Non-native listeners' recognition of high-variability speech using PRESTO.

Area of Science:

• Speech Perception
• Auditory Neuroscience
• Second Language Acquisition

Background:

• Natural speech variability presents challenges for spoken word recognition.
• Non-native listeners may struggle more with high-variability speech due to less L2 experience.
• Understanding individual differences in non-native speech recognition is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of high-variability sentences on non-native speech recognition.
• To identify sources of individual differences in non-native speech recognition abilities.

Main Methods:

• Two sentence recognition tasks (high-variability PRESTO, low-variability HINT) were used.
• Participants completed tasks assessing indexical processing, vocabulary, and neurocognitive abilities (e.g., BRIEF-A).
• Non-native Mandarin speakers were compared to native English speakers.

Main Results:

• Non-native listeners performed significantly worse on high-variability sentences (PRESTO) compared to low-variability sentences (HINT).
• Non-native listeners showed lower scores than native listeners on both tasks, with larger differences on PRESTO.
• Individual non-native performance on PRESTO correlated with executive function (BRIEF-A) but not with dialect, talker discrimination, or vocabulary.

Conclusions:

• High-variability sentences in noise are particularly difficult for non-native listeners.
• Challenges are linked to L2 experience, including sociolinguistic aspects.
• Individual differences in non-native listeners' performance relate to core neurocognitive abilities.