Immediate transfer of learning from speech perception to speech production

Adults can rapidly learn new linguistic patterns in laboratory settings: phonotactic constraints acquired through listening experience affect later perception (Onishi et al., 2002), and speech production errors reflect constraints present in recently spoken syllables (Dell et al., 2000). There is little evidence, however, that such phonotactic learning can transfer between perception and production (Warker et al., 2009). In three experiments, we provide further evidence that phonotactic constraints experienced in perception can immediately influence speech production, and probe the mechanisms of this transfer of learning. Participants alternately heard and spoke sequences of syllables featuring novel phonotactic constraints (e.g. /f/ is always a syllable onset, /s/ is always a syllable coda). Listening trials involved checking a target sequence against a previously heard reference sequence and reporting any deviations. Speaking trials required saying sequences in time to a metronome. Participants’ speech errors reflected weaker learning of constraints present in the spoken sequences (e.g. /f/ must be an onset) when they heard sequences with inverse constraints (e.g. /f/ must be a coda), suggesting that constraints experienced in perception were integrated with those experienced in production. There was also perception-production transfer of constraints when participants generated inner speech of the heard syllables. However, there was little or no transfer when participants monitored heard sequences for the critical phonemes /f/ and /s/, suggesting that heightened attention during perception is not sufficient for transfer. More generally, these results support models of language processing with separate input and output phonologies (Dell et al., 2007), suggesting that only internal activation of the production system during perception promotes transfer of phonotactic constraints to production. Given the emphasis on prediction via internal production in current theories of language comprehension (e.g. Pickering & Garrod, in press; Federmerier, 2007), perception-production transfer may be a consequence of everyday language processing.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Kittredge, Audrey

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dell, Gary S.
• Benjamin, Aaron S.
• Federmeier, Kara D.
• Fisher, Cynthia L.
• Simons, Daniel J.

• transfer of learning
• phonotactic learning
• speech production
• phonotactics
• phoneme monitoring
• speech errors
• inner speech
• language learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Audrey Ksenia Kittredge

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42400

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/42400