Individual differences in cue weights are stable across time: The case of Japanese stop lengths

Abstract

Speech categories are defined by multiple acoustic dimensions, and listeners give differential weighting to dimensions in phonetic categorization. The informativeness (predictive strength) of dimensions for categorization is considered an important factor in determining perceptual weighting. However, it is unknown how the perceptual system weighs acoustic dimensions with similar informativeness. This study investigates perceptual weighting of two acoustic dimensions with similar informativeness, exploiting the absolute and relative durations that are nearly equivalent in signaling Japanese singleton and geminate stop categories. In the perception experiments, listeners showed strong individual differences in their perceptual weighting of absolute and relative durations. Furthermore, these individual patterns were stable over repeated testing across as long as 2 months and were resistant to perturbation through short-term manipulation of speech input. Listeners own speech productions were not predictive of how they weighted relative and absolute duration. Despite the theoretical advantage of relative (as opposed to absolute) duration cues across contexts, relative cues are not utilized by all listeners. Moreover, examination of individual differences in cue weighting is a useful tool in exposing the complex relationship between perceptual cue weighting and language regularities.

A multimodel inference approach to categorical variant choice: construction, priming and frequency effects on the choice between full and contracted forms of am, are and is

“…Idiolectal variation is an inevitable result of redundancy in language: any given linguistic feature is usually predictable from many other features (Hockett 1965 et seq.). Idiolectal variation has also received robust empirical support from recent work in phonetics, cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics (Barlow 2013;Dąbrowska 2012;Idemaru et al 2012;Johnson 2013;Mielke et al 2010;Yu 2010). …”

“…Much recent work has documented stable individual differences in grammar. For example, Idemaru et al (2012) find that different native listeners Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services Authenticated Download Date | 5/31/15 2:08 AM use different acoustic cues to the singleton/geminate contrast in Japanese, a dif ference that is stable across retests. Dąbrowska (2012: 223) reports individual differences in the use of Polish morphology, documenting that some speakers use -a as the singular genitive for all unfamiliar masculine nouns, while others use it only for animates.…”

How may the basal ganglia contribute to auditory categorization and speech perception?

“…As mentioned above, speech is inherently multidimensional such that many acoustic cues can be used to determine category membership. However, it is important to note that although multiple cues covary with speech category identity, not all acoustic cues are equally weighted for perception; listeners rely on certain acoustic dimensions more heavily than others for categorization (Francis et al, 2000; Idemaru et al, 2012). Based on the distributional characteristics of speech categories in a given language, listeners learn to rely more on acoustic dimensions that are most diagnostic of category membership.…”

Dimension‐Based Statistical Learning Affects Both Speech Perception and Production

“…Speech acoustics are notoriously multidimensional. However, the contributing dimensions are not necessarily equally diagnostic of phonetic category membership (Francis, Baldwin, & Nusbaum, 2000; Francis, Kaganovich, & Driscoll-Huber, 2008; Holt & Lotto, 2006; Idemaru, Holt, & Seltman, 2012; Iverson & Kuhl, 1995; Nittrouer, 2004; Shultz, Francis, & Llanos, 2012). For example, in American English both the second and the third formant onset frequencies vary across /r/ and /l/.…”