- Centro de Ciencia Cognitiva C3, Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Nebrija, Spain.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.
Neuropsychologia. 2021 Jul 30;158:107902. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107902. Epub 2021 May 27.
This study investigated the impact of the speaker's identity generated by the voice on sentence processing. We examined the relation between ERP components associated with the processing of the voice (N100 and P200) from voice onset and those associated with sentence processing (N400 and late positivity) from critical word onset. We presented Dutch native speakers with sentences containing true (and known) information, unknown (but true) information or information violating world knowledge and had them perform a truth evaluation task. Sentences were spoken either in a native or a foreign accent. Truth evaluation judgments were not different for statements spoken by the native-accented and the foreign-accented speakers. Reduced N100 and P200 were observed in response to the foreign speaker's voice compared to the native speaker's. While statements containing unknown information or world knowledge violations generated a larger N400 than true statements in the native condition, they were not significantly different in the foreign condition, suggesting shallower processing of foreign-accented speech. The N100 was a significant predictor for the N400 in that the reduced N100 observed for the foreign speaker compared to the native speaker was related to a smaller N400 effect. These finding suggest that the impression of the speaker that listeners rapidly form from the voice affects semantic processing, which confirms that speaker's identity and language comprehension cannot be dissociated.
这项研究调查了由语音产生的说话者身份对句子处理的影响。我们考察了与语音处理相关的 ERP 成分（语音起始时的 N100 和 P200）与与句子处理相关的成分（关键词起始时的 N400 和晚期正波）之间的关系。我们向荷兰母语者呈现包含真实（且已知）信息、未知（但真实）信息或违反世界知识信息的句子，并要求他们进行真实性评估任务。句子以母语口音或外语口音朗读。母语口音和外语口音说话者的陈述在真实性评估判断上没有差异。与母语说话者相比，外语说话者的语音引起的 N100 和 P200 减少。虽然包含未知信息或违反世界知识的陈述在母语条件下比真实陈述产生更大的 N400，但在外语条件下没有显著差异，这表明对外语口音的处理较浅。N100 是 N400 的一个显著预测指标，因为与母语说话者相比，外语说话者的 N100 减少与较小的 N400 效应有关。这些发现表明，听众从语音中迅速形成的说话者印象会影响语义处理，这证实了说话者身份和语言理解不能被分离。
