1
|
Lin M, Ramírez-Esparza N, Chen JM. Accent Attitudes: A Review Through Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Perspectives. Psychol Rep 2024:332941241280250. [PMID: 39214965 DOI: 10.1177/00332941241280250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/04/2024]
Abstract
Interacting with speakers of different accents is a prevalent global phenomenon. Given the considerable influence of accents in daily life, it is important to conduct a comprehensive review of listeners' accent attitudes. This paper provides an integrative summary of research on accent attitudes, drawing from the Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive (ABC) perspectives. We begin by outlining the social meaning of accents and laying out the theoretical foundations of the ABC approach. Then, we organize and integrate existing research findings using the ABC framework. Next, we illustrate how the perspectives intersect by discussing pertinent research findings. Drawing from various sociocultural contexts over many years, this review underscores the significant impact of accents on people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The review concludes by discussing limitations, proposing future directions, highlighting real-world relevance, and suggesting areas for research expansion.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Merrisa Lin
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | | | - Jacqueline M Chen
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Pinheiro AP, Aucouturier JJ, Kotz SA. Neural adaptation to changes in self-voice during puberty. Trends Neurosci 2024:S0166-2236(24)00142-5. [PMID: 39214825 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2024.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2024] [Revised: 07/18/2024] [Accepted: 08/01/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024]
Abstract
The human voice is a potent social signal and a distinctive marker of individual identity. As individuals go through puberty, their voices undergo acoustic changes, setting them apart from others. In this article, we propose that hormonal fluctuations in conjunction with morphological vocal tract changes during puberty establish a sensitive developmental phase that affects the monitoring of the adolescent voice and, specifically, self-other distinction. Furthermore, the protracted maturation of brain regions responsible for voice processing, coupled with the dynamically evolving social environment of adolescents, likely disrupts a clear differentiation of the self-voice from others' voices. This socioneuroendocrine framework offers a holistic understanding of voice monitoring during adolescence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ana P Pinheiro
- Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013 Lisboa, Portugal.
| | | | - Sonja A Kotz
- Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Mauchand M, Armony JL, Pell MD. The vocal side of empathy: neural correlates of pain perception in spoken complaints. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 19:nsad075. [PMID: 38102388 PMCID: PMC10752465 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsad075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Revised: 11/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
In the extensive neuroimaging literature on empathy for pain, few studies have investigated how this phenomenon may relate to everyday social situations such as spoken interactions. The present study used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to assess how complaints, as vocal expressions of pain, are empathically processed by listeners and how these empathic responses may vary based on speakers' vocal expression and cultural identity. Twenty-four French participants listened to short utterances describing a painful event, which were either produced in a neutral-sounding or complaining voice by both in-group (French) and out-group (French Canadian) speakers. Results suggest that the perception of suffering from a complaining voice increased activity in the emotional voice areas, composed of voice-sensitive temporal regions interacting with prefrontal cortices and the amygdala. The Salience and Theory of Mind networks, associated with affective and cognitive aspects of empathy, also showed prosody-related activity and specifically correlated with behavioral evaluations of suffering by listeners. Complaints produced by in- vs out-group speakers elicited sensorimotor and default mode activity, respectively, suggesting accent-based changes in empathic perspective. These results, while reaffirming the role of key networks in tasks involving empathy, highlight the importance of vocal expression information and social categorization processes when perceiving another's suffering during social interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maël Mauchand
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A1G1, Canada
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montréal, QC H3G2A8, Canada
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva 1202, Switzerland
