Not just a function of function words: Distal speech rate influences perception of prosodically weak syllables

Listeners resolve ambiguities in speech perception using multiple sources, including non-local or distal speech rate (i.e., the speech rate of material surrounding a particular region). The ability to resolve ambiguities is particularly important for the perception of casual, everyday productions, which are often produced using phonetically reduced forms. Here, we examine whether the distal speech rate effect is specific to a lexical class of words and/or to particular lexical or phonological contexts. In Experiment 1, we examined whether distal speech rate influenced perception of phonologically similar content words differing in number of syllables (e.g., form/forum). In Experiment 2, we used both transcription and word-monitoring tasks to examine whether distal speech rate influenced perception of a reduced vowel, causing lexical reorganization (e.g., cease, see us). Distal speech rate influenced perception of lexical content in both experiments. This demonstrates that distal rate influences perception of a lexical class other than function words and affects perception in a variety of phonological and lexical contexts. These results support a view that distal speech rate is a pervasive source of information with far-reaching consequences for perception of lexical content and word segmentation.