The link between speaker-specific accuracy in speech production and listener-specific acuity in speech perception: From subphonemic cue-weighting to prosodic categories

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Speech production is concerned with the articulatory mechanisms to produce an acoustic speech output, whereas speech perception examines how differences in articulatory settings and acoustic variation contribute to a robust perceptual construct. However, currently there is sparse research on the direct connection between the articulatory accuracy of a speaker on the one hand and the acuity of speech perception of a listener, on the other hand. A number of interesting research questions arise from a closer examination of this production-perception link: (1) can an accuracy/acuity link be found for individual speakers/listeners as well, i.e. is a speaker that produces more accurate and less variable speech production targets also coincides also a listener with improved speech perception skills? And vice versa, (2) are listeners with well-defined and narrow perception boundaries also speakers with less variable and more precise places of articulation? And if examining differences between speakers/listeners from an individual point of view, (3) do certain individual personality traits and spectrum differences influence production accuracy and/or the perceptual acuity to distinguish speech sounds? Finally, if seen from a cross-population or cross-linguistic perspective, (4) can we define certain groups of speakers/listeners who would use only certain acoustic cues or a combination of different cues in their production and perception strategies, or is there rather a single major strategy across different populations/languages to achieve a certain production/perception contrast? The overarching goal of this project is to elucidate how speech production and speech perception in different languages and different populations are linked through their boundary conditions, namely (1) the articulatory requirements to produce speech and (2) the acoustic consequences of these articulatory requirements. This goal will be reached by examining different acoustic cues found within speech sounds and contrast these findings with cues that span several speech segments like syllables or words to elicit if (1) increased accuracy in the production of speech also leads to increased perceptual acuity and (2) what role acoustic variance plays for the generation of robust perceptual contrasts, in other words: what forms a phonetic/phonological category? This work will advance our understanding how speech production and perception are linked, i.e. which configuration of acoustic cues and/or articulatory settings results in an optimal perceptual output. Potential applications of this work are ultrasound videos with optimized articulatory and/or acoustic settings that help Speech-Language therapists to find the best therapy approach for a given speech sound disorder. Furthermore, the output of this program will help optimizing cochlear implants and thus benefit hearing-impaired patients.