Listening to a novel foreign accent, with long lasting effects [Abstract]
Bardhan, N. P., & Weber, A.
(2011). Listening to a novel foreign accent, with long lasting effects [Abstract].
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Program abstracts of the 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(4), 2445.
In conversation, listeners frequently encounter speakers with foreign accents. Previous research on foreign-accented speech has primarily examined the short-term effects of exposure and the relative ease that listeners
have with adapting to an accent. The present study examines the stability of this adaptation, with seven full days between testing sessions. On both days,
subjects performed a cross-modal priming task in which they heard several minutes of an unfamiliar accent of their native language: a form of Hebrewaccented
Dutch in which long /i:/ was shortened to /I/. During this task on Day 1, recognition of accented forms was not facilitated, compared to that of canonical forms. A week later, when tested on new words, facilitatory priming occurred, comparable to that seen for canonically produced items
tested in both sessions. These results suggest that accented forms can be learned from brief exposure and the stable effects of this can be seen a week later.
Publication type
Proceedings paper
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