Perceptual Effects of Geographical Variance in (Micro-)Prosodic Properties

1. Perceptie-effecten van geografische variantie in (micro-)prosodische eigenschappen Marie Nilsenová Communicatie- en informatie Wetenschappen Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen Universiteit van Tilburg

2. Background • Clear correlation between age, body size and F0, as well as timbre (Greisbach 1999, Kraus, Freyberg & Morsella 2002) • Listeners should be able to exploit that knowledge, eg reflecting on the Frequency Code: deeper <-> bigger/taller • But listener estimates not as good as could be expected, also correlation not always perfect (Cohen et al 1980, Gunter & Manning 1982, van Dommelen & Moxness 1995) • Free (non-linguistic) variation with social, geographical distribution? • Expectation: listeners should perform better when estimating speakers in their own variant compared to another variant

3. Methodology • 16 speakers (8 male, 8 female/8 B-Dutch, 8 B-Flemish) reading the same short text (newspaper article) • 2 groups of participants - Dutch, Flemish • Task: estimate speaker’s length, weight, age and the ‘pleasantness’ of the voice (operationalized as 3 properties; Cronbach’s  >.65); fixed time • Also report if speaker Dutch or Flemish

4. Speaker comparison: Female

5. Speaker comparison: Male

6. Questionnaire • Wat vindt u van deze stem? Plezierig      Onplezierig Vriendelijk      Onvriendelijk Aangenaam      Vervelend Wat is volgens u de leeftijd van de spreker? jaar Wat is volgens u de lengte van de spreker? cm Wat is volgens u het gewicht van de spreker? kg De spreker is Vlaams  Nederlands 

7. Design • Two conditions: normal and reversed speech (Audacity) • Purpose of the reversed speech condition: • to assure that speakers do not adapt to the variant they hear based on previous experience; • also, to examine if adaptation to own variant also relevant for perception of an ‘unknown’ language

8. Participants (N=179)

9. Measure of accuracy • Index of accuracy (Kraus, Freyberg & Morsella 2002): the average of the absolute difference between estimated and actual values (AD) - the mean of the absolute differences between judges’ estimates of speakers’ values on an attribute and the speakers’ actual value • The AD measure indexes judges’ average error in estimating a particular attribute • It answers the question “How close is the average estimate of attribute X to the actual value of X?” • Absolute accuracy - the sum of the absolute difference between estimated and actual values (AA)

10. Results (Length) • Normal condition (AD): interaction effect between speakers’ variant and gender, and listeners’ variant (p<.05, partial eta squared = .127) in the predicted direction • Reversed condition (AD): main effect of speakers’ variant (p<.05, partial eta squared = .058): Dutch speakers estimated more accurately than Flemish speakers

13. Results (Pleasantness) • Normal speech condition: interaction effect of speaker’s variant and listener’s variant (p<.01, partial eta squared = .135) - listeners prefered their own variant • Reversed speech condition: clear main effect of speaker’s variant (p<.001, partial eta squared =.535) - reversed Flemish prefered to reversed Dutch

14. Conclusion • Accuracy of length estimation higher in normal speech condition for own variant • Result not translated into the reversed speech condition • Clear preference for speakers of own variant • Listeners generally reported that estimating weight difficult • Other measures of accuracy to explore the directions of the accuracy judgments

15. Thanks to: Hanne Kloots Machiel Debets Julia Hirschberg Marc Swerts