| | - Jorge L Armony
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montréal, QC H3G2A8, Canada
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC H4H1R3, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A1A1, Canada
| | - Marc D Pell
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A1G1, Canada
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montréal, QC H3G2A8, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Clements MF, Brübach L, Glazov J, Gu S, Kashif R, Catmur C, Georgescu AL. Measuring trust with the Wayfinding Task: Implementing a novel task in immersive virtual reality and desktop setups across remote and in-person test environments. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0294420. [PMID: 38015928 PMCID: PMC10683989 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Trust is a key feature of social relationships. Common measures of trust, questionnaires and economic games, lack ecological validity. Hence, we sought to introduce an immersive, virtual reality (VR) measure for the behavioral assessment of trust across remote and in-person settings, building on the maze task of Hale et al. (2018). Our 'Wayfinding Task' consists of an interconnected urban environment for participants to navigate on the advice of two characters of differing trustworthiness. We present four studies implementing the Wayfinding Task in remote and in-person testing environments and comparing performance across head-mounted display (HMD)-based VR and desktop setups. In each study, the trustworthiness of two virtual characters was manipulated, through either a fact sheet providing trustworthiness information, or a behavior-based trustworthiness manipulation task termed the Door Game, based on Van der Biest et al., 2020. Participants then completed the Wayfinding Task. Overall, we found that participant behavior in the Wayfinding Task reflected the relative trustworthiness of the two characters; in particular, the trustworthy character was approached more often for advice, reflecting data from our Door Game. We found mostly null results for our novel outcome measure, interpersonal distance. Remote testing successfully achieved these effects. While HMD-based VR and desktop setups both showed these effects, there was a stronger effect of trustworthiness in the HMD VR version of the task. These results have implications for the measurement of trust in behavioral settings and the use of remote and VR-based testing in social experiments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael F. Clements
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Larissa Brübach
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Group, Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Jessica Glazov
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Stephanie Gu
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Rahila Kashif
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Caroline Catmur
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Alexandra L. Georgescu
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Mauchand M, Pell MD. Complain like you mean it! How prosody conveys suffering even about innocuous events. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2023; 244:105305. [PMID: 37562118 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Revised: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 07/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
When complaining, speakers can use their voice to convey a feeling of pain, even when describing innocuous events. Rapid detection of emotive and identity features of the voice may constrain how the semantic content of complaints is processed, as indexed by N400 and P600 effects evoked by the final, pain-related word. Twenty-six participants listened to statements describing painful and innocuous events expressed in a neutral or complaining voice, produced by ingroup and outgroup accented speakers. Participants evaluated how hurt the speaker felt under EEG monitoring. Principal Component Analysis of Event-Related Potentials from the final word onset demonstrated N400 and P600 increases when complainers described innocuous vs. painful events in a neutral voice, but these effects were altered when utterances were expressed in a complaining voice. Independent of prosody, N400 amplitudes increased for complaints spoken in outgroup vs. ingroup accents. Results demonstrate that prosody and accent constrain the processing of spoken complaints as proposed in a parallel-constraint-satisfaction model.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maël Mauchand
- McGill University, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
| | - Marc D Pell
