Bridging communication gaps: Neurocognitive and social effects of accented speech in human and AI interaction

Understanding foreign-accented speech may become more challenging with age, largely due to cognitive, sensory, and linguistic changes. While sensory changes associated with aging have been consistently documented in older adults, the impact of cognitive decline remains less well understood. This project aims to investigate how age-related declines in cognitive and linguistic functions affect the comprehension of foreign-accented speech in older adults. At the cognitive level, the study will examine the role of deficits in cognitive control, such as working memory and inhibitory control. At the linguistic level, it will explore lexical representations, speech processing, and integration in older adults compared to younger adults, using eye-tracking methods. The research on this work package focuses on: (i) improving our understanding
of how age-related decline in linguistic functions affects the processing of foreign-accented speech; (ii) clarifying how age-related decline in cognitive control influences the comprehension of foreign-accented speech.