Transient speech processing costs depend on accent type and talker variability

Abstract

In a dual-task paradigm, native English-speaking listeners (N=55) made judgments about visually presented digits while simultaneously listening to speech that varied by talkers-per-accent (between-subjects: 1 vs 3) and accent type (within-subjects: native[Canadian]/regional[Australian]/nonnative[Mandarin]). Adaptation occurred within only six exposures but was only observed for nonnative and native-accented speech (p < 0.05) and was also dependent on talkers-per-accent, indicating that transient speech processing demands are uniquely impacted by the interactions between accent type and talker variability.