Speech Learning Lab

Department of Linguistics & School of Communication Sciences and Disorders

McGill University

Research

In the Speech Learning lab, we investigate phonetic variability - how pronunciations change from instance to instance - and how this shapes speech perception. We're also interested in how listeners and learners adapt to the phonetic patterns of their linguistic environment and what happens when those patterns change. We have a special interest in how individuals differ in both patterns of production and perception abilities.

Learn more about our research

Lab Members

Dr. Meghan Clayards
Dr. Meghan Clayards
Associate Professor
Linguistics   SCSD
Alvaro Iturralde Zurita
PhD student
Marcelo Vieira
PhD student
 
Claire Honda
PhD student
Wei Zhang
PhD student
 
Connie Ting
PhD student
 
Xuanda Chen
PhD student
 
Alex Zhai
PhD student
 

Recent Graduates

Dr. Bing'er Jiang
PhD 2021
 
Dr. Sarah Colby
PhD 2018
 
Dr. Donghyun Kim
PhD 2018
Jiaer Tao
MA 2018

View Collaborators and Alumni

Publications

Papers

  • Honda, C., Clayards, M., Baum, S. (2024) Exploring individual differences in native phonetic perception and their link to nonnative phonetic perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001191 [OSF files] selected for Editor's Choice
  • Zhang, W., Clayards, M. (2023) Contribution of acoustic cues to prominence ratings for four Mandarin vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(5), 3364-3373. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0022410 [OSF files] featured on the front cover!
  • Zhang, W., Clayards, M., Torreira, F. (2023) Phonological contrast effects in native imitation of the Mandarin flat-falling tonal continua. Journal of Phonetics, 101: 101277, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101277 [OSF files]
  • Brekelmans, G., Lavan, N., Saito, H., Clayards, M., Wonnacott, E. (2022) Does high variability training improve the learning of non-native phoneme contrasts over low variability training? A replication. Journal of Memory and Language 126, 104352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2022.104352 [OSF files]
  • Lindsay, S., Clayards, M., Gennari, S., & Gaskell, M. G. (2022). Plasticity of categories in speech perception and production. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1-25.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.2018471

Proceedings

  • Honda, C., Clayards, M., Baum, S. (2023). Individual differences in non-native phonetic perception: potential links to native perception, attention, & memory. In: Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 172–176). Guarant International. [download]
  • Chen, X., Clayards, M., Goad, H., Kim, D. (2023). L1 effects on naive perception and production of [0] by mandarin and italian speakers. In: Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2492–2496). Guarant International. [download]
  • Zhai, A., Clayards, M., Goad, H. (2023). Individual variability in l1 category compactness on l2 production compactness and accuracy. In: Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2880–2884). Guarant International. [download]
  • Zurita, A.M.I., Clayards, M. (2022) Lexical stress in Spanish word segmentation. Proceedings of Interspeech 2022, 1866-1870, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2022-11185

Presentations

  • Honda, C.T., Clayards, M., Baum, S.R. (2022, June) Neural and behavioural predictors of successful second language perception. Poster presented at the 4th FFR Workshop in Barcelona, Spain.[Poster]
  • Clayards, M., Amir, N., Otto, R. (2021, November) Individual variation in top-down effects is domain specific. Talk presented virtually at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, Louisiana.[talk]
  • Zhang, W., Wagner, M., Clayards, M. (2021, December) The interaction between focus and phrasing in Mandarin high-flat and falling tones. Poster presented virtually at the 1st International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI) in Sonderborg, Denmark.[Poster]
  • Vieira, M., Clayards, M., Auclaire Oulette, N. (2020) Acoustic correlates of laryngeal control: Parkinson's and healthy older adults. Poster presented virtually at Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.
  • Jiang, B., Clayards, M., Ravanelli, M. & O'Donnell, T.J. (2019) A neural network approach to investigate tone space in Mandarin Chinese". Poster presentation at the 177th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Louisville, Kentucky, May, 2019.[Poster]

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Contact

Meghan Clayards

Email: meghan.clayards [at] mcgill.ca

Department of Linguistics

1085 Ave Dr. Penfield, Montréal, Quebec

School of Communication Sciences and Disorders

2001 McGill College, 8th floor, Montréal, Quebec

Funded by

         


Resources

Michael McAuliffe's STRAIGHT tutorial for stimulus synthesis          


Speech Learning Lab © 2015