How prior experience with pitch accents shapes the perception of word and sentence stress. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kutscheid, Sophie; Zahner-Ritter, Katharina; Leemann, Adrian; Braun, Bettina
• Is Part Of: Language, cognition and neuroscience. Volume 37:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 103
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Experience -- processing mechanism -- stress perception -- sentence stress -- word stress -- intonation -- German; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Neurosciences -- Periodicals; Psycholinguïstiek; Cognitieve processen; Linguistics; Neurosciences; Psycholinguistics; Periodicals; 401.9
• DOI: 10.1080/23273798.2021.1946109
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2327-3798

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Listeners perceive high or rising pitch as stressed – at the word and sentence level (high-pitch bias). Since stressed syllables can also be low-pitched, this bias may lead to misinterpretations of word and sentence stress and thus slow down speech comprehension. We investigate the effect of immediate exposure with high- vs. low-pitched stressed syllables on the identification of word and sentence stress. Participants were exposed to utterances containing only high- vs. low-pitched stressed syllables. In experimental trials, they then heard either trisyllabic words with word stress on the second syllable (Experiment 1) or three-word-sentences with sentence stress on the second word (Experiment 2) and indicated the position of word/sentence stress. Stimuli were presented in three intonation conditions (high-pitched first, second, or third syllable/word). Both experiments endorsed the high-pitch bias, with an increase after high-pitch exposure. Our results suggest a speaker-independent re-weighting of acoustic cues to stress, which is driven by experience.