Effects of dialect variation on the semantic predictability benefit

Abstract

Words in semantically predictable sentences are more intelligible than words in less predictable or semantically anomalous sentences. However, the intelligibility benefit of semantically predictable words is reduced in noise and for non-native listeners, suggesting that semantic context contributes less to intelligibility under difficult listening conditions. The goal of the current study was to explore the effect of dialect variation on the semantic predictability benefit. Larger semantic predictability benefits were observed for more familiar dialects than less familiar dialects. In addition, more dialect differences in the size of the semantic predictability benefit were observed in conditions in which perceptual normalisation was more difficult. These results are consistent with a cue-weighting model in which dialect variation is comparable to energetic noise masking. Listeners attend less to semantic cues when perceptual normalisation for dialect variation is difficult and more to semantic cues when perceptual normalisation is easy.