Faculty
Social Science
Supervisor Name
Laura Batterink
Keywords
statistical learning, speech perception, learning
Description
Numerous studies have focused on investigating statistical learning (SL), the process of extracting patterns and regularities from environmental stimuli. A number of these studies have examined the SL of both speech and non-speech sounds, such as tones; however, it remains inconclusive whether SL operates differently across these two types of stimuli, or whether it operates in a domain-general manner. This study aimed to explore whether there is a speech-specific mechanism underlying the operation of SL, or if SL operates similarly across speech and non-speech. To investigate this, the learning of participants who perceived sine-wave speech (SWS), a manipulated form of speech, as speech was compared to the learning of participants who perceived it as non-speech. Results indicated that the SL of participants who perceived the SWS as speech was not significantly higher than that of participants who perceived it as non-speech. This provides evidence that SL operates in a domain-general manner, suggesting there is not a speech-specific mechanism that provides a boost in learning for speech underlying SL.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Investigating the Role of Speech-Specific Mechanisms in Statistical Learning
Numerous studies have focused on investigating statistical learning (SL), the process of extracting patterns and regularities from environmental stimuli. A number of these studies have examined the SL of both speech and non-speech sounds, such as tones; however, it remains inconclusive whether SL operates differently across these two types of stimuli, or whether it operates in a domain-general manner. This study aimed to explore whether there is a speech-specific mechanism underlying the operation of SL, or if SL operates similarly across speech and non-speech. To investigate this, the learning of participants who perceived sine-wave speech (SWS), a manipulated form of speech, as speech was compared to the learning of participants who perceived it as non-speech. Results indicated that the SL of participants who perceived the SWS as speech was not significantly higher than that of participants who perceived it as non-speech. This provides evidence that SL operates in a domain-general manner, suggesting there is not a speech-specific mechanism that provides a boost in learning for speech underlying SL.