Foreign-accented speech recognition is typically tested with linguistically simple materials, which offer a limited window into realistic speech processing. The present study examined the relationship between linguistic structure and talker intelligibility in several sentence-in-noise recognition experiments. Listeners transcribed simple/short and more complex/longer sentences embedded in noise. The sentences were spoken by three talkers of varying intelligibility: one native, one high-, and one low-intelligibility non-native English speakers. The effect of linguistic structure on sentence recognition accuracy was modulated by talker intelligibility. Accuracy was disadvantaged by increasing complexity only for the native and high intelligibility foreign-accented talkers, whereas no such effect was found for the low intelligibility foreign-accented talker. This pattern emerged across conditions: low and high signal-to-noise ratios, mixed and blocked stimulus presentation, and in the absence of a major cue to prosodic structure, the natural pitch contour of the sentences. Moreover, the pattern generalized to a different set of three talkers that matched the intelligibility of the original talkers. Taken together, the results in this study suggest that listeners employ qualitatively different speech processing strategies for low- versus high-intelligibility foreign-accented talkers, with sentence-related linguistic factors only emerging for speech over a threshold of intelligibility. Findings are discussed in the context of alternative accounts.
References
1.
Adams
, C.
, and Munro
, R. R.
(1978
). “In search of the acoustic correlates of stress: Fundamental frequency, amplitude, and duration in the connected utterance of some native and non-native speakers of English
,” Phonetica
35
, 125
–156
.2.
Anderson
, A.
, Bader
, M.
, Bard
, E.
, Boyle
, E.
, Doherty
, G. M.
, Garrod
, S.
, Isard
, S.
, Kowtko
, J.
, McAllister
, J.
, Miller
, J.
, Sotillo
, C.
, Thompson
, H. S.
, and Weinert
, R.
(1991
). “The HCRC map task corpus
,” Language and Speech
34
, 351
–366
.3.
Anderson-Hsieh
, J.
, Johnson
, R.
, and Koehler
, K.
(1992
). “The relationship between native speaker judgments of non-native pronunciation and deviance in segmentals, prosody and syllable structure
,” Lang. Learn.
42
, 529
–555
.4.
Baayen
, R. H.
, Davidson
, D. J.
, and Bates
, D. M.
(2008
). “Mixed-effects modelling with crossed random effects for subjects and items
,” J. Mem. Lang.
59
, 390
–412
.10.
Baker
, R.
, and Hazan
, V.
(2011
). “DiapixUK: Task materials for the elicitation of multiple spontaneous speech dialogs
,” Behavior Research Methods
43
(3
), 761
–770
.5.
Best
, V.
, Keidser
, G.
, Freeston
, K.
, and Buchholz.
J. M.
(2016
). “A dynamic speech comprehension test for assessing real-world listening ability
,” Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
27
, 515
–526
.6.
Best
, V.
, Keidser
, G.
, Freeston
, K.
, and Buchholz.
J. M.
(2018
). “Evaluation of the NAL Dynamic Conversations Test in older listeners with hearing loss
,” International Journal of Audiology
57
(3
), 221
–229
.7.
Bever
, T. G.
, Lackner
, J. R.
, and Kir
, R.
(1969
). “The underlying structures of sentences are the primary units of immediate speech processing
,” Percept. Psychophys.
5
(4
), 225
–234
.8.
Binns
, C.
, and Culling
, J. F.
(2007
). “The role of fundamental frequency contours in the perception of speech against interfering speech
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
122
, 1765
–1776
.9.
Boersma
, P.
, and Weenink
, D.
(2018
). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program].
Version 6.0.28, retrieved from http://www.praat.org/ (last viewed 14 October 2018).11.
Bolker
, B. M.
, Brooks
, M. E.
, Clark
, C. J.
, Geange
, S. W.
, Poulsen
, J. R.
, Stevens
, M. H.
, and White
, J. S.
(2009
). “Generalized linear mixed models: A practical guide for ecology and evolution
,” Trends Ecol. Evol.
24
(3
), 127
–135
.12.
Bonhage
, C. E.
