ability to categorize and discriminate this vowel contrast. These results are interpreted as being consistent with the view that L1 and L2 experience affects the perception of L1 sounds.
The influence of lexical access and linguistic context on second-language (L2) speech perception.
Authors: Haslam Mara , Jarvi Albert , Hayes-Harb Rachel
Published: October 2013

Research on the perception of novel phonemic contrasts by second language (L2) learners typically employs tasks such as identification and discrimination. These tasks allow researchers to study L2 speech in a highly controlled setting. However, they differ in important ways from natural communication, which normally requires learners to (1) access lexical representations of words containing novel contrasts, and (2) interpret linguistic context (e.g., syntax, semantics, discourse) while simultaneously perceiving/producing novel contrasts. This study investigated whether learners/ perceptual performance with respect to novel contrasts is mediated by whether or not tasks require lexical access (LA) and/or the simultaneous interpretation of linguistic context (SILC). Native English speakers learned Ukrainian auditory nonword pairs differentiated by palatalization contrasts along with pictured “meanings.” An ability to distinguish the words was tested in tasks differing on the two dimensions (LA and SILC). Performance was most accurate in the noLA + noSILC task, least accurate in the LA + SILC and noLA + SILC tasks, and intermediate in the LA + noSILC task, indicating that both LA and SILC appear to depress perceptual accuracy. However, the effect of SILC is stronger than that of LA. Future directions and implications for the study of L2 perception/production will be discussed.
Infant dialect discrimination.
Authors: Phan Jennifer , Houston Derek M.
Published: October 2013

To understand speech, infants must differentiate between phonetic changes that are linguistically contrastive and those that are not. Research has shown that infants are very sensitive to fine-grained differences in speech sounds that differentiate words in their own or another language. However, little is known about infants' ability to discriminate phonetic differences associated with different dialects of their native language. Using a visual habituation procedure, 7-, 11-, 18-, 24-, and 30-month olds were tested on their ability to discriminate two linguistically equivalent variants of the diphthong (/aI/)—one produced in their native dialect (North Midland American English) versus one produced in a non-native dialect (Southern American English). Seven-month olds discriminated the variants but 11-month olds did not. Infants from 18–30 months of age did not demonstrate statistically significant discrimination, but they did show a trend toward discrimination with increasing age. The findings suggest that dialect discrimination follows a U-shaped course of development. Because 11-month olds demonstrated the poorest dialect discrimination performance, we are currently assessing their ability to discriminate linguistically different speech sounds varying in degree of acoustic similarity. Preliminary findings suggest that both language experience and acoustic differences may influence infants' discrimination of phonetic contrasts in the native language. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD Grant (R01DC006235), an IUPUI Educational Enhancement Grant, and grants from the IUPUI UROP and SROP Programs.]
Coarticulatory influences on the perception of nasal vowel height and the role of language experience.
Authors: Goodin-Mayeda C. Elizabeth
Published: October 2013

That a listener’s first language affects the perception of a second language is generally undisputed. In addition to linguistic experience, acoustic effects of coarticulation have been shown to influence speech perception [Abramson et al. (1981); Krakow et al. (1988); Mann (1986) and others]. For example, nasalization of vowels has been shown to affect the perception of vowel height due to its spectral consequences in the region associated with vowel height [Beddor and Strange (1982); Krakow et al. (1988); Ohala (1986); Wright (1975)]. While some effects of coarticulation appear to produce the same perceptual shifts crosslinguistically [Mann (1986)], it is not clear that all coarticulatory influences are language independent [Krakow et al. (1988)]. The current study seeks to investigate the relationship between acoustic effects of coarticulation and linguistic experience. Since Portuguese has allophonic and (surface) contrastive nasalization [Wetzels (1997)] and Spanish does not have phonological nasalization in any context [Solé (1992)], adult speakers of these languages were tested, using synthetic stimuli, for perception of contextualized nasal vowels (i.e., nasal vowels adjacent to tautosyllabic nasal consonants) and noncontextualized nasal vowels (i.e., nasal vowels with no adjacent nasal consonant). Results indicate that coarticulatory influences of nasalization are language dependent.
Visual speech information improves discrimination of non-native phonemes in late infancy.
Authors: Panneton Robin K.
Published: October 2013

Initially, human infants are able to discriminate a change from one speech phoneme to another, whether or not the speech contrasts are native or foreign. By the end of the first postnatal year, the ease with which infants discriminate non-native phonemes diminishes, indicating a progressive attunement toward language-relevant speech. However, studies in this area have employed procedures lacking dynamic bimodal information (e.g., faces and voices). Given rapid improvements in visual perception across the first postnatal year, as well as a strong propensity to look at and process faces, it is possible that infants would benefit from visual speech in both native and non-native perception. Across two experiments, discrimination of auditory plus visual Hindi phoneme contrasts was studied in 11-month-olds (English-learning, using digital movies of female Hindi speakers). Several conditions were contrasted: (a) face plus voice using infant-directed speech (IDS); (b) face plus voice using adult-directed speech (ADS); (c) nonface plus voice with IDS; and (d) nonface plus voice with ADS. Overall, infants discriminated non-native contrasts when accompanied by a dynamic face, and especially if delivered in IDS. These results suggest a developmental pattern toward increasing use of multimodal information by infants in their processing of speech, and that early phonological representations for native language may include visual speech information.
Low frequency sound problems found in mixed use buildings that house entertainment venues and residential developments and containment options.
Authors: Smith Scott W. , Pettyjohn Steven D.
Published: October 2013

Many problems are to be expected when mixed use buildings include restaurants and residential spaces. When the residential spaces are condominiums and the restaurant becomes a nightclub, the sound problems multiply quickly. The low frequency sound produced in a nightclub featuring music catering to a young crowd is of particular concern. This is partially because of the difficulty of finding remedies once the building construction is complete. This is the situation that arose in a facility recently completed. The nightclub wanted to continue its operation while the condominium owners wanted a resolution of the problem. Sound tests were completed in the residential spaces during operation of the nightclub, but the low frequency content was not always the same, requiring multiple attempts to measure in the source and receiving spaces. Results of these measurements and the recommendations for correcting the problem are presented in this paper. The goal is to provide results of sound measurements made after the recommendations are implemented. Again, sound will be measured in the source and receiver spaces to understand how the noise reduction changed and compared with the predicted sound reduction.
Prediction of the reverberation times and sound pressure levels in town streets.
Authors: Li Kai Ming , Lai Chenly Y. C.
Published: October 2013

The current study was devoted to investigate the propagation of noise along a town street where building façades and road surfaces form a street canyon. An energy based approach was used to estimate reverberation times and the sound pressure levels due to a point source located along the town street. An image source method was developed to compute sound energy in this semienclosed space. However, the image source model can be simplified leading to the numerical solutions expressed in an integral formulation. The absorption coefficients of the boundary surfaces and the air absorption factor can be included in the present analysis. The integral can further be evaluated analytically with the sound pressure levels expressed in a closed form solution. Both outdoor full scale measurements and indoor scale model experiments were conducted and compared with the computed results. The numerical results due to the proposed formula not only agree well with the experimental measurements but were also in accord with the published data.