1) The document examines how reading ability influences the ability to learn talker-specific phonetic details through perceptual learning. 2) An experiment with average and advanced readers found that advanced readers had a faster rate of learning talkers' voices during training and showed greater benefits of talker familiarity on word recognition after training compared to average readers. 3) The results suggest that individual differences in talker-specific perceptual learning are related to differences in reading abilities.

1. Reading ability influences perceptual
learning of talker-specific phonetic detail
Katlyn Salvador1,2, Shayna Marmon1, and Rachel M. Theodore1
1Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
University of Connecticut
2Department of Psychology
University of Connecticut

2. Introduction
 The acoustic signal of speech cues content of the message,
in addition to identity of the talker (Murray & Arnott, 1993)
 Research indicates a tight link between the perception of
“who is talking” and “what is being said”
 Comprehension benefits are shown for familiar talkers in
comparison to unfamiliar talkers (Nygaard et al., 1994)
 Voices in a listener’s native language are easier to discriminate
than voices heard in a nonnative language (Perrachione &
Wong, 2007)

3. Introduction
 Phonological knowledge, knowledge about a language’s sound
structure, mediates the native language benefit for talker recognition
 Adults with reading disability (i.e., dyslexia) show poor talker
identification even in their native language (Perrachione, Del Tufo, &
Gabriei, 2011)
 Even among unimpaired readers, reading ability shows a gradient
influence on talker identification for native and non-native speakers
(Kadam, Orena, Theodore, & Polka, in preparation)
Does reading ability influence the talker familiarity
effect for word recognition?

4. Methods: Participants
 30 adults (11 males, 19 females), 18 – 23 years old
 Native, monolingual speakers of American English with no
history of speech, language, or hearing disorders
 Each completed a standardized assessment battery to
examine nonverbal intelligence, memory, reading sub-
skills, and reading comprehension
 Assigned to either the “average” reading group or the
“advanced” reading group based on a median split of
composite reading scores

5. Methods: Auditory Stimuli
The lists were arranged so that half the words were presented during both training and test
sessions, while the other half were only presented during test
All items were equated
for root-mean-square
amplitude

6. Methods: Visual Stimuli

7. Procedure

8. Results: Training
• Mean percent correct talker identification was
calculated separately for each training session,
collapsing over the six talkers presented during
training (Figure 1)
• Performance improved over the three training sessions
for each reading group
• The rate of talker learning was faster for the advanced
readers compared to the average readers.
• Performance did not differ between the two groups on
the last day of training

9. Figure 1

10. Results: Test
• For pre-test and post-test, mean percent correct word
identification was calculated separately for trained and novel
items (Figure 2)
• Results of an ANOVA showed a significant 2-way interaction
between reading group and test time (Figure 3), but no 3-
way interaction between reading group, test time, and trial
type
• The two groups did not differ at pre-test, but at post-test the
advanced readers showed improved word recognition
compared to the average readers
• The degree of improvement at post-test was correlated with
the composite reading score (Figure 4)

11. Figure 2

12. Figure 3

13. Figure 4

14. Conclusions
• Compared to average readers, advanced readers
showed faster talker learning rate during training and
greater talker familiarity effects on word recognition at
test
• These findings suggest that some individual variation
in talker-specific perceptual learning reflects
differences in skills related to reading ability
• Future work should address the neural basis of
interactions between voice recognition and language
comprehension abilities

15. References
Kadam, M., Orena, A.J., Theodore, R. M., & Polka, L. (In press). Gradient effects of reading
ability on native and non-native talker identification. Proceedings of the 18th
International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.
Murray, I. R., Arnott, J. L. (1993). Toward the simulation of emotion in synthetic speech: A
review of the literature on human vocal emotion. Journal of the Acoustical Society
of America, 93,1097-1108.
Nygaard, L. C., Sommers, M. S., & Pisoni, D. B. (1994). Speech perception as a talker-
contingent process. Psychological Science, 5, 42 – 46.
Perrachione, T. K., Del Tufo, S. N., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2011). Human voice recognition
depends on language ability. Science, 29, 545.
Perrachione, T. K., & Wong, P. C. M. (2007) Learning to recognize speakers of a non-native
language: Implications for the functional organization of human auditory cortex.
Neuropsychologia, 45,1899-1910.