Perceptual learning of a talker resolves lexical ambiguity

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2005-09, Vol.118 (3_Supplement), p.2036-2036
• Main Authors: Piorkowski, Rebecca L., Badecker, William
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4785819

Recent evidence [Allen and Miller, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 115, 3171 (2004)] suggests that listeners are sensitive to talker-specific acoustic-phonetic properties. The present study examines whether experience with a particular talker’s realization of place of articulation can eliminate the ambiguity that arises when a word like ‘‘hen’’ assimilates in place of articulation to ‘‘hem’’ in a labial context (hen best). Using a cross-modal priming paradigm, the priming effect of words that assimilate to other words was measured in two conditions. In the first condition, listeners heard examples of the talker’s assimilation style in the form of words that assimilate to nonwords in a labial context (green beer) before the critical trials were heard. In the second condition, listeners did not hear any examples of the talker’s assimilation style before the critical trials were heard. Evidence will be presented showing that, without previous experience with the talker’s assimilation style, words that assimilate to other words create a lexical ambiguity for the listener. Additionally, evidence will be presented showing that experience with the talker’s assimilation style eliminates this lexical ambiguity and allows the listener to perceive the talker’s intended lexical form.