Imitation of a talker improves perception of the talker's speech

Human perceivers have a tendency to imitate the idiolect (talker-specific articulatory style) of a perceived talker. This phonetic convergence manifests between perceivers during live conversations and when perceivers shadow (say aloud) the speech spoken by a pre-recorded talker. The following investigation explores the potential facilitative effects of phonetic convergence on subsequent perception of the imitated talker's speech. To test this, the strength of phonetic convergence was manipulated by varying the delay of perceivers' shadowing responses. When perceivers are required to delay their shadowing responses, phonetic convergence has been found to reduce [Goldinger, Psychol. Rev. 105(2), 215–279 (1998)]. If phonetic convergence can facilitate later perception of speech spoken by the shadowed talker, then perceivers who immediately shadow a talker should better identify the speech spoken by that talker, compared to perceivers who delayed their shadowing responses. Results suggest immediate—but not d...