Alignment of f0 peak in different pitch accent types affects perception of metrical stress

Zahner, Katharina; Kutscheid, Sophie; Braun, Bettina

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2019.02.004

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…We modeled these looking proportions using Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). This approach has become an important tool to model time series data, such as eyetracking trajectories, because it can estimate flexible, nonlinear relationships ("smooths") between variables such as time and relevant covariates (i.e., effects of group and/or condition) (Rij, Hollebr, & Hendriks, 2016;Zahner, Kutscheid, & Braun, 2019). GAMMs are composed of (fixed) parametric terms that model static relationships between two variables, as is common in generalized linear modeling, and smooth terms that model nonlinear effects by using penalized basis functions (i.e., smoothing splines).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschoolers rely on rich speech representations to process variable speech

Cychosz¹,

Mahr²,

Munson³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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To process language in real time, listeners must map a highly variable speech signal to linguistic categories such as phones and words. How do children learn to process this rampant variation and distinguish between variable pronunciations of known words ("shoup" for soup) versus novel words ("cheem") in their environments? By examining the unique sensory experiences of children with cochlear implants, we show that successful speech processing relies upon access to fine phonetic detail, beginning in the early preschool years. In a mispronunciation sensitivity eye-tracking task, we matched children with cochlear implants, who have poorer-resolution electric hearing, to their peers with typical acoustic hearing, controlling for (1) lifetime oral language exposure (hearing-age matches) and (2) language skill (vocabulary size matches). Online processing of familiar words (soup) depended on vocabulary, replicating previous work, but processing of variable pronunciations ("shoup") depended on access to fine-grained phonetic detail. These results suggest that children of all hearing experiences use their lexical knowledge to process familiar words, but they rely on fine phonetic detail and well-specified phonological representations to process variable speech in real time.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschoolers rely on rich speech representations to process variable speech

Cychosz¹,

Mahr²,

Munson³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This model showed main effects for all fixed effects and interactions between frequency band and language and frequency band and sentence length. For further analysis of the interactions, we used generalized additive mixed models, GAMMs [30][31][32][33][34]. They are suited to pinpoint where differences occur; taking into account non-linear relationships and auto-correlation [35,36].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amplitude envelope modulations across languages reflect prosody

Frota¹,

Vigário²,

Cruz³

et al. 2022

Speech Prosody 2022

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The speech signal has been shown to contain a fine structure that consists of the fast changing spectral content (e.g., formant transitions, voicing, spectral energy distributions), together with amplitude modulations of the envelope with different timescales. These different modulation frequencies have been associated with linguistic units of different sizes, and neuronal oscillations seem to track this linguistic structure. As the amplitude envelope mostly captures suprasegmental information, the different modulation frequencies are natural candidates to convey prosodic information. In this paper we put these assumptions to the test by comparing effects of sentence length and language, focusing on languages with distinct prosodic profiles: Brazilian Portuguese (syllable-timed), European Portuguese (mixed rhythm, with syllable-timed and stress-timed properties), and German (stress-timed). There are further differences regarding the roles of the syllable, the foot, the prosodic word and the intonation phrase. We analyzed wideband amplitude envelopes using general additive mixed models and show that German differs from Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese in the delta (1-2Hz) and theta bands (6-8Hz). European and Brazilian Portuguese also differ, but only in the delta band (1-2Hz). The language differences in amplitude modulation are discussed in terms of speech rhythm and differences in prosodic structure across languages.

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“…Stressed syllables play a role for speech processing in socalled stress languages, such as English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Italian (e.g. Cooper et al, 2002;Cutler & Norris, 1988;Donselaar et al, 2005;Friedrich et al, 2004;Reinisch et al, 2010;Soto-Faraco et al, 2001;Sulpizio & McQueen, 2012;Zahner et al, 2019). In these languages, each content word contains one syllable with primary stress, which functions as the head of the word in a phonological sense (Hyman, 1977), e.g.…”

Section: The Link Between Word Level and Sentence Level Prominencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…f0-movement: A number of studies recently reported that the perception of word-level stress is influenced by phrase-level intonation, i.e. whether stressed syllables are high-or low-pitched (Dilley & Heffner, 2013;Friedrich et al, 2001;Schwab & Dellwo, 2017;Zahner et al, 2019); unstressed syllables were even misinterpreted as being stressed when they were high-pitched (Zahner et al, 2019). On the level of the phrase, similar findings have been reported for perceived prominence of rising or high pitch in spoken utterances (Baumann & Röhr, 2015;Baumann & Winter, 2018;Niebuhr & Winkler, 2017;Wagner et al, 2016) with a focus on degrees of perceived prominence (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How prior experience with pitch accents shapes the perception of word and sentence stress

Kutscheid

Leemann

Braun

2021

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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Listeners perceive high or rising pitch as stressedat 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. lowpitched 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.

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Alignment of f0 peak in different pitch accent types affects perception of metrical stress

Cited by 18 publications

References 64 publications

Preschoolers rely on rich speech representations to process variable speech

Preschoolers rely on rich speech representations to process variable speech

Amplitude envelope modulations across languages reflect prosody

How prior experience with pitch accents shapes the perception of word and sentence stress

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