Tim K. Murphy, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Statistical Learning in Speech Perception Affects Speech Production
The idea that neurocognitive processes subserving speech perception and production are linked is far from controversial. Yet little is known about the processes comprising these links or how they operate. One major exception involves talkers’ perception of their own speech. Empirical and theoretical work continues to provide increasingly sophisticated accounts of the mechanisms supporting auditory feedback processing of our own voice for the purposes of monitoring and maintaining ongoing speech production. However, these accounts do not easily explain empirical findings that other talkers’ speech also affects our own speech productions. In this talk, I will introduce a novel experimental approach for studying links between speech perception and production through the lens of statistical learning across short-term speech regularities that convey an accent that departs from local speech norms. I will provide evidence demonstrating how manipulation of short-term statistical regularities conveyed by passive exposure to speech leads to perceptual statistical learning that drives changes in talkers’ own speech productions. This transfer of statistical learning from speech perception to production shows how subtle, implicit alterations in perceived speech can lead to predictable, and robust, changes in participants’ own speech productions. Following this initial demonstration, I will highlight additional research on the role of task demands used to elicit speech productions. This research suggests that task demands are critical for transfer from speech perception to production and determine whether statistical learning generalizes to novel contexts. Finally, I will focus on ongoing research testing whether transfer of statistical learning is immediate or is contingent upon previous instances of overt speech production.