Postdoctoral Fellow
Waisman Center Brain, Language, and Acoustic Behavior (BLAB) Laboratory
Harnessing the predictable direction of speech sensorimotor adaptation to improve non-native vowel production and perception
Speech sensorimotor adaptation—adjusting articulation to counter altered auditory feedback—unfolds in a predictable direction. This talk demonstrates how that property can be leveraged to improve second-language vowel learning. Native Spanish speakers produced English /ɪ/ (“ship”) under altered auditory feedback that shifted perceived feedback toward or away from /i/ (“sheep”). Both groups adapted as expected, but only the toward-/i/ group produced more clearly differentiated vowels after the feedback was removed. Perceptual identification of the /i/–/ɪ/ contrast also became sharper across groups. These results show that leveraging the predictable direction of sensorimotor adaptation can refine non-native vowel production and perception.