- McGill University, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Lavan N. The Time Course of Person Perception From Voices: A Behavioral Study. Psychol Sci 2023:9567976231161565. [PMID: 37227791 DOI: 10.1177/09567976231161565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Listeners spontaneously form impressions of a person from their voice: Is someone old or young? Trustworthy or untrustworthy? Some studies suggest that these impressions emerge rapidly (e.g., < 400 ms for traits), but it is unclear just how rapidly different impressions can emerge and whether the time courses differ across characteristics. I presented 618 adult listeners with voice recordings ranging from 25 ms to 800 ms in duration and asked them to rate physical (age, sex, health), trait (trustworthiness, dominance, attractiveness), and social (educatedness, poshness, professionalism) characteristics. I then used interrater agreement as an index for impression formation. Impressions of physical characteristics and dominance emerged fastest, showing high agreement after only 25 ms of exposure. In contrast, agreement for trait and social characteristics was initially low to moderate and gradually increased. Such a staggered time course suggests that there could be a temporo-perceptual hierarchy for person perception in which faster impressions could influence later ones.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Lavan
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Ji Y, Hu Y, Jiang X. Segmental and suprasegmental encoding of speaker confidence in Wuxi dialect vowels. Front Psychol 2022; 13:1028106. [PMID: 36578688 PMCID: PMC9791101 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1028106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction Wuxi dialect is a variation of Wu dialect spoken in eastern China and is characterized by a rich tonal system. Compared with standard Mandarin speakers, those of Wuxi dialect as their mother tongue can be more efficient in varying vocal cues to encode communicative meanings in speech communication. While literature has demonstrated that speakers encode high vs. low confidence in global prosodic cues at the sentence level, it is unknown how speakers' intended confidence is encoded at a more local, phonetic level. This study aimed to explore the effects of speakers' intended confidence on both prosodic and formant features of vowels in two lexical tones (the flat tone and the contour tone) of Wuxi dialect. Methods Words of a single vowel were spoken in confident, unconfident, or neutral tone of voice by native Wuxi dialect speakers using a standard elicitation procedure. Linear-mixed effects modeling and parametric bootstrapping testing were performed. Results The results showed that (1) the speakers raised both F1 and F2 in the confident level (compared with the neutral-intending expression). Additionally, F1 can distinguish between the confident and unconfident expressions; (2) Compared with the neutral-intending expression, the speakers raised mean f0, had a greater variation of f0 and prolonged pronunciation time in the unconfident level while they raised mean intensity, had a greater variation of intensity and prolonged pronunciation time in the confident level. (3) The speakers modulated mean f0 and mean intensity to a larger extent on the flat tone than the contour tone to differentiate between levels of confidence in the voice, while they modulated f0 and intensity range more only on the contour tone. Discussion These findings shed new light on the mechanisms of segmental and suprasegmental encoding of speaker confidence and lack of confidence at the vowel level, highlighting the interplay of lexical tone and vocal expression in speech communication.
Collapse
|
8
|
Bazzi L, Brouwer S, Planelles Almeida M, Foucart A. Would you respect a norm if it sounds foreign? Foreign-accented speech affects decision-making processes. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274727. [PMID: 36197922 PMCID: PMC9534425 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Does listening to a foreign-accented speaker bias native speakers' behavior? We investigated whether the accent, i.e., a foreign accent versus a native accent, in which a social norm is presented affects native speakers' decision to respect the norm (Experiments 1 and 2) and the judgement for not respecting it (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we presented 128 native Spanish speakers with new social norms, adapted from the measures imposed by the Spanish Government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., 'To avoid the spread of the Covid-19 virus, keep your distance'), whereas in Experiment 2, we presented 240 native Spanish speakers with everyday social norms learned from childhood (e.g., 'Not littering on the street or in public places'), that have an intrinsic cultural and linguistic link. In Experiment 1, the norms were uttered either in a native accent, or in a foreign accent unfamiliar to our participants to avoid stereotypes. In Experiment 2, we added an accent negatively perceived in Spain to assess the role of language attitudes on decision making. Overall, accent did not directly impact participants' final decisions, but it influenced the decision-making process. The factors that seem to underlie this effect are emotionality and language attitudes. These findings add up to the recent Foreign Accent effect observed on moral judgements and further highlight the role of the speaker's identity in decision making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luca Bazzi
