Phonetics & Phonology

Psycholinguistic research in phonetics and phonology is concerned with how listeners convert the physical speech signal into a linguistic representation (speech perception), and how speakers convert a linguistic representation into its physical, phonetic form (speech production). Listeners readily adapt to the speech patterns of new speakers and dialects despite considerable variation in the phonetic form. Our research investigates the range and limits of phonetic variation in speech production, and the perceptual mechanisms that allow listeners to overcome this variation in speech perception.

Auditory and linguistic mechanisms of rapid perceptual adaptation

Point of Contact: Eleanor Chodroff

Listeners rapidly adapt to the speech patterns of a novel talker. Previous evidence suggests that the underlying mechanisms guiding adaptation minimally include general auditory mechanisms, such as spectral contrast effects, along with potential linguistic mechanisms. In this project, we aim to distinguish the roles of such mechanisms in speech perception and adaptation, along with their respective time courses.