Language and Mind

List of Contributors

Daniel Duran and Natalie Lewandowski

Cognitive factors in speech production and perception: A socio-cognitive model of phonetic convergence/Kognitive Faktoren in der Sprachproduktion und Perzeption: Ein sozio-kognitives Modell der phonetischen Konvergenz

Abstract: Phonetic convergence, the phenomenon when two speakers become more alike within the course of a dialog, tells us much about the cognitive basis of speech production and perception. We present a hybrid socio-cognitive exemplar model of this phenomenon, which incorporates social as well as psychological (personality-related) and cognitive (processing skill-related) aspects and usage-based factors. A possible computational implementation of this model is briefly outlined, and its predictions and its relevance are discussed.

Keywords: Speech production-perception loop, convergence, attention

Zusammenfassung: Phonetische Konvergenz, das Phänomen bei dem sich zwei Sprecher im Verlauf eines Dialogs aneinander angleichen, verrät viel über die kognitive Basis der Sprachproduktion und -wahrnehmung. Wir präsentieren ein hybrides sozio-kognitives Exemplarmodell dieses Phänomens, das soziale wie auch psychologische (persönlichkeitsbezogene) und kognitive (verarbeitungsbezogene) Aspekte und gebrauchsbasierte Faktoren beinhaltet. Eine mögliche komputationelle Implementierung dieses Models wird kurz vorgestellt und seine Vorhersagen und Relevanz diskutiert.

Schlusselworter: Sprachproduktions-perzeptions-Schleife; Konvergenz; Aufmerksamkeit

1 Introduction

The dynamics of verbal interaction provide insights into the cognitive basis of speech processing, its underlying psychological and social factors, as well as the mental representation and organization of linguistic knowledge. The phenomenon of convergence has received much attention recently. It shows that seemingly random phonetic and linguistic variability in speech production is affected by various factors. Aspects of speech processing correlate with cognitive factors ←15 | 16→such as attention, cognitive load, and working memory (Mattys and Wiget, 2011, Zekveld and Kramer, 2014). They are also affected by personality and social factors in spoken interactions (Schweitzer et al., 2017).

In this chapter, we present a socio-cognitive model of convergence, which takes into account social factors as well as individual differences of the speakers’ linguistic experiences, psychological aspects, and also their cognitive processing skills (following the approach proposed by Dabrowska, 2016).

1.1 Exemplar theory

Exemplar theory (ET) as a model of speech perception and production has its origins in cognitive psychology. Hintzman (1986:411) describes its basic idea as follows: “[…] there is only one memory system, which stores episodic traces, […] abstract knowledge as such does not have to be stored but can be derived from the pool of traces of specific experiences at the time of retrieval.”