- Centro de Investigación Nebrija en Cognición, Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Susanne Brouwer
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Margarita Planelles Almeida
- Centro de Investigación Nebrija en Cognición, Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, Spain
| | - Alice Foucart
- Centro de Investigación Nebrija en Cognición, Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Mauchand M, Pell MD. Listen to my feelings! How prosody and accent drive the empathic relevance of complaining speech. Neuropsychologia 2022; 175:108356. [PMID: 36037914 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Revised: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
Interpersonal communication often involves sharing our feelings with others; complaining, for example, aims to elicit empathy in listeners by vocally expressing a speaker's suffering. Despite the growing neuroscientific interest in the phenomenon of empathy, few have investigated how it is elicited in real time by vocal signals (prosody), and how this might be affected by interpersonal factors, such as a speaker's cultural background (based on their accent). To investigate the neural processes at play when hearing spoken complaints, twenty-six French participants listened to complaining and neutral utterances produced by in-group French and out-group Québécois (i.e., French-Canadian) speakers. Participants rated how hurt the speaker felt while their cerebral activity was monitored with electroencephalography (EEG). Principal Component Analysis of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) taken at utterance onset showed culture-dependent time courses of emotive prosody processing. The high motivational relevance of ingroup complaints increased the P200 response compared to all other utterance types; in contrast, outgroup complaints selectively elicited an early posterior negativity in the same time window, followed by an increased N400 (due to ongoing effort to derive affective meaning from outgroup voices). Ingroup neutral utterances evoked a late negativity which may reflect re-analysis of emotively less salient, but culturally relevant ingroup speech. Results highlight the time-course of neurocognitive responses that contribute to emotive speech processing for complaints, establishing the critical role of prosody as well as social-relational factors (i.e., cultural identity) on how listeners are likely to "empathize" with a speaker.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maël Mauchand
- McGill University, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
| | - Marc D Pell
- McGill University, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Thomas T, Martin C, Caffarra S. An ERP investigation of accented isolated single word processing. Neuropsychologia 2022; 175:108349. [PMID: 35987342 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Revised: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies show that there are differences in native and non-native speech processing (Lev-Ari, 2018). However, less is known about the differences between processing native and dialectal accents. Is dialectal processing more similar to foreign or native speech? To address this, two theories have been proposed. The Perceptual Distance Hypothesis states that the mechanisms underlying dialectal accent processing are attenuated versions of those of foreign (Clarke & Garrett, 2004). Conversely, the Different Processes Hypothesis argues that the mechanisms of foreign and dialectal accent processing are qualitatively different (Floccia et al., 2009). The present study addresses these hypotheses. Electroencephalographic data was recorded from 25 participants who listened to 40 isolated words in different accents. Event-Related Potential mean amplitudes were extracted: P2 [150-250 ms], PMN [250-400 ms] and N400 [400-600 ms]. Support for the Different Processes Hypothesis was found in different time windows. Results show that early processing mechanisms distinguish only between native and non-native speech, with a reduced P2 amplitude for foreign accent processing, supporting the Different Processes Hypothesis. Furthermore, later processing mechanisms show a similar binary difference in the processing of the accents, with a larger PMN negativity elicited in the foreign accent than the others, further supporting the Different Processes Hypothesis. Results contribute to the understanding of single word processing, in which it is uniquely difficult to extract acoustic characteristics from foreign accent, and in which foreign accented speech is associated with the largest cost, as compared to native and dialectal speech, of phonological matching between representations and acoustic input.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Trisha Thomas
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) Bilbao, Spain.