, Fiebach
, C. J.
, Bahlmann
, J.
, and Mueller
, J. L.
(2014
). “Brain signature of working memory for sentence structure: Enriched encoding and facilitated maintenance
,” J. Cogn. Neurosci.
26
(8
), 1654
–1671
.13.
Bradlow
, A. R.
“ALLSSTAR: Archive of L1 and L2 scripted and spontaneous transcripts and recordings
,” retrieved from https://speechbox.linguistics.northwestern.edu/ALLSSTARcentral/#!/recordings (last viewed on 29 April, 2020).14.
Bradlow
, A. R.
, and Bent
, T.
(2008
). “Perceptual adaptation to non-native speech
,” Cognition
106
, 707
–729
.15.
Bradlow
, A. R.
, Kim
, M.
, and Blasingame
, M.
(2017
). “Language-independent talker-specificity in first-language and second-language speech production by bilingual talkers: L1 speaking rate predicts L2 speaking rate
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
141
, 886
–889
.16.
Bradlow
, A. R.
, Blasingame
, M.
, and Lee
, K.
(2018
). “Language-independent talker-specificity in bilingual speech intelligibility: Individual traits persist across first-language and second-language speech
,” J. Assoc. Lab. Phonology
9
(1
), 1
–20
.17.
Bradlow
, A. R.
, Nygaard
, L. C.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(1999
). “Effects of talker, rate, and amplitude variation on recognition memory for spoken words
,” Percept. Psychophys.
61
(2
), 206
–219
.18.
Bradlow
, A. R.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(1999
). “Recognition of spoken words by native and non-native listeners: Talker-, listener-, and item-related factors
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
106
, 2074
–2085
.19.
Brooks
, M. E.
, Kristensen
, K.
, van Benthem
, K. J.
, Magnusson
, A.
, Berg
, C. W.
, Nielsen
, A.
, Skaug
, H. J.
, Maechler
, M.
, and Bolker
, B. M.
(2017
). “glmmTMB balances speed and flexibility among packages for zero-inflated generalized linear mixed modeling
,” The R Journal
9
(2
), 378
–400
.20.
Burda
, A. N.
, Scherz
, J. A.
, Hageman
, C. F.
, and Edwards
, H. T.
(2003
). “Age and understanding speakers with Spanish or Taiwanese accents
,” Percept. Mot. Skills
97
, 11
–20
.21.
Church
, B. A.
, and Schacter
, D. L.
(1994
). “Perceptual specificity of auditory priming: Implicit memory for voice intonation and fundamental frequency
,” J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn.
20
, 521
–533
.22.
Cole
, J.
(2015
). “Prosody in context: A review
,” Lang. Cogn. Neurosci.
30
(1–2
), 1
–31
.23.
Crowder
, M. J.
(1978
). “Beta-binomial ANOVA for proportions
,” J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. C (Appl. Stat.)
27
, 34
–37
.24.
Cutler
, A.
, Dahan
, D.
, and van Donselaar
, W.
(1997
). “Prosody in the comprehension of spoken language: A literature review
,” Lang. Speech
40
, 141
–201
.25.
D'Onofrio
, A.
(2019
). “Complicating categories: Personae mediate racialized expectations of non-native speech
,” J. Sociolinguist.
23
(4
), 346
–366
.26.
Epstein
, W.
(1961
). “The influence of syntactical structure on learning
,” Am. J. Psychol.
74
(1
), 80
–86
.27.
Eskénazi
, M.
, Levow
, G.-A.
, Meng
, H.
, Parent
, G.
, and Suendermann
, D.
(2013
). Crowdsourcing for Speech Processing: Applications to Data Collection, Transcription and Assessment
(John Wiley & Sons Ltd
., New York
).28.
Faulkner
, K. F.
, Tamati
, T. N.
, Gilbert
, J. L.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(2015
). “List equivalency of PRESTO for the evaluation of speech recognition
,” J. Am. Acad. Audiol.
26
(6
), 582
–594
.29.
Ferguson
, S. H.
, Jongman
, A.
, Sereno
, J. A.
