Do social preferences matter in lexical retuning?

Abstract

In perceiving spoken language, listeners not only recognize and comprehend the intended meaning of the speaker’s words and phrases; they also assess the social dimensions of the speaker. In the present study, we ask whether perceptual learning — a process by which listeners adapt to novel pronunciations — is modulated by listeners’ social preferences. To this end, we use a novel accent exhibiting a back vowel lowering chain shift in pleasant and unpleasant conditions in a lexically guided perceptual learning paradigm to test whether listeners adapt less to the unpleasant guise. Experiment 1 confirms that listeners disprefer the unpleasant guise. Using a lexical decision task as a measure of lexical adaptation, Experiment 2 indicates that listeners in the pleasant and unpleasant guises learned the back vowel shift compared to listeners in a control group. These results suggest that exposure to a voice with lower social prestige does not inhibit lexical adaptation.