Automaticity and Stability of Adaptation to a Foreign-Accented Speaker. (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Witteman, Marijt J; Bardhan, Neil P; Weber, Andrea; McQueen, James M
• Is Part Of: Language and speech. Volume 58:Number 2(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 168
• Page End: 189
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Foreign-accented speech -- Hebrew-accented Dutch -- cross-modal priming -- automaticity -- long-term adaptation; Language and languages -- Periodicals; Speech -- Periodicals; Language disorders -- Periodicals; Speech disorders -- Periodicals; 401.9
• DOI: 10.1177/0023830914528102
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0023-8309

Abstract

In three cross-modal priming experiments we asked whether adaptation to a foreign-accented speaker is automatic, and whether adaptation can be seen after a long delay between initial exposure and test. Dutch listeners were exposed to a Hebrew-accented Dutch speaker with two types of Dutch words: those that contained [ɪ] (globally accented words), and those in which the Dutch [i] was shortened to [ɪ] (specific accent marker words). Experiment 1, which served as a baseline, showed that native Dutch participants showed facilitatory priming for globally accented, but not specific accent, words. In experiment 2, participants performed a 3.5-minute phoneme monitoring task, and were tested on their comprehension of the accented speaker 24 hours later using the same cross-modal priming task as in experiment 1. During the phoneme monitoring task, listeners were asked to detect a consonant that was not strongly accented. In experiment 3, the delay between exposure and test was extended to 1 week. Listeners in experiments 2 and 3 showed facilitatory priming for both globally accented and specific accent marker words. Together, these results show that adaptation to a foreign-accented speaker can be rapid and automatic, and can be observed after a prolonged delay in testing.