, and Keum
, K. A.
(2010
). “Intelligibility of foreign- accented speech for older adults with and without hearing loss
,” J. Am. Acad. Audiol.
21
, 153
–162
.30.
Ferrari
, A.
, and Comelli
, M.
(2016
). “A comparison of methods for the analysis of binomial clustered outcomes in behavioral research
,” Journal of Neuroscience Methods
274
, 131
–140
.31.
Flege
, J. E.
, and Eefting
, W.
(1988
). “Imitation of a VOT continuum by native speakers of English and Spanish: Evidence for phonetic category formation
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
83
, 729
–740
.32.
Fox
, J.
, Weisberg
, S.
, Price
, B.
, Friendly
, M.
, and Jangman
, H.
(2019
). “Effect displays for linear, generalized linear, and other models
,” R package version 4.1-2.33.
Fox
, R. A.
, Flege
, J. E.
, and Munro
, J.
(1995
). “The perception of English and Spanish vowels by native English and Spanish listeners: A multidimensional scaling analysis
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
97
, 2540
–2551
.34.
Garnier
, M.
, Henrich
, N.
, and Dubois
, D.
(2010
). “Influence of sound immersion and communicative interaction on the Lombard effect
,” J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res.
53
, 588
–608
.35.
Gilbert
, J. L.
, Tamati
, T. N.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(2013
). “Development, reliability, and validity of PRESTO: A new high-variability sentence recognition test
,” J. Am. Acad. Audiol.
24
, 26
–36
.36.
Goldinger
, S. D.
(1996
). “Words and voices: Episodic traces in spoken word identification and recognition memory
,” J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn.
22
, 1166
–1183
.37.
Gordon-Salant
, S.
, Yeni-Komshian
, G. H.
, and Fitzgibbons
, P. J.
(2010a
). “Recognition of accented English in quiet by younger normal-hearing listeners and older listeners with normal hearing and hearing loss
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
128
, 444
–455
.38.
Gordon-Salant
, S.
, Yeni-Komshian
, G. H.
, and Fitzgibbons
, P. J.
(2010b
). “Perception of accented English in quiet and noise by younger and older listeners
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
128
, 3152
–3160
.39.
Gordon-Salant
, S.
, Yeni-Komshian
, G. H.
, Fitzgibbons
, P. J.
, and Cohen
, J. I.
(2015
). “Effects of talker accent and age on recognition of multisyllabic words
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
137
, 884
–897
.40.
Gordon-Salant
, S.
, Yeni-Komshian
, G. H.
, Fitzgibbons
, P. J.
, Cohen
, J. I.
, and Waldroup
, C.
(2013
). “Recognition of accented and unaccented speech in different noise backgrounds by younger and older listeners
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
134
, 618
–627
.41.
Hazan
, V.
, and Baker
, R.
(2011
). “Acoustic-phonetic characteristics of speech produced with communicative intent to counter adverse listening conditions
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
130
, 2139
–2152
.42.
Hilbe
, J. M.
, (2013
). “Beta binomial regression
,” in The Selected Works of Joseph Hilbe
(bepress electronic repository), retrieved from http://works.bepress.com/joseph_hilbe/43/ (last viewed on 29 April, 2020).43.
Jaeger
, T. F.
(2008
). “Categorical data analysis: Away from ANOVAs (transformation or not) and towards logit mixed models
,” J. Mem. Lang.
59
(4
), 434
–446
.44.
Jarvella
, R. J.
, and Herman
, S. J.
(1972
). “Clause structure of sentences and speech processing
,” Percept. Psychophys.
11
(5
), 381
–384
.45.
Just
, M. A.
, and Carpenter
, P. A.
(1992
). “A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory
,” Psychol. Rev.
99
, 122
–149
.46.
47.
Laures
, J. S.
, and Bunton
, K.
(2003
). “Perceptual effects of a flattened fundamental frequency at the sentence level under different listening conditions
,” J. Commun. Disord.
36
, 449
–464
.48.
Laures
, J. S.
, and Weismer
, G.
