Coarticulatory cues in the recognition of spoken words

描述(申请人提供)：语音理解涉及基于歧义信息的多个分析层次的离散分类。解释这些选择的超乎寻常的速度和准确性需要仔细检查这个过程的时间动态；听者带来的先前信息，以及引导听者理解说话人意图的分析机制。在这项拟议的研究中，我们以儿童和成人元音中的预期鼻化为测试案例，对这些过程的性质进行了实证研究。这种情况对于这些目的来说是理想的，因为元音鼻化的变异是可以实验操纵的，这对成年人的解释有明显的影响。鼻元音和口语元音之间的对比提供了一个窗口，让我们了解随着言语的理解，听者的默认和偏见是如何运用的。该项目侧重于根据先前预期对证据进行评估的时间进程。为此，拟议的研究将利用最近开发的一种范式--“视觉世界”眼球跟踪范式。在该范例中，当参与者按照口头指令点击计算机屏幕上显示的四个图片对象中的一个(例如，点击罐子)时，他们的眼球运动被监控。当听到参考对象的声音模式时产生的眼球运动模式被取为反映正在进行的声学信号的词汇解释。此外，眼睛凝视视觉参照物是一种可用于幼儿的测量方法，允许比较成人和幼儿对协同发音线索的处理。

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.