| | - Clara Martin
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; Basque Foundation for Science (Ikerbasque), Spain
| | - Sendy Caffarra
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; University School of Medicine, 291 Campus Drive, Li Ka Shing Building, Stanford, CA 94305 5101, USA; Stanford University Graduate School of Education, 485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 287,41125 Modena, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Gosselin L, Martin CD, González Martín A, Caffarra S. When A Nonnative Accent Lets You Spot All the Errors: Examining the Syntactic Interlanguage Benefit. J Cogn Neurosci 2022; 34:1650-1669. [PMID: 35802598 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
In our continuously globalizing world, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communications are far from exceptional. A wealth of research has indicated that the processing of nonnative-accented speech can be challenging for native listeners, both at the level of phonology (e.g., Munro & Derwing, 1995) and syntax (Caffarra & Martin, 2019). However, few online studies have examined the underpinnings of accented speech recognition from the perspective of the "nonnative listener," even though behavioral studies indicate that accented input may be easier to process for such individuals (i.e., the interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit; Bent & Bradlow, 2003). The current EEG study first examined the phonological and syntactic analysis of nonnative-accented speech among nonnative listeners. As such, 30 English learners of Spanish listened to syntactically correct and incorrect Spanish sentences produced in native and nonnative-accented Spanish. The violation in the incorrect sentences was caused by errors that are typical (i.e., gender errors; *la color) or atypical for English learners of Spanish (i.e., number errors; *los color). Results indicated that nonnative listeners elicit a phonological mismatch negativity (PMN) when attending to speech produced by a native Spanish speaker. Furthermore, the nonnative listeners showed a P600 for all grammatical violations, indicating that they repair all errors regardless of their typicality or the accent in which they are produced. Follow-up analyses compared our novel data to the data of native listeners from the methodologically identical precursor study (Caffarra & Martin, 2019). These analyses showed that native and nonnative listeners exhibit directionally opposite PMN effects; whereas natives exhibited a larger PMN for English-accented Spanish, nonnatives displayed a larger PMN in response to native Spanish utterances (a classic interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit). An additional difference was observed at the syntactic level: Whereas natives repaired only atypical number errors when they were English-accented, nonnative participants exhibited a P600 in response to all English-accented syntactic errors, regardless of their typicality (a syntactic interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit). Altogether, these results suggest that accented speech is not inherently difficult to process; in fact, nonnatives may benefit from the presence of a nonnative accent. Thus, our data provide some of the first electrophysiological evidence supporting the existence of the classic interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit and its novel syntactic counterpart.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Clara D Martin
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia, Spain.,Ikerbasque-The Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | | | - Sendy Caffarra
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia, Spain.,Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA.,University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Lorenzoni A, Pagliarini E, Vespignani F, Navarrete E. Pragmatic and knowledge range lenience towards foreigners. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2022; 226:103572. [PMID: 35339924 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2021] [Revised: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Foreign-accented speech categorizes the speaker as an outgroup individual with a lower linguistic competence and a different knowledge heritage from a native speaker. Here we explore whether the identification of an individual as a native or a foreign speaker has an impact on trivia statement judgments, regardless of her foreign-accented speech. Italian native participants first read a bio description of a native and of a foreign speaker and then rate to what degree a series of statements associated with each of the speakers makes sense (Studies 1 and 2) or are true (Study 3). Importantly, the fluency processing between native and foreign speakers was kept constant by using a written presentation of the materials. Under-informative statements such as 'Some frogs are amphibians' were tested in Study 1. The results of Study 1 show more acceptable judgments when the sentences were associated with the foreign speaker. Unknown facts about world knowledge such as 'Butterflies do not see gray' were tested in Studies 2 and 3. The results show more acceptable (Study 2) and more true (Study 3) judgments when the sentences were associated with the foreign speaker. In addition, in Study 3 the foreign speaker was considered more trustworthy than the native speaker in a rating test at the end of the main judgment-sentence task. Our findings show that linguistic identity per se has an impact on evaluation judgments, suggesting that message interpretation cannot be dissociated from who is communicating the message.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Lorenzoni
- Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy.
