Doctoral Dissertation Research: Processing foreign-accented speech in noisy conditions in children and adults

博士论文研究：儿童和成人在嘈杂环境下处理外国口音的语音

• 批准号: 2041204
• 负责人: Janet van Hell
• 金额: $ 1.12万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-03-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2041204&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Processing; foreign

In today's globalized world, people increasingly encounter speakers with a foreign accent: the majority of English speakers across the world, for example, are non-native speakers. Moreover, natural speech communication rarely takes place in ideal listening conditions and we often listen to others when surrounded by background noise. Processing and comprehending foreign-accented speech in noisy backgrounds has thus become a common characteristic of everyday communication. This is also true for school-aged children, as their peers may be foreign-accented speakers and their classrooms can be noisy. Prior linguistic research has demonstrated that the addition of background noise can impact the understanding of foreign-accented speech, more so than native-accented speech, and increased cognitive demand has been proposed as the possible explanation. This project measures cognitive demands during sentence processing, combining behavioral and neurocognitive (EEG) techniques, to examine three questions: What are the linguistic-cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of foreign-accented and native-accented sentences embedded in background noise and in quiet conditions in (1) adults and (2) children? (3) What are potential sources of individual variability in behavioral and neural responses to semantic anomalies in native- and foreign-accented sentences presented in background noise and in quiet? Two age groups will be tested in two experiments: young adults and children aged 9-11. In the EEG task, participants listen to native- and foreign-accented English sentences. Half the sentences in each accent condition will be embedded in background noise, and the remaining sentences in quiet; half the sentences will contain semantic anomalies and half will be semantically well-formed. Participants will also complete a language background questionnaire, reporting demographic information, language use, proficiency, and accent exposure, as well as behavioral tasks measuring individual differences in linguistic and cognitive abilities. This project provides foundational insights on the cognitive and neural bases of foreign- and native-accented speech processing in noisy and quiet environments. The outcomes also have real-life implications and can, for example, inform educators on facilitating optimal learning environments in their classrooms.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.

在当今的全球化世界中，人们越来越多地遇到具有外国口音的演讲者：例如，世界上大多数说英语的人都是非母语的人。此外，自然语音交流很少发生在理想的听力条件下，我们经常在背景噪音包围时倾听他人。因此，在嘈杂的背景下处理和理解外国人的演讲已成为日常交流的共同特征。对于学龄儿童来说，这也是如此，因为他们的同龄人可能是外国人的演讲者，他们的教室可能很吵。先前的语言研究表明，增加背景噪声可以影响对外国人的语音的理解，而不是本地重点的语音，并且已经提出认知需求增加，这是可能的解释。该项目衡量在句子处理过程中的认知需求，结合行为和神经认知（EEG）技术，以研究三个问题：哪些语言认知机制是什么是处理外交和天然气的句子的加工为背景噪声中嵌入在（1）成人和（2）儿童中的背景噪音和安静条件下的语言认知句子？ （3）在背景噪声和安静中呈现的天然和外交句子中对语义异常的行为和神经反应的个人变异性的潜在来源是什么？两个年龄组将在两个实验中进行测试：年轻人和9-11岁的儿童。在脑电图任务中，参与者会听取本土和外国的英语句子。每个重音条件下的一半句子将嵌入背景噪音中，其余句子安静；一半的句子将包含语义异常，一半的语义将具有良好的形式。参与者还将完成语言背景问卷，报告人口统计信息，语言使用，熟练程度和强调曝光，以及衡量语言和认知能力中个体差异的行为任务。该项目为在嘈杂和安静的环境中的外国和本地重点语音处理的认知和神经基础提供了基本见解。结果也具有现实的影响，例如，可以为教育工作者提供促进教室中最佳学习环境的信息。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和更广泛影响的评估评估来审查标准的评估。