Is There a Bilingual Advantage in Talker Identification? Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Listeners are better at identifying talkers that speak in a familiar language rather than an unfamiliar or foreign one. Although this language familiarity effect suggests that listeners’ ability to recognize voices depends on exposure to language-specific regularities, the mechanisms that underlie the ability to identify voices across languages are unclear. Here, we examine whether a bilingual advantage exists for identifying talkers who speak in a familiar or unfamiliar foreign accent. In an online experiment, monolingual English speakers and bilingual (Spanish/English and other language/English) participants were exposed to talkers producing Spanish-accented English, using an implicit task focusing on the verbal content of their speech. At test, participants were then asked to learn to identify Spanish-accented talkers’ voices, which were either the same or different from the voices heard during the exposure phase. Results indicate that all participants were able to learn to identify the talkers’ voices at test. However, monolinguals outperformed both groups of bilinguals in identifying the Spanish-accented talkers. Spanish-English bilinguals performed better at talker identification tasks when tested on familiar voices, exhibiting an advantage for previous exposure to the voices, while monolinguals and bilinguals of other languages did not significantly benefit from previous exposure to the voices. These findings suggest that talker identification may depend on familiarity with specific aspects of language structure, such as vocabulary or phonological form. However, a general bilingual advantage for talker identification may not exist. 

Table of Contents

Contents 

Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 

Talker Identification: Language Familiarity Effects .................................................. 2 

Bilinguals: Better Understanding Talker Identification Mechanisms........................ 5 

Possible Bilingual Advantage in Talker Identification Tasks ............................ 6 

Aims of the Present Study ......................................................................................... 10 

Hypothesis ................................................................................................................. 12 

Methods ............................................................................................................................. 14 

Participants ................................................................................................................ 14 

Auditory Stimuli ................................................................................................ 15 

Language questionnaires .................................................................................. 17 

Study Design .............................................................................................................. 18 

Procedure .................................................................................................................. 20 

Results .............................................................................................................................. 23 

Exposure Phase ........................................................................................................ 23 

Test Phase ................................................................................................................. 24 

Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 29 

Overall Performance Across Participant Types ....................................................... 29 

Learning Differences Across Participant Types ....................................................... 32 

Voice Familiarity Paradigm ...................................................................................... 36 

Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 37 

References ........................................................................................................................ 40 

Figures .............................................................................................................................. 48 

Figure 1 ...................................................................................................................... 48 

Figure 2 ..................................................................................................................... 50 

Figure 3 ...................................................................................................................... 51 

Figure 4 ......................................................................................................................52 

Figure 5 ......................................................................................................................53 

Appendix ............................................................................................................................54 

Appendix A. ...............................................................................................................54 

Appendix B. ............................................................................................................... 55 

Appendix C. .............................................................................................................. 58 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Speech Communication Language, General Psychology, Behavioral Sciences
Mot-clé	Bilingualism Talker-Identification
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Nygaard, Lynne C. , Emory University
Committee Members	Yamasaki, Brianna L. , Emory University Roeser, Andrea, Emory University

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