Speech Processing Lab Home> About

About Speech Processing Lab @ Ohio University

The broad goal of the research at the lab is to understand the cognitive processes implicated in mapping speech sounds onto linguistic representations. To that end, our research has focused on the perception of lexical tones in Mandarin Chinese. Lexical tones are prosodic features of speech that can be used for word distinctions in tone languages. For example, the syllable ma with a high tone means “mother”, but ma with a low tone means “horse” instead. Given that the majority of the world’s languages are tone languages, a complete theory of speech communication requires understanding these “suprasegmental” aspects of speech.

The knowledge of tone processing also has further theoretical and practical implications. For non-native learners, lexical tones are usually the most challenging aspect of learning a tone language. Therefore a better understanding of tone processing may facilitate development of more effective strategies in teaching tones. Knowledge of tone processing could also be useful in improving auditory prostheses. Finally, since lexical tone is a melodic feature of speech, an understanding of tone processing may also enlighten the music-language relationship. Recent projects have been extended to these relevant topics through collaborative research.

See Publications for recent projects at the lab.