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The influence of conversational role on phonetic alignment toward voice-AI and human interlocutors

2021; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 36; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/23273798.2021.1931372

2327-3801

Georgia Zellou, Michelle Cohn, Tyler Kline,

Phonetics and Phonology Research

Two studies investigated the influence of conversational role on phonetic imitation toward human and voice-AI interlocutors. In a Word List Task, the giver instructed the receiver on which of two lists to place a word; this dialogue task is similar to simple spoken interactions users have with voice-AI systems. In a Map Task, participants completed a fill-in-the-blank worksheet with the interlocutors, a more complex interactive task. Participants completed the task twice with both interlocutors, once as giver-of-information and once as receiver-of-information. Phonetic alignment was assessed through similarity rating, analysed using mixed effects logistic regressions. In the Word List Task, participants aligned to a greater extent toward the human interlocutor only. In the Map Task, participants as giver only aligned more toward the human interlocutor. Results indicate that phonetic alignment is mediated by the type of interlocutor and that the influence of conversational role varies across tasks and interlocutors.