Research

 

We investigate speech perception and production using a variety of approaches

  • acoustic phonetics 
  • articulatory phonetics 
  • psycholinguistics
  • laboratory phonology

Research specializations

  • Phonetic variation (production, perception)​
  • Vowel perception (models, mechanisms)​
  • Coarticulation, acoustic nasality
  • Human-voice AI interaction
  • Perception of apparent speaker characteristics
  • Speaker production adaptations (clear speech, child-DS)
  • ​Social factors in phonetic imitation 
  • ​Mechanisms of sound change

 

Selected Publications 

 

  • *Jones, A., & Zellou, G. (2024). Voice accentedness, but not gender, affects social responses to a computer tutor. Frontiers in Computer Science, 6, 143641. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1436341
  • Zellou, G., Barreda, S., Lahrouchi, M., & Smiljanić, R. (2024). Learning a language with vowelless words. Cognition, 251, 105909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105909
  • *Vonessen, J., & Zellou, G. (2024). Perception of Mandarin tones across different phonological contexts by native and tone-naive listeners. Frontiers in Education, 9, 1392022. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1392022
  • Zellou, G., Kim, L., & Gendrot, C. (2024). Comparing human and machine's use of coarticulatory vowel nasalization for linguistic classification. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 156(1), 489-502. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0027932
  • Cohn, M., Barreda, S., Graf Estes, K., Yu, Z., & Zellou, G. (2024). Children and adults produce distinct technology- and human-directed speech. Scientific Reports, 14, 15611. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-66313-5
  • Cohn, M., *Bandodkar, G., Sangani, R., Predeck, K., & Zellou, G. (2024). Do People Mirror Emotion Differently with a Human or TTS Voice? Comparing Listener Ratings and Word Embeddings. Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Honolulu, United States. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650757
  • Pycha, A., & Zellou, G. (2024). The influence of accent and device usage on perceived credibility during interactions with voice-AI assistants. Frontiers in Computer Science 6, 1411414. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1411414
  • Zellou, G., & Holliday, N. (2024). Linguistic analysis of human-computer interaction. Frontiers in Computer Science 6, 1384252. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1384252
  • *Vonessen, J., Aoki, N. B., Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2024). Comparing perception of L1 and L2 English by human listeners and machines: Effect of interlocutor adaptations. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 155(5), 3060–3070. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025930
  • *Booker, N. P., Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2024). Linguistic Patterning of Laughter in Human-Socialbot Interactions. Frontiers in Communication 9, 1346738. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1346738
  • Zellou, G., & Cohn, M. (2024). Apparent-time change in the use of multiple cues for perception of anticipatory nasal coarticulation in California English. Glossa 9(1). https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.10831
  • *Aoki, N. B., & Zellou, G. (2024). Being clear about clear speech: Intelligibility of hard-of-hearing-directed and non-native-directed speech for L1- and L2-English listeners. Journal of Phonetics 104, 101328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101328
  • Zellou, G., & M Lahrouchi, M. (2024). Linguistic disparities in cross-language automatic speech recognition transfer from Arabic to Tashlhiyt. Scientific Reports 14 (1), 313. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50516-3
  • Barreda, S., & Predeck, K. (2024). Inaccurate but predictable: Vocal-tract length estimation and gender stereotypes in height perception. Journal of Phonetics 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101290
  • Zellou, G., M Lahrouchi, M., Bensoukas, K. (2024). The perception of vowelless words in Tashlhiyt. (2024). Glossa 9 (1).  https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.10438
  • Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2023). Selective tuning of nasal coarticulation and hyperarticulation across slow-clear, casual, and fast-clear speech styles. JASA Express Letters 3 (12). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0023841
  • Zellou, G., Cohn, M., & Pycha, A. (2023). Listener beliefs and perceptual learning: Differences
    between device and human guises. Language 99 (4). https://muse.jhu.edu/article/914191
  • *Aoki, N.B., & Zellou, G. (2023). When speaking clearly does not enhance comprehension: Comparing intelligibility of hard-of-hearing-and non-native-directed speech for native and non-native listeners. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 51(1), 060002. https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001766
  • Gwizdzinski, J., Barreda, S., Carignan, C., G Zellou. (2023) Perceptual identification of oral and nasalized vowels across American English and British English listeners and TTS voices. Frontiers in Communication 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1307547
  • Cohn, M., *Keaton, A., Beskow, J., & Zellou, G. (2023). Vocal accommodation to technology: the role of physical form. Language Sciences 99, 101567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101567
  • *Aoki, N.B., Zellou, G. Visual information affects adaptation to novel talkers: Ethnicity-specific and ethnicity-independent learning of L2-accented speech. (2023) The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 154 (4), 2290-2304. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0021289
  • *Aoki, N. B., & Zellou, G. Speakers talk more clearly when they see an Asian face: Effects of visual guise on speech production. In: Radek Skarnitzl & Jan Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2294-2298). Guarant International. https://guarant.cz/icphs2023/45.pdf
  • Zellou, G., Pycha, A., & Cohn, M. (2023). The perception of nasal coarticulatory variation in face-masked speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 153, 1084–1093. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0017257
