title: Achieving constancy in spoken word identification: time course of talker normalization.
abstract: This event-related potential (ERP) study examines the time course of context-dependent talker normalization in spoken word identification. We found three ERP components, the N1 (100-220 ms), the N400 (250-500 ms) and the Late Positive Component (500-800 ms), which are conjectured to involve (a) auditory processing, (b) talker normalization and lexical retrieval, and (c) decisional process/lexical selection respectively. Talker normalization likely occurs in the time window of the N400 and overlaps with the lexical retrieval process. Compared with the nonspeech context, the speech contexts, no matter whether they have semantic content or not, enable listeners to tune to a talker's pitch range. In this way, speech contexts induce more efficient talker normalization during the activation of potential lexical candidates and lead to more accurate selection of the intended word in spoken word identification.
authors.affiliation: Language and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. yzcelia@gmail.com
authors.forename: Caicai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: William S-Y
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cantonese; Context; Event-related potential; Late Positive Component; Level tones; N1; N400; Talker normalization; Tone perception