Cortical oscillations during native, regional and foreign-accented speech processing

In this dissertation, I explored the effects of accent on speech perception during extended speech listening. Specifically, I first outlined the difficulties associated with accented speech. Later I defined what perceptual differences characterize regional accented speech perception as opposed to foreign accented speech perception. In doing so, I proposed the two main theories dealing with foreign versus regional accent processing: the Perceptual Distance Hypothesis and the Different Processes Hypothesis. I provided evidence for how accented speech could impact mental processing and comprehension, ranging from sociobehavioral measures to electrophysiological measures. Afterwards, I took a closer look at cortical tracking of continuous speech, because this was a core component of the experimental part of my dissertation. By analyzing electroencephalographic data from 10 participants, my goal was to find out in which frequency bands native, regional, and foreign speech processing differ and where regional accent is placed with respect to foreign accent. The results from this preliminary study seem to support the Different Processes Hypothesis, indicating that different mechanisms are employed to process foreign and regional accents, both at a general and a sub frequency (delta, theta, and gamma) level.