Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2018 Dec;144(6):3191. doi: 10.1121/1.5081711.
Degradations to auditory input have deleterious effects on speech recognition performance, especially by older listeners. Alterations to timing information in speech, such as occurs in rapid or foreign-accented speech, can be particularly difficult for older people to resolve. It is currently unclear how prior language experience modulates performance with temporally altered sentence-length speech utterances. The principal hypothesis is that prior experience with a foreign language affords an advantage for recognition of accented English when the talker and listener share the same native language, which may minimize age-related differences in performance with temporally altered speech. A secondary hypothesis is that native language experience with a syllable-timed language (Spanish) is advantageous for recognizing rapid English speech. Native speakers of English and Spanish completed speech recognition tasks with both accented and unaccented English sentences presented in various degrees of time compression (TC). Native English listeners showed higher or equivalent recognition of accented and unaccented English speech compared to native Spanish listeners in all TC conditions. Additionally, significant effects of aging were seen for native Spanish listeners on all tasks. Overall, the results did not support the hypotheses for a benefit of shared language experience for non-native speakers of English, particularly older native Spanish listeners.
听觉输入的退化对言语识别表现有不良影响，尤其是对年长的听众。言语中时间信息的改变，如在快速或带有外国口音的言语中，对老年人来说尤其难以解决。目前尚不清楚先前的语言经验如何调节对时间改变的句子长度言语发音的表现。主要假设是，当说话者和听众使用相同的母语时，具有外语经验对于识别带有口音的英语具有优势，这可能会最小化与时间改变的言语相关的年龄差异。次要假设是，具有音节计时语言（西班牙语）的母语经验有利于识别快速英语言语。英语和西班牙语母语者都完成了带有口音和不带口音的英语句子的言语识别任务，这些句子在不同程度的时间压缩（TC）下呈现。与母语为西班牙语的听众相比，母语为英语的听众在所有 TC 条件下对带口音和不带口音的英语言语的识别率更高或相等。此外，对于所有任务，母语为西班牙语的听众都表现出明显的年龄影响。总体而言，结果不支持非英语母语者具有共享语言经验的优势的假设，尤其是年龄较大的母语为西班牙语的听众。