  • Thomas, AL., Barreda, S., & Assmann, PF. (2023). Perception of talker height in children’s productions of sustained/ɑ. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 153, A82-A82. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0018244
  • Cohn, M., Barreda, S., & Zellou, G. (2023). Differences in a Musician's Advantage for Speech-in-Speech Perception Based on Age and Task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 66 (2), 545-564. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00259
  • *Aoki, N. B., Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2022). The clear speech intelligibility benefit for text-to-speech voices: Effects of speaking style and visual guise. JASA Express Letters, 2(4), 045204. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0010274
  • Zellou, G., Lahrouchi, M., & Bensoukas, K. (2022). Clear speech in Tashlhiyt Berber: The perception of typologically uncommon word-initial contrasts by native and naive listeners. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 152(6), 3429-3443. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0016579
  • *Block, A., *Predeck, K., & Zellou, G. (2022). German Word-Final Devoicing in Naturally-Produced and TTS Speech. Languages, 7(4), 270. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040270
  • Cohn, M., Ferenc Segedin, B.*, & Zellou, G. (2022). Acoustic-phonetic properties of Siri-and human-directed speech. Journal of Phonetics, 90, 101123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2021.101123
  • Pycha, A., Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2022). Face-masked speech intelligibility: the influence of speaking style, visual information, and background noise. Frontiers in Communication, 102. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.874215.
  • Barreda, S. (2021). Perceptual validation of vowel normalization methods for variationist research. Language Variation and Change, 33 (2021), 27–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394521000016
  • Barreda, S., & Assmann, P. F. (2021). Perception of gender in children's voices. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 150(5), 3949-3963. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006785
  • Barreda, S. (2021). Fast Track: fast (nearly) automatic formant-tracking using Praat. Linguistics Vanguard, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2020-0051
  • Zellou, G., Cohn, M., & *Kline, T. (2021). The Influence of Conversational Role on Phonetic Alignment toward Voice-AI and Human Interlocutors. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1931372
  • Zellou, G., Cohn, M., *Block, A. (2021). Partial compensation for coarticulatory vowel nasalization across concatenative and neural text-to-speech. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 149(5), 3424-3436. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0004989
  • Zellou, G., Cohn, M., *Ferenc Segedin, B. (2021). Age- and gender-related differences in speech alignment toward humans and voice-AI. Frontiers in Communication 5, 600361. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.600361
  • Cohn, M., Pycha, A., Zellou, G. (2021). Intelligibility of face-masked speech depends on speaking style: Comparing casual, smiled, and clear speech. Cognition 210, 104570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104570
  • Barreda, S. (2020). Vowel Normalization as Perceptual Constancy. Language, 96:2, 1-31. http://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0242
  • Zellou, G., Barreda, S., *Ferenc Segedin, B. (2020). Partial perceptual compensation for nasal coarticulation is robust to fundamental frequency variation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(3), EL271-EL275. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000951
  • Asadi, S., Wexler, A. S., Cappa, C. D., Barreda, S., Bouvier, N. M., Ristenpart, W. D. (2019). Aerosol emission and superemission during human speech increase with voice loudness. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-38808-z
  • *Ferenc Segedin, B. Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2019). Perceptual adaptation to device and human voices:  learning and generalization of a phonetic shift across real and voice-AI talkers. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH. http://dx.doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-1433
  • *Snyder, C. Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2019). Individual variation in cognitive processing style predicts differences in phonetic imitation of device and human voices. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH. http://dx.doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-2669
  • Cohn, M., & Zellou, G. (2019). Expressiveness influences human vocal alignment toward voice-AI. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH. http://dx.doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-1368
  • Cohn, M., Zellou, G., Barreda, S. (2019) The role of musical experience in the perceptual weighting of acoustic cues for the obstruent coda voicing contrast in American English. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH. http://dx.doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-3103
  • Cohn, M., *Ferenc Segedin, B., Zellou, G. Imitating Siri: Socially-mediated vocal alignment to device and human voices. International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS).
  • *Brotherton, C., Cohn, M., Zellou, G., Barreda, S. Sub-regional variation in positioning and degree of nasalization of /æ/ allophones in California. International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS).
  • ​Barreda, S., & *Liu, Z. Y. (2018). Apparent-talker height is influenced by Mandarin lexical tone. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(2), EL61-EL66. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5022156
  • *Mengesha, Z. & Zellou, G. (2018). The interaction between phonological and lexical variation on word recall in African American English. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
  • Zellou, G., & Pycha, A. (2018). The gradient influence of temporal extent of coarticulation on vowel and speaker perception. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.118
  • Zellou, G. (2017). Individual differences in the production of nasal coarticulation and perceptual compensation. Journal of Phonetics, 61, 13-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2016.12.002



