The impact of speaker accent on discourse processing: A frequency investigation

Previous studies indicate differences in native and foreign speech processing (Lev-Ari, 2018), with mixed evidence for differences between dialectal and foreign accent processing (Adank, Evans, Stuart-Smith, & Scott, 2009; Floccia et al., 2006, 2009; Girard, Floccia, & Goslin, 2008). Two theories have been proposed: The Perceptual Distance Hypothesis suggests that dialectal accent processing is an attenuated version of foreign accent processing (Clarke & Garrett, 2004), while the Different Processes Hypothesis argues that foreign and dialectal accents are processed via distinct mechanisms (Floccia, Butler, Girard, & Goslin, 2009). A recent single-word ERP study suggested flexibility in these mechanisms (Thomas, Martin, & Caffarra, 2022). The present study deepens this investigation by investigating differences in native, dialectal, and foreign accent processing across frequency bands during extended speech. Electroencephalographic data was recorded from 30 participants who listened to dialogues of approximately six minutes spoken in native, dialectal and foreign accents. Power spectral density estimation (1–35 Hz) was performed. Linear mixed models were done in frequency windows of particular relevance to discourse processing. Frequency bands associated with phoneme [gamma], syllable [theta], and prosody [delta] were considered along with those of general cognitive mechanisms [alpha and beta]. Results show power differences in the Gamma frequency range. While in higher frequency ranges foreign accent processing is differentiated from power amplitudes of native and dialectal accent processing, in low frequencies we do not see any accent-related power amplitude modulations. This suggests that there may be a difference in phoneme processing for native accent types and foreign accent, while we speculate that top-down mechanisms during discourse processing may mitigate the effects observed with short units of speech.