SoConDi Discussion Group

Dave Ogden will speak about "Positive Attitudes Through Better Understanding: The Role of Perceptual Adaptation in Accent-Based Discrimination."

Abstract
It has been argued that language, including accent, is one of the last domains in which discrimination is widely acceptable, and that language discrimination is a “back door” to discrimination on other traits like nationality, ethnicity, and gender (Lippi-Green, 2012). Accent discrimination resulting from negative attitudes linked to stereotypes of social groups is well-recognized in sociolinguistic research (Dragojevic & Giles, 2016; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). More recently, researchers have begun to assess how perceptual fluency, or the effortfulness that listeners feel in understanding accented speech, affects attitudes towards speakers. Disfluent perception, the experience associated with effortful information processing, leads to negative emotions and attitudes toward that information (Alter, 2013; Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009), and disfluent perception of an unfamiliar accent leads to negative evaluations of the speaker (Dragojevic & Giles, 2016). Yet listeners have a robust ability to adapt to and understand highly variable speech patterns, as shown by improvements in comprehension of non-native speech with listening experience (Baese-Berk, Bradlow, & Wright, 2013; Bradlow & Bent, 2008; Sidaras, Alexander, & Nygaard, 2009). Thus, to the extent that negative attitudes are the result of difficult comprehension, attitudes should improve with adaptation. To test this hypothesis, I have designed an experiment that measures changes in both listener comprehension and attitudes. Pilot results indicate that listeners’ objective comprehension accuracy does improve over time, but listeners do not report more ease of comprehension or more positive attitudes. I will present possible reasons for this result, as well as design changes based on pilot feedback.