Individual differences in temporal predictions in speech: word segmentation and conversational turn-taking

When processing speech, listeners use a variety of cues,
including speech rate, to make predictions about upcoming
linguistic content. How such predictions are made is likely to
be influenced by factors that vary between listeners, however:
specifically, individual differences in working memory,
attention, and general prosodic processing may all be
associated with variation in the use of linguistic predictions.
A three-part study will test whether individual cognitive factors
affect listeners' ability to track speech rate and, if so, whether
certain listeners are better at using timing cues to predict both
upcoming word boundaries and conversational turn-taking.
Experiment 1 will test for associations between listeners'
attention, working memory and prosodic processing and their
ability to track speech rate by means of a finger-tapping task.
Experiment 2 will investigate whether these individual
variations influence listeners' ability to predict upcoming word
boundaries (by finding a target probe in a string of nonsense
syllables) or interlocutors' turn-taking (by button pressing as
soon as a turn transition is detected in recorded conversation).
Experiment 3 will adapt tasks used in the second experiment,
with the addition of background noise, to identify whether
individual differences predict real-world listening performance.
We expect that individual difference in cognition and prosodic
processing will affect listeners' ability to track speech rate and
thus to make predictions that enhance perception and
understanding of speech. These findings will point to means of
support for speech-based interactions in infants with disorders
of language development or in adults with acquired
neurolinguistics impairments.