Coarticulatory cues in the recognition of spoken words

描述（由申请人提供）：语音理解涉及基于模糊信息的多层次分析的离散分类。要解释这些选择的速度和准确性，就需要仔细研究这个过程的时间动态、听众提供的先验信息，以及引导听众理解说话者意图的分析机制。在拟议的研究中，这些过程的性质进行了实证研究，使用预期的鼻音化元音作为测试案例，在儿童和成人。这种情况是理想的，因为元音鼻音化的变化，这对成人的解释有明显的影响，可以通过实验来操纵。鼻元音和口元音之间的对比提供了一个窗口，让我们了解在理解语音时，听者的默认和偏见是如何发挥作用的。该项目的重点是根据先前的期望评价证据的时间进程。为此，拟议的研究将利用最近开发的范式，即“视觉世界”眼动追踪范式。在该范例中，当参与者遵循口头指令点击显示在计算机屏幕上的四个图片对象中的一个（例如，“点击罐头”）。当听到所指对象的声音模式时产生的眼睛运动的模式被用来反映声学信号的正在进行的词汇解释。此外，眼睛注视视觉参照物是一种措施，可以用于幼儿，允许比较成人和幼儿的coarticulatory线索的处理。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Speech comprehension involves discrete categorization at multiple levels of analysis based upon ambiguous information. Explaining the extraordinary speed and accuracy with which these choices are implicitly made requires close examination of the temporal dynamics of the process; the prior information listeners bring to bear, and the analytical mechanisms that guide listeners to the speaker's intended meaning. In the proposed research, the nature of these processes is investigated empirically using anticipatory nasalization in vowels as a test case, both in children and adults. This case is ideal for these purposes because variation in vowel nasalization, which has clearly demonstrable effects on interpretation in adults, can be experimentally manipulated. The contrast between nasal and oral vowels offers a window into how listeners' defaults and biases are exercised, as speech is comprehended. The project focuses on the time course with which evidence is evaluated with respect to prior expectations. To this end, the proposed research will make use of a recently developed paradigm, the "visual world" eye-tracking paradigm. In this paradigm, participants' eye movements are monitored as they follow spoken instructions to click on one of four pictured objects displayed on a computer screen (e.g., "Click on the can"). The pattern of eye movements generated as the sound pattern of the referent object is heard is taken to reflect the ongoing lexical interpretation of the acoustic signal. Furthermore, eye gaze to visual referents is a measure that can be used with young children, permitting to compare the processing of coarticulatory cues in adults and young children.