*Student authors

 

Selected presentations 

​​​

Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Annual Meeting 2023 (Denver, CO)

  • Register adaptations toward Alexa: Comparing children and adults; Michelle Cohn, Santiago Barreda, Katharine Graf Estes, Zhou Yu, & Georgia Zellou
  • Perceptually-motivated influences on nasal coarticulatory variation in French; Georgia Zellou & Ioana Chitoran
  • Non-uniform scaling of formant patterns is phonetically salient; Santiago Barreda
  • There is no female vocal tract: Abandoning essentialist ideology in phonetics; Santiago Barreda & Michael T. Stuart
  • Under-informative utterances can be more accepted from digital devices than humans; Nicholas Aoki, Masoud Jasbi, & Georgia Zellou

Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Annual Meeting 2021 (San Francisco, CA)

  • Cue weighting and phoneme-specific patterns in systems of quantity contrast: the case of Norwegian vowels. Aleese Block. 
  • Prosodic focus in human- versus voice-AI-directed speech. Eleonora Beier, Michelle Cohn, Fernanda Ferreira, & Georgia Zellou. 
  • Problematic phonemes and German /ɛ:/: An acoustic analysis. ​Kristin Predeck, Aleese Block. 
  • The Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Usage Factors in Dialect Intelligibility in Noise. Riley Stray, Michelle Cohn, Georgia Zellou.

2019 Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Annual Meeting (New York City, NY) 

  • A Theoretical and Statistical Investigation of Vowel Normalization Procedures. Santiago Barreda.
  • Phonologically motivated phonetic repair strategies in Siri- and human-directed speech​. Michelle Cohn, Bruno Ferenc Segedin, & Georgia Zellou.
  • The distribution of phonetic variation influences patterns of perceptual adaptation. Georgia Zellou & Bruno Ferenc Segedin. 
  • The Effect of Linguistic Experience on the Perception of Talker Height from Speech. Santiago Barreda & Zoey Liu. 

2019 Linguistic Society of America (LSA) 5 Minute Linguist Finalists 

  • Phonologically motivated phonetic repair strategies in Siri- and human-directed speech. Presenter: Michelle Cohn 
  • Lexical frequency mediates compensation for coarticulation: Are the seeds of sound change ​word-specific? Presenters: Bruno Ferenc Segedin & Georgia Zellou.

​2018 Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Five Minute Linguist 

  • Enhanced coarticulation facilitates statistical learning of continuous speech in adults​. Georgia Zellou.