CROSS LINGUISTIC STUDIES ON SPOKEN LANGUAGE PROCESSING

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The long-term objective is to understand spoken language processing cross-linguistically. The health implications of this objective relate to the clinical application of research on speech perception and auditory word recognition. Cross-linguistic studies delimit the range of theories and identify parameters that are operative in human language processing. The specific aims of the project are to conduct studies on (1) the impact of phonology on speech perception, (2) the impact of morphology on word recognition and (3) the impact of lexical structure/phonotactics on word recognition. Four key experiments address the first of these aims. Exp. A1 tests the perceptual salience of stop place of articulation by American English (AE) and Japanese listeners. Signal detection analysis is used to compare the groups. Exp. A2 is a replication of A1 with stimuli produced by Japanese talkers. Experiments A4-5 have the same design in a comparison of AE and Hindi listeners. Two experiments address the second specific aim. Exp. B1 tests for the decomposition of suffixes in AE auditory word recognition. Exp. B2 does the same for Finnish. Comparison of these experiments will highlight processing differences based on the very different morphologies of the two languages. Two experiments address the third specific aim. These are replications in Japanese of two important experiments demonstrating the role of lexical structure in auditory word recognition. These experiments test for mediating effects of syllable structure in the lexical density effect in auditory word recognition.