Lab I direct the Speech Perception and Production Lab which is currently located at both the University of Oregon and University of Chicago. For more information on our lab, you can check out our website. In Oregon, lab is housed in the Spoken Language Research Laboratories on the 3rd floor of 1600 Millrace. At University of Chicago we are located in the Karen Landahl Center for Linguistics Research. We work as a team and are always looking for smart, talented, and interested folks to join us.
We work on a wide array of projects (some of which are highlighted below). But we are always happy to learn about new things. If you’re interested in the lab, but aren’t sure your research interests will be a good fit, feel free to check in!
If you are interested in pursuing a PhD, are a current undergraduate student interested in volunteering, working in the lab or completing an honors thesis, or are a graduate student interested in pursuing postdoctoral research with me, please e-mail me.
Selected Current Projects
Interactions between speech perception and production during second language learning
In order to successful use a language, a learner must be able to both perceive and produce that language. How do perception and production systems interact with each other? How does this relationship change as a person learns a language? How can we account for dissociations between perception and production (i.e., cases where a learner can produce something they cannot perceive and vice versa)? How might this relationship differ for a variety phonetic contrasts? How does training in one modality influence training in the other? What sorts of theoretical frameworks can best explain the relationships that emerge between the two modalities? (Portions of this work are funded by the National Science Foundation BCS 1734166 and BCS 2117665. Portions of the work are collaborations with Dr. Charlie Nagel - Iowa State University - and other portions are collaborations with Dr. Arthur Samuel - Stony Brook University/Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language.)
Neural mechanisms underlying second language learning
We know that learners are able to acquire features of a second language (e.g., new sounds) in the lab and in the classroom, under a variety of circumstances. However, the mechanisms underlying this learning have remained unclear. Further, human behavioral and neuroscientific measures lack some of the necessary precision to directly understand the neural mechanisms involved in learning. In this collaborative project with Dr. Santiago Jaramillo (Institute of Neuroscience, UOregon), we combine insights from human behavior with observations of how animals process sound to allow for precise measurement of the brain processes underlying learning to differentiate new sounds. (Portions of this work are funded by the National Science Foundation IIS-2024926.)
Variability in production and perception
A common intuition is that non-native speech is more variable than native speech; however, variability is not always a bad thing. In fact, in native speech, variability often indexes a high degree of control over the language, allowing for style-shifting, etc. Are non-native speakers always more variable than native speakers? If not, what predicts when a speaker will be variable? And what are the implications for variability in native speech on our understanding of the target for non-native speech? What are the consequences of variability for listeners?
Perception of speech in adverse conditions
Listening to speech in adverse conditions is often a challenge for listeners. Are all types of adverse conditions or variation equally difficult for listeners? What other cognitive skills are correlated with listeners' ability to perceive speech in these conditions? How do individuals improve at this task and what factors impact the speed and amount of improvement? For example, in a set of studies with Dr. Tessa Bent (Indiana University), Dr. Natalie Manley (University of Nebraska) and Dr. Erica Ryherd University of Nebraska), we are asking how hospital noise impacts perception of medically-related speech, with the long term goal of helping patients and providers communicate more efficiently. (Portions of this work are funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation).
Adaptation to unfamiliar speech and speakers
Related to the topic above, listeners have an easier time perceiving speech from talkers and accents they are familiar with. However, they are able to adapt to this speech with exposure. Part of our work in this area is to ensure that both speakers and listeners take equal responsibility for communicative success. That is, rather than expecting a non-native speaker to speak more clearly, we ask how native listeners might be better listeners. In a series of projects, we examine what factors influence this adaptation, especially for native listeners perceiving non-native speech. In a set of studies with Dr. Susannah Levi (New York University), we ask how this improved speech perception might impact higher-level processing (e.g., memory or comprehension). (Portions of this work are funded by the National Science Foundation BCS-2020805)
Expectation in speech perception
Listeners use a variety of cues when perceiving speech, integrating both knowledge- and signal-based information to determine their final percept of speech. How does the context in which we hear speech influence our perception? How do properties of the linguistic signal affect prediction and expectation differently? How does the native language of the speaker and/or listener impact prediction and expectation?
Lexically conditioned phonetic variation
Lexical properties of a word (e.g., neighborhood density or frequency) influence the phonetic properties of that word. What lexical properties, specifically, influence phonetic variation? What are the mechanisms underlying this variation?
Other projects
I am also working on a number of other projects. Some of the more developed projects include:
- Phonetic correlates of stress in Yawarana (with Spike Gildea & Natalia Cáceres; REU funded by NSF BCS 1500714)
- Phonetic Description of Three Indigenous Languages: Hanis, Milluk, and Siuslaw languages (with Spike Gildea, Ene Helms, and Patty Whereat Phillips; REU funded by NSF BCS 1500714)
- Phonetics and phonology of Jilim vowels (with Don Daniels and Zoë Haupt)
- Tone & intonation in Syuba (with Lauren Gawne and Amos Teo)
In Paros, Greece