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Research

My overarching research goal is to contribute to an understanding of the architecture of human speech processing. I investigate how acoustic, phonetic and neurocognitive information interacts during speech production and perception.

My research approaches speech as a dynamic process in which linguistic information is shaped by multiple sources of variation, contextual influences, and the interaction of prosodic and segmental information.

Research themes

1. Neurocognition of speech processing

Speech exhibits many microdecisions whose anticipatory effects are rarely visible. Yet, these decisions exists, and I aim to understand what happens in the brain both until and shortly after the commitment to a phoneme, syllable, a word, or a phrase is made.

2. Variation and variability

Speech exhibits substantial variation across speakers, linguistic environments, and communicative situations. I am interested in understanding how this variation emerges, how it is represented, and how listeners accommodate it during speech perception.

3. Lexical prosody and speech processing

My work investigates how prosodic properties of speech, particularly lexical prosodic categories such as lexical pitch accent and lexical stress contribute to spoken word recognition. I am particularly interested in how listeners integrate multiple acoustic cues, and how their perceptual weighting is shaped by linguistic experience.

Research approaches

My research combines experimental and quantitative approaches to the study of speech.

Methods and techniques include:

  • Acoustic analysis of speech
  • Speech perception and production experiments
  • Eye-tracking during spoken word recognition
  • Electroencephalography (EEG)
  • Statistical modelling and computational analysis

Broader perspective

Ultimately, I aim to understand how different levels of linguistic representation and processing interact to support the production, perception, and recognition of spoken language.