Individual differences in spoken word recognition: Regional dialect variation.

Abstract

Regional dialect is an important source of variation in the speech signal. However, little is known about individual differences in the ability to perceive and accommodate for this type of variability. In the current study, individual listeners’ performance on a speech recognition task with different American English (AE) dialects was explored. Ninety‐eight listeners completed a novel high‐variability sentence recognition task (PRESTO), which contains sentences produced by talkers from seven AE dialect regions. Correlational analyzes were carried out on performance on the task and scores from a self‐report questionnaire on executive function. Results revealed significant correlations between measures of behavioral regulation (executive function) and performance accuracy for several of the standard and non‐standard talker dialects. This was especially the case for non‐mobile listeners, who had lived in only one dialect region before the age of 18, as opposed to mobile listeners, who had lived in more than one dialect region before the age of 18. These findings indicate possible group differences based on both residential history and basic underlying cognitive abilities in adapting to differences in regional dialect variation. The results will be discussed with respect to individual differences in the perception of indexical properties of speech under adverse listening conditions.