WK4 L8: Readings

• What is the main focus of the study?

  To investigate whether vocal imitation can improve comprehension of language spoken in an unfamiliar accent
• How does imitative behavior affect social interaction?

  It increases affiliation and empathy between interaction partners
• What is vicarious learning?

  Learning that occurs as a function of observing, processing, and replicating the actions of others
• What theoretical approaches motivate the study?

  Action comprehension activates internal cognitive mechanisms used in action execution
• What is suggested about imitating others' actions?

  It may make it easier to predict their subsequent actions
• What type of speech was used in the study?

  A novel speech accent
• Why is accented speech suitable for testing the hypothesis?

  It contains phonetic and phonological variations that may lead to ambiguities
• What difficulty do Japanese learners of English face?

  They struggle to produce a distinction between the vowels in "slip" and "sleep"
• How does comprehension of an unfamiliar accent compare to a familiar accent?

  It is reflected in slower and less efficient processing
• What is the second reason for using unfamiliar accents in the study?

  Vocal imitation of phonetic and phonological variation is commonplace in everyday life
• What was the aim of the study?

  To evaluate the effect of several forms of training on comprehension of accented speech
• How many groups were participants assigned to in the study?

  Six groups
• What did the baseline group receive?

  No training
• What did participants in the listening group do?

  They listened to accented sentences without speaking
• What was the purpose of the transcription group?

  To ensure that attention to phonetic aspects could not explain posttest improvement
• What was the role of the imitation group?

  To test whether imitation of the unfamiliar accent resulted in posttest improvement
• What was the purpose of the imitation-plus-noise group?

  To investigate whether improvement was due to imitation or auditory feedback
• What were the criteria for participants in the study?

  Native monolingual speakers of Dutch with no language impairments
• What was the procedure for pretesting and posttesting?

  It was identical across groups using an auditory staircase procedure
• What does SRT stand for?

  Speech Reception Threshold
• How was the SRT determined?

  Using the signal-to-noise ratio at which listeners can repeat 50% of key words
• What was the role of key words in the SRT procedure?

  Listeners had to repeat key words to determine the SNR
• What was the aim of the training phase?

  To provide participants with exposure to the unfamiliar accent
• What is the main focus of the study conducted by Houde et al.?

  The modulation of the auditory cortex during speech production.
• What method was used to examine auditory cortical responses in this study?

  Magnetoencephalography (MEG).

  
• How were the sentences altered for the study?

  By systematically changing the pronunciation of vowels in stressed lexical positions
• How were auditory cortical responses compared in the study?

  Responses during self-production were compared to responses during tape playback.
• What was the purpose of altering the orthography of the sentences?

  To achieve changes in all Dutch vowels for the study
• What was adjusted to match the conditions of the study?

  The amplitude of tape playback was adjusted to match self-produced speech.
• What was the method of recording the sentences?

  Sentences were recorded in a soundproof booth
• What was found about the responses to self-produced speech compared to tape-recorded speech?

  Responses to self-produced speech were weaker than those to tape-recorded speech.
• What was the procedure for the pretest and posttest?

  It involved an auditory staircase procedure to measure SRT
• How did responses to tones differ during speech production?

  Responses to tones were weaker during speech production compared to tape playback.
• How many times was the SRT estimated during the testing?

  Four times in the pretest and four times in the posttest
• What was the finding regarding responses to gated noise stimuli?

  Responses to gated noise stimuli did not differ between self-produced and tape-recorded speech.
• What was the instruction given to listeners after hearing each sentence?

  To repeat in Standard Dutch as many words as they had heard
• What do the data suggest about the auditory cortex during speech production?

  The auditory cortex attenuates its sensitivity and modulates its activity based on expected feedback.
• What was the significance of the SNR in the procedure?

  It determined the level of background noise added based on listener performance
• What behavioral experiments have shown about auditory feedback in speech production?

  Different aspects of speech production are sensitive to auditory feedback.
• How were the sentences presented to participants?

  They were presented over headphones at a comfortable sound level