My research seeks to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying human speech processing. Specifically, I am interested in 1) if and how resilient speech learning can be in the context of native and nonnative communication (e.g., talker change, native and foreign accented speech); 2) the neural mechanisms that support such plasticity in rapid and long-term learning; 3) if and how being bilingual and/or multilingual may influence the learning process
The Accent Atlas: A Geolocation-based Assessment of Non-native Accent Familiarity and
Linguistic Diversity (under review)
A key to successful comprehension of natural language is the ability to adapt to its variability. Recent studies have suggested that linguistic diversity in daily speech input predicts monolingual native speakers’ ability to adapt to an unfamiliar non-native accent. However, self-reports of linguistic diversity can be prone to recall errors and bias. We propose a census-based approach to quantifying the likelihood of non-native accent exposure at both the state and zip code levels. We conducted a large-scale (N=647) conceptual replication of Clarke and Garrett (2004) to examine monolingual English listeners’ rapid adaptation to Chinese-accented speech. Results indicate that the estimated level of accent exposure at the zip code level, but not at the state level, predicts the magnitude of accent adaptation. This suggests that daily accent exposure may vary across local environments and that the current geolocation-based measure of linguistic diversity will be a useful tool to complement self-reports.
The Accent Atlas: A Geolocation-based Assessment of Non-native Accent Familiarity and
Linguistic Diversity (the Spanish-accented version)
We are in the process of running a replication of this study using the Spanish accent. In other words, we are testing listeners' adaptation to Spanish-accented English speech.
Hearing Beyond Categories: General Adaptation to Nonnative Speech (6-page paper submitted to CogSci 2005)
Listeners demonstrate remarkable adaptability in speech perception, rapidly improving their recognition of non-native
accented speech after brief exposure. This study examines whether such adaptation reflects category-specific adjustments or a broader relaxation in processing unfamiliar accented categories. Using a pretest-exposure-posttest paradigm, we conducted two experiments to investigate how native English listeners’ perception of the Mandarin-accented /θ/-/s/ contrast changed as a function of accent exposure. We compared changes in lexical decision performance between participants exposed to Mandarin-accented audio sentences (Experiment 1) and those exposed to pure tones (Experiment 2). Results support the notion of general category relaxation, with both /θ/ and /s/ categories expanding from pretest to posttest.
(* indicates presenting author)
*Gu, Y., Cutler, S., *Xie, X., & Kurumada, C. The Accent Atlas: Effects of long-term exposure to nonnative accents on adaptive speech perception. Presented at the 4th International Max Plank Research School (IMPRS) for Language Sciences. 2024.
Gu, Y., Cutler, S., *Xie, X., & Kurumada, C. The Accent Atlas: Effects of long-term exposure to nonnative accents on adaptive speech perception. Presented at the 186th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Ottawa, Canada. 2024.
Gu, Y., Cutler, S., Xie, X., & *Kurumada, C. Short- and long- term exposure to nonnative accents on adaptive speech perception. Presented at the 30th Architecture and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP). Edinburgh, Scotland. 2024.
*Gu, Y., Xie, X., & Kurumada, C. Rapid speech adaptation under adverse listening conditions. Presented at the 64th Psychonomic Society's Annual Meeting. 2023.
*Gu, Y., Xie, X., & Kurumada, C. Does speech adaptation generalize across adverse listening conditions? Presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. 2023.
*Gu, Y., Xie X., & Kurumada, C. Rapid speech adaptation under adverse listening conditions. Presented at the 5th California Meetings on Psycholinguistics. UCLA. 2022.
*Gu, Y., Song Y., Kroll, J., & Scontras, G. Lexical entrainment in Mandarin-English bilinguals. Presented at the 7th Annual Florida Psycholinguistics Meeting. 2021.