I'm interested in the role of perceptual expectations in spoken-word recognition and speech perception. Most of my recent work has examined this question with respect to the interpretation of prosodic information (such as stress and intonation). For example, we have demonstrated using the visual world paradigm that contextual information such as discourse context and preceding prosodic patterns influences the interpretation of acoustic cues to prosodic structure in the earliest moments of spoken-word recognition. In ongoing work, I am examining how listeners make use of asynchronous speech cues during spoken word recognition (for example, cues that precede vs. follow a word). I am especially interested in investigating whether the interpretation of prosodic information is particularly dependent on the perceived reliability with which a particular speaker uses prosodic cues to signal intended differences in meaning.
	last updated November 2012