Assessing the challenge of accented speech using effort discounting

Abstract

The subjective ease of understanding accents that differ from a listener’s has typically been assessed using self-reports. This approach, however, relies on metacognitive judgments that are difficult to interpret and may not converge with objective measures of effort. To address this challenge, this study utilizes effort discounting, a paradigm borrowed from behavioral economics. In the experiment, participants are familiarized with one L1 English speaker and three L2-accented speakers. During the task, participants choose between listening to the L1-accented speaker for a smaller monetary reward or to one of the L2-accented speakers for a larger reward. By varying the reward offered for the easier option based on previous choices, the subjective value of the effort expended for each L2 speaker can be determined. Data collection is ongoing. We expect participants will remain willing to listen to highly intelligible L2-accented speakers. However, as speakers become less intelligible, participants will be less willing to expend the required additional effort and will choose the easier speaker. We also predict that participants who rate L2-accented speakers lower on an affect and attitudes questionnaire will be more likely to discount their reward to avoid the effort required by the L2-accented speech.