Articulatory events are imitated under rapid shadowing

We tested the hypothesis that rapid shadowers imitate the articulatory gestures that structure acoustic speech signals—not just acoustic patterns in the signals themselves—overcoming highly practiced motor routines and phonological conditioning in the process. In a first experiment, acoustic evidence indicated that participants reproduced allophonic differences between American English /l/ types (light and dark) in the absence of the positional variation cues more typically present with lateral allophony. However, imitative effects were small. In a second experiment, varieties of /l/ with exaggerated light/dark differences were presented by ear. Acoustic measures indicated that all participants reproduced differences between /l/ types; larger average imitative effects obtained. Finally, we examined evidence for imitation in articulation. Participants ranged in behavior from one who did not imitate to another who reproduced distinctions among light laterals, dark laterals and /w/, but displayed a slight but inconsistent tendency toward enhancing imitation of lingual gestures through a slight lip protrusion. Overall, results indicated that most rapid shadowers need not substitute familiar allophones as they imitate reorganized gestural constellations even in the absence of explicit instruction to imitate, but that the extent of the imitation is small. Implications for theories of speech perception are discussed.

Research Highlights
► We ask listeners to rapidly shadow different types of lateral.
► Participants who imitate speech detail imitate aspects of the model's gestures.
► Imitators do not substitute their own practiced motor routines wholesale on the basis of acoustic similarity.
► Extent of imitation is small.
► Gestural theories contrasted.