Perceptual consequences of pauses: Credibility and fluency of native and non-native speech

Abstract

Silent pauses are a natural part of speech and impact perception of speech. However, it is unclear how foreign accentedness influences perception of pauses. Specifically, studies have shown mixed results regarding whether listeners process pauses in native and non-native speech similarly or differently. A possible explanation for these results is that perceptual consequences of pauses differ depending on the type of processing that listeners engage in: a focus on the content/meaning of the speech versus characteristics/form of the speech. Thus, the present study examines the effect of silent pauses on listeners' perception of native and non-native speech in two different tasks, examining perceived credibility of the information conveyed in the speech, and perceived fluency of the speech. Specifically, we ask whether characteristics of silent pauses (e.g., presence or absence of a pause; syntactic location of a pause) influence listeners' perception differently for native versus non-native speech, and whether this pattern differs for perceived credibility and fluency. The results help us better understand how disfluency and foreign accent together impact listeners' perception. Further, this provides insight for how perceptual consequences of certain acoustic properties of the speech differ depending on how listeners are asked to evaluate the speech.