ERIC Number: EJ1080415
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Nov
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Syntactic Predictability in the Recognition of Carefully and Casually Produced Speech
Viebahn, Malte C.; Ernestus, Mirjam; McQueen, James M.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v41 n6 p1684-1702 Nov 2015
The present study investigated whether the recognition of spoken words is influenced by how predictable they are given their syntactic context and whether listeners assign more weight to syntactic predictability when acoustic-phonetic information is less reliable. Syntactic predictability was manipulated by varying the word order of past participles and auxiliary verbs in Dutch subordinate clauses. Acoustic-phonetic reliability was manipulated by presenting sentences either in a careful or a casual speaking style. In 3 eye-tracking experiments, participants recognized past participles more quickly when they occurred after their associated auxiliary verbs than when they preceded them. Response measures tapping into later stages of processing suggested that this effect was stronger for casually than for carefully produced sentences. These findings provide further evidence that syntactic predictability can influence word recognition and that this type of information is particularly useful for coping with acoustic-phonetic reductions in conversational speech. We conclude that listeners dynamically adapt to the different sources of linguistic information available to them.
Descriptors: Indo European Languages, Speech Communication, Word Recognition, Prediction, Syntax, Listening Comprehension, Foreign Countries, Acoustics, Phonetics, Sentences, Eye Movements, Experimental Psychology, Verbs, Word Order, College Students, Audio Equipment, Accuracy, Reaction Time
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Netherlands
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A