TY - JOUR
T1 - Does voicing affect patterns of transfer in nonnative cluster learning?
AU - Cheng, Hung Shao
AU - Buchwald, Adam
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grants K01DC014298 and R01DC018589, awarded to Adam Buchwald. The authors would like to thank Maria Grigos and Tara McAllister for their comments and input on this study and Megan Burns, Alexandra Gordon, Izabela Grzebyk, Kevin Tjokro, and Yulia White for their help on data collection and analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated that speakers can learn novel speech sequences, although the content and specificity of the learned speech motor representations remain incompletely understood. We investigated these representations by examining transfer of learning in the context of nonnative consonant clusters. Specifically, we investigated whether American English speakers who learn to produce either voiced or voiceless stop–stop clusters (e.g., /gd/ or /kt/) exhibit transfer to the other voicing pattern. Method: Each participant (n = 34) was trained on disyllabic nonwords beginning with either voiced (/gd/, /db/, /gb/) or voiceless (/kt/, /kp/, /tp/) onset consonant clusters (e.g., /gdimu/, /ktaksnæm/) in a practice-based speech motor learning paradigm. All participants were tested on both voiced and voiceless clusters at baseline (prior to practice) and in two retention sessions (20 min and 2 days after practice). We compared changes in cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration between baseline and each retention session to evaluate learning (performance on the trained clusters) and transfer (performance on the untrained clusters). Results: Participants in both training conditions improved with respect to cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration for the clusters they practiced on. A bidirectional transfer pattern was found, such that participants also improved the cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration for the clusters with the other untrained voicing pattern. Post hoc analyses also revealed that improvement in the production of untrained stop–fricative clusters that originally were added as filler items. Conclusion: Our findings suggest the learned speech motor representations may encode the information about the coordination of oral articulators for stop–stop clusters independently from information about the coordination of oral and laryngeal articulators.
AB - Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated that speakers can learn novel speech sequences, although the content and specificity of the learned speech motor representations remain incompletely understood. We investigated these representations by examining transfer of learning in the context of nonnative consonant clusters. Specifically, we investigated whether American English speakers who learn to produce either voiced or voiceless stop–stop clusters (e.g., /gd/ or /kt/) exhibit transfer to the other voicing pattern. Method: Each participant (n = 34) was trained on disyllabic nonwords beginning with either voiced (/gd/, /db/, /gb/) or voiceless (/kt/, /kp/, /tp/) onset consonant clusters (e.g., /gdimu/, /ktaksnæm/) in a practice-based speech motor learning paradigm. All participants were tested on both voiced and voiceless clusters at baseline (prior to practice) and in two retention sessions (20 min and 2 days after practice). We compared changes in cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration between baseline and each retention session to evaluate learning (performance on the trained clusters) and transfer (performance on the untrained clusters). Results: Participants in both training conditions improved with respect to cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration for the clusters they practiced on. A bidirectional transfer pattern was found, such that participants also improved the cluster accuracy and burst-to-burst duration for the clusters with the other untrained voicing pattern. Post hoc analyses also revealed that improvement in the production of untrained stop–fricative clusters that originally were added as filler items. Conclusion: Our findings suggest the learned speech motor representations may encode the information about the coordination of oral articulators for stop–stop clusters independently from information about the coordination of oral and laryngeal articulators.
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U2 - 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00240
DO - 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00240
M3 - Article
C2 - 33909447
AN - SCOPUS:85108742201
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 64
SP - 2103
EP - 2120
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 6s
ER -