| | - Elena Pagliarini
- Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
| | - Francesco Vespignani
- Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
| | - Eduardo Navarrete
- Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Graham E, Halabi S, Nadler A. Ingroup Bias in Healthcare Contexts: Israeli-Jewish Perceptions of Arab and Jewish Doctors. Front Psychol 2021; 12:771028. [PMID: 34975662 PMCID: PMC8716498 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.771028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The influence of group membership on perceptions of outgroup members has been extensively studied in various contexts. This research has indicated a strong tendency for ingroup bias – preferring the ingroup over the outgroup. We seek to further expand on the growing literature regarding the effects of group membership within healthcare contexts. Focusing on the Arab-Jewish context in Israel, the present study explored the influence of group membership on Israeli-Jewish participants’ evaluations when exposed to potential malpractice. Specifically, participants (n = 165) read a description of an Israeli-Jewish or Israeli-Arab physician who was either culpable or non-culpable of malpractice. Consistent with our predictions, findings generally indicated more negative evaluations of the Israeli-Arab physician, regardless of objective culpability. We conclude by discussing the study’s limitations and implications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elliot Graham
- Department of Behavioral Sciences, Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, Yaffo, Israel
- *Correspondence: Elliot Graham,
| | - Samer Halabi
- Department of Behavioral Sciences, Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, Yaffo, Israel
| | - Arie Nadler
- Department of Psychological sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Boduch-Grabka K, Lev-Ari S. Exposing Individuals to Foreign Accent Increases their Trust in What Nonnative Speakers Say. Cogn Sci 2021; 45:e13064. [PMID: 34779531 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2021] [Revised: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
People are more likely to believe things that are easier to process. Foreign-accented speech is relatively difficult to process, and prior research shows that, correspondingly, people believe information less when it is delivered in a foreign accent rather than a native accent. Here we show that a short exposure to foreign accent can reduce this bias, and that the reduction in bias is due to improvement in the processing of the accent. These results demonstrate how cognitive aspects of language processing can influence attitudes. The results also suggest that ensuring exposure to foreign accent can reduce discrimination against nonnative speakers.
Collapse
|
15
|
Caballero JA, Mauchand M, Jiang X, Pell MD. Cortical processing of speaker politeness: Tracking the dynamic effects of voice tone and politeness markers. Soc Neurosci 2021; 16:423-438. [PMID: 34102955 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1938667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Information in the tone of voice alters social impressions and underlying brain activity as listeners evaluate the interpersonal relevance of utterances. Here, we presented requests that expressed politeness distinctions through the voice (polite/rude) and explicit linguistic markers (half of the requests began with Please). Thirty participants performed a social perception task (rating friendliness) while their electroencephalogram was recorded. Behaviorally, vocal politeness strategies had a much stronger influence on the perceived friendliness than the linguistic marker. Event-related potentials revealed rapid effects of (im)polite voices on cortical activity prior to ~300 ms; P200 amplitudes increased for polite versus rude voices, suggesting that the speaker's polite stance was registered as more salient in our task. At later stages, politeness distinctions encoded by the speaker's voice and their use of Please interacted, modulating activity in the N400 (300-500 ms) and late positivity (600-800 ms) time windows. Patterns of results suggest that initial attention deployment to politeness cues is rapidly influenced by the motivational significance of a speaker's voice. At later stages, processes for integrating vocal and lexical information resulted in increased cognitive effort to reevaluate utterances with ambiguous/contradictory cues. The potential influence of social anxiety on the P200 effect is also discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan A Caballero
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders 2001 McGill College, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Maël Mauchand
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders 2001 McGill College, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Xiaoming Jiang
- Shanghai International Studies University, Institute of Linguistics (IoL), Shanghai, China
| | - Marc D Pell
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders 2001 McGill College, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Foucart A, Hartsuiker RJ. Are foreign-accented speakers that 'incredible'? The impact of the speaker's indexical properties on sentence processing. Neuropsychologia 2021; 158:107902. [PMID: 34052231 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2020] [Revised: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
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.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alice Foucart
- - Centro de Ciencia Cognitiva C3, Facultad de Lenguas y Educación, Universidad Nebrija, Spain.
| | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Goupil L, Aucouturier JJ. Distinct signatures of subjective confidence and objective accuracy in speech prosody. Cognition 2021; 212:104661. [PMID: 33756151 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2020] [Revised: 11/02/2020] [Accepted: 03/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Whether speech prosody truly and naturally reflects a speaker's subjective confidence, rather than other dimensions such as objective accuracy, is unclear. Here, using a new approach combing psychophysics with acoustic analysis and automatic classification of verbal reports, we tease apart the contributions of sensory evidence, accuracy, and subjective confidence to speech prosody. We find that subjective confidence and objective accuracy are distinctly reflected in the loudness, duration and intonation of verbal reports. Strikingly, we show that a speaker's accuracy is encoded in speech prosody beyond their own metacognitive awareness, and that it can be automatically decoded from this information alone with performances up to 60%. These findings demonstrate that confidence and accuracy have separable prosodic signatures that are manifested with different timings, and on different acoustic dimensions. Thus, both subjective mental states of confidence, and objective states related to competence, can be directly inferred from this natural behavior.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Louise Goupil
- Laboratoire STMS, UMR 9912, CNRS/IRCAM/SU, Paris, France; University of East London, London, United Kingdom.
| | - Jean-Julien Aucouturier
- Laboratoire STMS, UMR 9912, CNRS/IRCAM/SU, Paris, France; FEMTO-ST, UMR 6174, CNRS/UBFC/ENSMM/UTBM, Besançon, France
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Mauchand M, Pell MD. Emotivity in the Voice: Prosodic, Lexical, and Cultural Appraisal of Complaining Speech. Front Psychol 2021; 11:619222. [PMID: 33536983 PMCID: PMC7848127 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.619222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Emotive speech is a social act in which a speaker displays emotional signals with a specific intention; in the case of third-party complaints, this intention is to elicit empathy in the listener. The present study assessed how the emotivity of complaints was perceived in various conditions. Participants listened to short statements describing painful or neutral situations, spoken with a complaining or neutral prosody, and evaluated how complaining the speaker sounded. In addition to manipulating features of the message, social-affiliative factors which could influence complaint perception were varied by adopting a cross-cultural design: participants were either Québécois (French Canadian) or French and listened to utterances expressed by both cultural groups. The presence of a complaining tone of voice had the largest effect on participant evaluations, while the nature of statements had a significant, but smaller influence. Marginal effects of culture on explicit evaluation of complaints were found. A multiple mediation analysis suggested that mean fundamental frequency was the main prosodic signal that participants relied on to detect complaints, though most of the prosody effect could not be linearly explained by acoustic parameters. These results highlight a tacit agreement between speaker and listener: what characterizes a complaint is how it is said (i.e., the tone of voice), more than what it is about or who produces it. More generally, the study emphasizes the central importance of prosody in expressive speech acts such as complaints, which are designed to strengthen social bonds and supportive responses in interactive behavior. This intentional and interpersonal aspect in the communication of emotions needs to be further considered in research on affect and communication.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maël Mauchand
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Marc D Pell
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Abstract
Neurocognitive models (e.g., Schirmer & Kotz, 2006) have helped to characterize how listeners incrementally derive meaning from vocal expressions of emotion in spoken language, what neural mechanisms are involved at different processing stages, and their relative time course. But how can these insights be applied to communicative situations in which prosody serves a predominantly interpersonal function? This comment examines recent data highlighting the dynamic interplay of prosody and language, when vocal attributes serve the sociopragmatic goals of the speaker or reveal interpersonal information that listeners use to construct a mental representation of what is being communicated. Our comment serves as a beacon to researchers interested in how the neurocognitive system “makes sense” of socioemotive aspects of prosody.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marc D. Pell
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Canada
| | - Sonja A. Kotz
- Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Immediate online use of prosody reveals the ironic intentions of a speaker: neurophysiological evidence. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 21:74-92. [DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00849-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
|
21
|
Vergis N, Jiang X, Pell MD. Neural responses to interpersonal requests: Effects of imposition and vocally-expressed stance. Brain Res 2020; 1740:146855. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2019] [Revised: 04/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/23/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
|
22
|
Rigoulot S, Jiang X, Vergis N, Pell MD. Neurophysiological correlates of sexually evocative speech. Biol Psychol 2020; 154:107909. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2019] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
|