This article reviews research on when acoustic‐phonetic variability facilitates, inhibits, or
does not impact perceptual development for spoken language, to illuminate mechanisms by …

Listening environments contain background sounds that mask speech and lead to
communication challenges. Sensitivity to slow acoustic fluctuations in speech can help …

To learn the meaning of a new word, or to recognize the meaning of a known one, both
children and adults benefit from surrounding words, or the sentential context. Most of the …

Listeners adjust their perception to match that of presented speech through shifting and
relaxation of categorical boundaries. This allows for processing of speech variation, but may …

Nonnative‐accented speech can differ from native‐accented speech in all aspects of
linguistic structure. These systematic differences frequently cause decrements in word …

Although unfamiliar accents can pose word identification challenges for children and adults,
few studies have directly compared perception of multiple nonnative and regional accents or …

Children's ability to understand speakers with a wide range of dialects and accents is
essential for efficient language development and communication in a global society. Here …

We examined the neural correlates underlying the semantic processing of native-and
nonnative-accented sentences, presented in quiet or embedded in multi-talker noise …

Purpose Supportive semantic and syntactic information can increase children's and adults'
word recognition accuracy in adverse listening conditions. However, there are inconsistent …

In everyday life, speech is often accompanied by a situation-specific acoustic cue; a hungry
bark as you ask 'Has anyone fed the dog?'. This paper investigates the effect such cues …