Phonological variation and spoken word recognition

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的总体目标是确定听众如何识别表面形式已被修改的单词作为合法的语音过程，包括英语冠状位同化的结果。这个项目将继续发展，测试和完善一个全面的理论框架来理解这个问题，强调精细的语音细节的重要性和一般的听觉分组机制在处理中的作用。这项工作围绕三个目标展开：（1）确定一般的听觉分组机制在同化语音的加工过程中起什么作用，以及它们在什么水平上起作用;（2）确定影响词汇加工的语音精细结构如何反映在同化语音的分类中，（3）确定不同类型的内隐语言知识在语境中所听同化项目的加工过程中所起的作用。 这些问题将通过离线的感知任务（音素识别，AXB歧视和分类善良评级任务），在线的行为任务（音素监测和形式启动），并结合脑磁图（MEG），脑电图（ERP），功能和结构MRI的使用相结合的技术进行检查。这些实验中的刺激将由合成语音、未修改和数字修改的自然语音以及观察仔细测量或控制的声学参数的合成语音模拟物的组合组成。 这项工作将提供洞察语言能力，听觉场景分析机制和口语单词识别之间的关系。作为基础研究，它为理解这些过程提供了一个框架，这些过程可能有助于描述和开发有效的沟通障碍补救措施，并开发自动语音合成和识别技术，为各种感知和沟通障碍的人提供服务。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this project is to determine how listeners recognize words whose surface forms have been modified as a result of lawful phonological processes including English coronal place assimilation. This project will continue the development, testing and refinement of a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding this problem that emphasizes the importance of fine phonetic detail and the role of general auditory grouping mechanisms in processing. The work is organized around three aims: 1) to determine what role general auditory grouping mechanisms play in the processing of assimilated speech and what level of representation they operate on, (2) to determine how phonetic fine structure that has been shown to influence lexical processing is reflected in the categorization of assimilated speech, and (3) to determine what role different types of implicit linguistic knowledge play in the processing of assimilated items heard in context. These issues will be examined through a combination of off-line perceptual tasks (phoneme identification, AXB discrimination and categorical goodness rating tasks), on-line behavioral tasks (phoneme monitoring and form priming), and the use of techniques combining magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (ERP), and functional and structural MRI. Stimuli in these experiments will consist of a combination of synthesized speech, unmodified and digitally modified natural speech, and synthesized speech analogs observing carefully measured or controlled acoustic parameters. This work will provide insight into the relationship between linguistic competence, auditory scene analysis mechanisms and spoken word recognition. As basic research it provides a framework for understanding these processes that may be useful in characterizing and developing effective remediation for communicative disorders, and in developing automatic speech synthesis and recognition technologies that may serve people with a variety of perceptual and communicative disorders.