(1999
). “The effects of a flattened fundamental frequency on intelligibility at the sentence level
,” J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res.
42
, 1148
–1156
.49.
Lecumberri
, M. L. G.
, Cooke
, M.
, & Wester
, M.
(2017
). “A bi-directional task-based corpus of learners' conversational speech
,” International Journal of Learner Corpus Research
, 3
(2
), 175
–195
.50.
Lenth
, R.
(2019
). “emmeans: Estimated Marginal Means, aka Least-Squares Means
,” R package version 1.3.5.1, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=emmeans last viewed on 5 March, 2020.51.
Luce
, P. A.
, and Lyons
, E.
(1998
). “Specificity of memory representation for spoken words
,” Mem. Cogn.
26
, 708
–715
.52.
MacKay
, I. R. A.
, Flege
, J. E.
, and Piske
, T.
(2000
). “Persistent errors in the perception and production of word-initial English stop consonants by native speakers of Italian (A)
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
107
, 2802
–2802
.53.
Marks
, L. E.
, and Miller
, G. A.
(1964
). “The role of semantic and syntactic constraints in the memorization of English sentences
,” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior
3
, 1
–5
.54.
Mathworks
(2018
). MATLAB and Statistics Toolbox Release 2018b
(The MathWorks, Inc
., Natick, MA
).55.
Mattys
, S. L.
, Davis
, M. H.
, Bradlow
, A. R.
, and Scott
, S. K.
(2012
). “Speech recognition in adverse conditions: A review
,” Lang. Cogn. Process.
27
, 953
–978
.56.
Miller
, G. A.
, and Isard
, S.
(1963
). “Some perceptual consequences of linguistic rules
,” J. Verbal Learn. Verbal Behav.
2
, 217
–228
.57.
Miller
, S. E.
, Schlauch
, R. S.
, and Watson
, P. J.
(2010
). “The effects of fundamental frequency contour manipulations on speech intelligibility in background noise
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
128
, 435
–443
.58.
Moulines
, E.
, and Charpentier
, F.
(1990
). “Pitch-synchronous waveform processing techniques for text-to-speech synthesis using diphones
,” Speech Commun.
9
, 453
–467
.59.
Muniz-Terrera
, G.
, van den Hout
, A.
, Rigby
, R. A.
, and Stasinopoulos
, D. M.
(2016
). “Analyzing cognitive test data: Distributions and non-parametric random effects
,” Stat. Methods Med. Res.
25
(2
), 741
–753
.60.
Munro
, M.
, and Derwing
, T.
(1995
). “Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners
,” Lang. Learn.
45
, 73
–97
.61.
Munro
, M. J.
(1998
). “The effects of noise on the intelligibility of foreign-accented speech
,” Stud. Second Lang. Acquist.
20
, 139
–154
.62.
Nilsson
, M.
, Soli
, S. D.
, and Sullivan
, J. A.
(1994
). “Development of the hearing in noise test for the measurement of speech reception thresholds in quiet and in noise
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
95
(2
), 1085
–1099
.63.
Nygaard
, L. C.
, Sommers
, M. S.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(1994
). “Speech perception as a talker contingent process
,” Psychol. Sci.
5
, 42
–46
.64.
Palmeri
, T. J.
, Goldinger
, S. D.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(1993
). “Episodic encoding of voice attributes and recognition memory for spoken words
,” J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn.
19
, 309
–328
.65.
Plotkowski
, A. R.
, & Alexander
, J. M.
(2016
). “A Sequential Sentence Paradigm Using Revised PRESTO Sentence Lists
,” Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
, 27
(8
), 647
–660
.66.
Potter
, M. C.
, and Lombardi
, L.
(1998
). “Syntactic priming in immediate recall of sentences
,” J. Mem. Lang.
38
, 265
–282
.67.
Prentice
, R. L.
(1986
). “Binary regression using an extended beta-binomial distribution, with discussion of correlation induced by covariate measurement errors
,” J. Am. Stat. Assoc.
81
, 321
–327
.68.
