@article{TEXTUAL,
      recid = {8429},
      author = {Yu, Alan C. L.},
      title = {Perceptual Compensation Is Correlated with Individuals'  “Autistic” Traits: Implications for Models of Sound Change},
      journal = {PLOS ONE},
      address = {2010-08-19},
      number = {TEXTUAL},
      abstract = {<p>Variation is a ubiquitous feature of speech. Listeners  must take into account context-induced variation to recover  the interlocutor's intended message. When listeners fail to  normalize for context-induced variation properly, deviant  percepts become seeds for new perceptual and production  norms. In question is how deviant percepts accumulate in a  systematic fashion to give rise to sound change (i.e., new  pronunciation norms) within a given speech community. The  present study investigated subjects' classification of /s/  and /<img class="inline-graphic"  src="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=thumbnail&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011950.e001"  alt="" />/ before /a/ or /u/ spoken by a male or a female  voice. Building on modern cognitive theories of  autism-spectrum condition, which see variation in  autism-spectrum condition in terms of individual  differences in cognitive processing style, we established a  significant correlation between individuals' normalization  for phonetic context (i.e., whether the following vowel is  /a/ or /u/) and talker voice variation (i.e., whether the  talker is male or female) in speech and their  “autistic” traits, as measured by the Autism  Spectrum Quotient (AQ). In particular, our mixed-effect  logistic regression models show that women with low AQ  (i.e., the least “autistic”) do not normalize  for phonetic coarticulation as much as men and high AQ  women. This study provides first direct evidence that  variability in human's ability to compensate for  context-induced variations in speech perceptually is  governed by the individual's sex and cognitive processing  style. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that  the systematic infusion of new linguistic variants (i.e.,  the deviant percepts) originate from a sub-segment of the  speech community that consistently under-compensates for  contextual variation in speech.</p>},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/8429},
}