Geographic mobility, lexical processing dynamics, and perceptual adaptation

地理流动性、词汇处理动态和知觉适应

基本信息

批准号：
1843454
负责人：
Cynthia Clopper
金额：
$ 20.89万
依托单位：
Ohio State University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-06-01 至 2024-11-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1843454&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Geographic mobility lexical processing dynamics

项目摘要

Americans are geographically mobile: the US Census Bureau reports that over the last decade, approximately 11% of Americans have moved each year, including nearly 2% of Americans who have moved each year to a different state. When people move to a new place, they are likely to encounter people who speak with a dialect that differs from their own. In addition, even non-mobile people who live in urban areas are likely to encounter people who have moved to the city from a place with a different dialect. As a result of this geographic mobility, Americans are exposed to substantial variation in regional dialects throughout the lifespan. Some recent research suggests that exposure to different dialects as a result of geographic mobility affects how speech is processed in real time. In particular, greater exposure to dialect variation appears to make people more flexible in their parsing of the speech signal, potentially leading to more successful communication with people who speak unfamiliar dialects. The goal of this project is to understand how this flexibility in processing arises. An investigation of the factors underlying processing flexibility due to geographic mobility will allow for a consideration of how processing dialect variation compares to processing other difficult kinds of speech (such as fast speech, foreign-accented speech, and speech in noise or with an auditory prosthesis such as a cochlear implant), which has substantial implications for understanding the constraints on human flexibility in speech processing.The project will examine whether the processing flexibility observed among mobile people is limited to the specific dialects to which a listener has been exposed or applies more generally to all unfamiliar dialects. It will also examine how the number of dialects that a person has exposure to and when that exposure occurs (for example, in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood) affects their processing flexibility for both familiar and unfamiliar dialects. Flexibility in speech processing will be examined in a series of speech perception experiments assessing the time course of word recognition and of adaptation to unfamiliar regional dialects. The specificity of the processing mechanism will be assessed by examining speech processing as a function of familiarity with particular regional dialects, such as Northern, Southern, and Mid-Atlantic American English. The effects of the amount and timing of dialect exposure will be assessed by recruiting a large sample of adult participants with a range of residential histories and travel experiences. All of the data collection for the project will be conducted in a language research laboratory that is located within a science museum in central Ohio. Study participants will be recruited from among the museum visitors, leading to direct public engagement with the research. Outreach materials related to the project will also be developed for the participants and other museum visitors to broaden the public impact of the work beyond the scholarly community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国人在地理上是流动的：美国人口普查局报告说，在过去的十年中，每年约有11％的美国人搬家，其中包括每年搬到另一个州的美国人中近2％。当人们搬到新地方时，他们很可能会遇到与自己不同的方言交谈的人。此外，即使是居住在城市地区的非摩托车人也可能会遇到从具有不同方言的地方搬到城市的人。由于这种地理流动性，美国人在整个生命周期中都有区域方言的实质性差异。最近的一些研究表明，由于地理流动性而暴露于不同方言会影响实时处理语音的方式。特别是，更大的方言变化似乎使人们在解析语音信号时更加灵活，这可能会导致与讲话不熟悉方言的人进行更成功的沟通。该项目的目的是了解这种加工的灵活性是如何产生的。对由于地理流动性而引起的基本处理柔韧性的调查将允许考虑处理方言变化与处理其他困难类型的语音（例如快速语音，言语，外交语音，外交语音和噪音中的语音，或听觉假体中的噪音，或者与同性恋植入物之类的听觉假体）的启发，该过程是否会限制在启发人类的过程中，该过程是否具有限制性的启发。听众已暴露或更普遍地应用于所有陌生方言的特定方言。它还将研究一个人接触的方言数量以及何时发生这种情况（例如，在儿童时期，青春期或成年期）会影响其处理的灵活性，以供熟悉和不熟悉的方言。语音处理的灵活性将在一系列语音感知实验中进行检查，以评估单词识别的时间过程和适应不熟悉的区域方言的时间过程。处理机制的特异性将通过检查语音处理作为熟悉特定区域方言的函数，例如北部，南部和中大西洋美国英语。方言暴露的数量和时间的影响将通过招募大量具有一系列住宅历史和旅行经验的成年参与者样本来评估。该项目的所有数据收集都将在俄亥俄州中部科学博物馆内的语言研究实验室中进行。研究参与者将从博物馆访问者中招募，从而直接参与研究。与该项目相关的外展材料还将为参与者和其他博物馆访问者开发，以扩大学术界的公共影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评估来评估值得支持的。