R Core Team (2019). “
R: A language and environment for statistical computing
,” R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, https://www.R-project.org/ last viewed on 10 August, 2019.69.
Rogers
, C. L.
, Dalby
, J.
, and Nishi
, K.
(2004
). “Effects of noise and proficiency on intelligibility of Chinese-accented English
,” Lang. Speech
47
, 139
–154
.70.
Rönnberg
, J.
, Rudner
, M.
, Foo
, C.
, and Lunner
, T.
(2008
). “Cognition counts: a working memory system for ease of language understanding (ELU)
,” International Journal of Audiology
, 47
(Suppl. 2), S99
–S105
.71.
Rönnberg
, J.
, Lunner
, T.
, Zekveld
, A.
, Sorqvist
, P.
, Danielsson
, H.
, Lyxell
, B.
, Dahlström
, Ö.
, Signoret
, C.
, Stenfelt
, S.
, Pichora-Fuller
, M. C.
, and Rudner
, M.
(2013
). “The Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model: theoretical, empirical, and clinical advances
,” Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
, 7
(31
), 1
–17
.72.
Strori
, D.
, Zaar
, J.
, Cooke
, M.
, and Mattys
, S. L.
(2018
). “Sound specificity effects in spoken word recognition: The effect of integrality between words and sounds
,” Atten. Percept. Psychophys.
80
(1
), 222
–241
.73.
Shen
, J.
, and Souza
, P.
(2017
). “The effect of dynamic pitch on speech recognition in temporally modulated noise
,” J. Speech Lang. and Hear. Res.
60
, 2725
–2739
.74.
Tamati
, T. N.
, Gilbert
, J. L.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(2013
). “Some factors underlying individual differences in speech recognition on PRESTO: A first report
,” Journal of American Academy of Audiology
24
(7
), 616
–634
.75.
Tamati
, T. N.
, and Pisoni
, D. B.
(2014
). “Non-native speech recognition in adverse listening conditions
,” Journal of American Academy of Audiology
25
(9
), 869
–892
.76.
United States Census Bureau
. (2017
). “Selected characteristics of the total and native populations in the Unites States 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates
” [Data file]. Retrieved from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_17_ 1YR_S0601&prodType=table (last viewed on 25 February 2020).78.
van Wijngaarden
, S. J.
, Steeneken
, H. J.
, and Houtgast
, T.
(2002
). “Quantifying the intelligibility of speech in noise for non-native talkers
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
112
, 3004
–3013
.79.
Van Engen
, K. J.
, Baese-Berk
, M.
, Baker
, R. E.
, Choi
, A.
, Kim
, M.
, and Bradlow
, A. R.
(2010
). “The wildcat corpus of native- and foreign- accented English: Communicative efficiency across conversational dyads with varying language alignment profiles
,” Language and Speech
53
, 510
–540
.80.
Walker
, A.
, and Campbell-Kibler
, K.
(2015
). “Repeat what after whom? Exploring variable selectivity in a cross-dialectal shadowing task
,” Front. Psychol.
6
, 546
.81.
Wester
, M.
, Lecumberri
, M. L. G.
, and Cooke
, M.
(2014
). “DIAPIX-FL: A symmetric corpus of conversations in first and second languages
,” in Proceedings of Interspeech
, Singapore, 509
–513
.82.
Wilson
, E. O.
, and Spaulding
, T. J.
(2010
). “Effects of noise and speech intelligibility on listener comprehension and processing time of Korean-accented English
,” J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res.
53
, 1543
–1554
.83.
Wingfield
, A.
(1975
). “The intonation-syntax interaction: Prosodic features in perceptual processing of sentences
,” in Structure and Process in Speech Perception. Communication and Cybernetics, Vol. 11
, edited by A.
Cohen
and S. G.
Nooteboom
(Springer
, Berlin-Heidelberg
).84.
Yu
, A. C. L.
, and Lee
, H.
(2014
). “The stability of perceptual compensation for coarticulation within and across individuals: A cross-validation study
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
136
, 382
–388
.© 2020 Acoustical Society of America.
2020
Acoustical Society of America
You do not currently have access to this content.