Semantic focus mediates pitch auditory feedback control in phrasal prosody

Allison I. Hilger*, Jennifer Cole, Charles Larson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of semantic focus on pitch auditory feedback control in the production of phrasal prosody through an experiment using pitch-shifted auditory feedback. We hypothesized that pitch-shift responses would be mediated by semantic focus because highly informative focus types, such as corrective focus, impose more specific constraints on the prosodic form of a phrase and require greater consistency in the production of pitch excursions compared to sentences with no such focus elements. Twenty-eight participants produced sentences with and without corrective focus while their auditory feedback was briefly and unexpectedly perturbed in pitch by +/−200 cents at the start of the sentence. The magnitude and latency of the reflexive pitch-shift responses were measured as a reflection of auditory feedback control. Our results matched our prediction that corrective focus would elicit larger pitch-shift responses, supporting our hypothesis that auditory feedback control is mediated by semantic focus.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)328-345
Number of pages18
JournalLanguage, Cognition and Neuroscience
Volume38
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Funding

This research was funded by the NIH NIDCD F31 DC017877-01A1 and the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. We would like to thank the participants for their time and effort to participate in this study. This work was supported by Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders: [Grant Number]; the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders: [Grant Number DC017877-01A1]. This research was funded by the NIH NIDCD F31 DC017877-01A1 and the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. We would like to thank the participants for their time and effort to participate in this study.

Keywords

  • Prosody
  • auditory feedback
  • feedback perturbations
  • intonation
  • pitch shifts
  • semantic focus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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