The effect of high and low variability conditions on phonetic convergence

Abstract

Studies of phonetic convergence using single-word auditory naming tasks offer insight into how variability in stimuli affect the translation from speech perception to speech production. In this paper, we report on an experiment which compares phonetic convergence in single-word production between high variability (mixed talker condition) or low variability (blocked talker condition) using five female model talkers’ voices for the task. Twenty female participants participated in a production task where they produced baseline tokens and shadowed model talker productions in either the high or low variability condition. Phonetic imitation was quantified using listener judgments in an AXB similarity rating task where a model token was compared to a shadower’s baseline and shadowed token. The results indicate a trend towards more convergence in the low variability condition, but this was highly affected by model voice; one model voice was spontaneously imitated more in the high variability condition than the low variability condition. Several socio-cognitive tests were administered to shadowers, and continued analyses of the data will explore whether these individual socio-cognitive measures predict shadowers’ predispositions toward phonetic convergence.