Journal article
Beyond Noise: The Role of Speaker Variability on Statistical Learning
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Vol.46, pp.2672-2680
12/31/2023
Abstract
Adult language learners have difficulty segmenting words from continuous speech when the phonology is unfamiliar. Since speaker variability is known to improve acquisition of novel language structures, it could be processed in ways that bootstrap phonological patterns and enhance learners’ ability to segment words. To test this, the present experiment examined adult participants’ learning of a stream of statistically determined tri-syllabic words that were spoken by one or multiple speakers. Syllables were constructed with either English phonology or non-English phonology. Two tasks (target detection and two-alternative forced choice) assessed the extent of listeners’ sensitivity to language patterns and word segmentation. Results suggest speaker variability negatively impacted learners’ ability to track the underlying statistics. 2AFC word segmentation performance was poor—independent of speaker number; it is hypothesized that attentional demands of the target detection task conflicted with statistical word segmentation mechanisms.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Beyond Noise: The Role of Speaker Variability on Statistical Learning
- Creators
- Larissa MelvilleAlexis K Black
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Vol.46, pp.2672-2680
- Publisher
- eScholarship, University of California
- ISSN
- 1069-7977
- eISSN
- 1069-7977
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/31/2023
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984649039002771
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