Publications

Wiener, S., Bramlett, A. A., Brown, B., & Dueck, J. (in press). Acoustic analysis and perception ratings of first and second language speakers’ Italian lexical stress. Applied Linguistics.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Duration and fundamental frequency (F0; what we perceive as pitch) are important acoustic cues involved in Italian lexical stress. These should be "stressed" by learners and teachers of Italian.

Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2025). Focus (on) replication: Focus processing in L1 and L2 English using the fidelity, refinement, and exploratory extension (FiREE) replication framework. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 4(3).
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: We propose a novel web-based eye-tracking replication framework. We carry out a replication and show how the framework informs online prosodic focus processing in first and second language users.

Wang, Y., Kovashka, A., Fernández, L., Coutanche, M. N., & Wiener, S. (2025). Towards Understanding Ambiguity Resolution in Multimodal Inference of Meaning. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) (pp. 1-8)
 • Summary: This is a pilot study that examines how humans (and artifical intelligence) infer the meaning of unfamiliar words in a multimodal (image and sound or image and text) context.

Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2025). Individual differences modulate prediction of Italian words based on lexical stress: a close replication and LASSO extension of Sulpizio and McQueen (2012). Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 9, 55-81.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: We replicate a previous in-person eye-tracking study using web-based eye-tracking. We show that Italian listeners use stress information as early as the first syllable to recognize spoken words.

Wiener, S., Murphy, T. K., & Holt, L. L. (2025). Incidental Nonspeech Auditory Learning Scaffolds Phonetic, Category, and Word Learning in a Foreign Language Classroom. Language Learning.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: We built an incidental learning videogame that uses nonspeech hums as part of the gameplay. We found that our novel approach can promote language learning in adults similar to a traditional language learning activity.

Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2025). The Art of Wrangling: Working with Web-based Visual World Paradigm Eye-tracking Data in Language Research. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 15(4), 538-570.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: We provide a step-by-step guide to carrying out a visual world paradigm eye-tracking study using free and open web-based methods.

Bramlett, A. A., Brown, B., Dueck, J., & Wiener, S. (2024) Measuring music and prosody: accounting for variation in non-native speech discrimination with working memory, specialized music skills, and music background. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024 (pp. 482–486)
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Musical ability can positively impact sensitivity to speech, but how should we measure musical ability? We found that music background, discrimination ability, and auditory-motor temporal integration capture related and divergent aspects of music experience.

Bramlett, A. A., & Wiener, S. (2023). Switching between phonological biases is not free: Evidence from a bilingual reconstruction task. In R. Skarnitzl & J. Volín (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XX) (pp. 2800–2804). Guarant International.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Language users develop phonological biases in response to the acoustic-phonetic and phono-lexical characteristics of the language being learned. Bilinguals can switch between biases, but there does appear to be a switch cost with potential effects.

Coretta, S., Casillas, J.V.,... Wiener, S.,... & Roettger, T.B. (2023) Multidimensional Signals and Analytic Flexibility: Estimating Degrees of Freedom in Human-Speech Analyses. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 6(3), doi: 25152459231162570.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Multiple groups of researchers were given the same speech data and tried to answer the same research question. There was quite a bit of variability in reported effect sizes and their interpretation. This is concerning and we need to do better as a field.

Zhu, J., Shao, J., Zhang, C., Chen, F., & Wiener, S. (2023). Statistical information affects spoken word recognition of tone languages in stutterers: Evidence from an auditory-perceptual gating study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66 (9), 3382-3398.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Individuals who stutter often exhibit atypical speech perception. We found that individuals who stutter are still able to track and use statistical information about likely sound patterns and words to better recognize speech.

Zhu, J., Chen, X., Chen, F., Zhang, C., & Wiener, S. (2023). Tone deafness in music does not preclude distributional learning of non-native tonal languages in individuals with Congenital Amusia. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66 (7), 2461-2477.
 • Summary: Individuals with congenital amusia struggle to process pitch in music and language. Yet, despite their degraded pitch processing, these individuals can still learn lexical tones in a foreign language.

Brown, B., Tusmagambet, B., Rahming, V., Tu, C.-Y., DeSalvo, M. B., & Wiener, S. (2023). Searching for the “native” speaker: A preregistered conceptual replication and extension of Reid, Trofimovich, and O’Brien (2019). Applied Psycholinguistics, 44, 475-494.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: What a "native" speaker is varies from context to context. What might be considered "native" in one language group is not considered "native" in another.

Zhu, J., Chen, X., Chen, F., Zhang, C., Shao, J., & Wiener, S. (2023). Distributional learning of musical pitch despite tone deafness in individuals with congenital amusia. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 153(5), 3117– 3129.
 • Summary: Whereas individuals with congenital amusia struggle to process pitch in music and language, their distributional learning of music remains largely preserved.

Wang, X., Lee, C.-Y., & Wiener, S. (2023). Non-native disadvantage in spoken word recognition is due to lexical knowledge and not type/level of noise. Speech Communication, 149, 29-37.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: When you learn a new language and have a hard time understanding speech in noise, the problem is most likely because you do not know enough words and not because of the noise in the speech signal.

Wiener, S. & Bradley, E. D. (2023). Harnessing the musician advantage: Short-term musical training affects non-native cue weighting of linguistic pitch. Language Teaching Research, 27(4), 1016-1031.
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Short-term musical training can change listeners' pitch perception. When combined with structured classroom learning of a tonal language, short-term musical training can be even more beneficial for learners.

Sinagra, C., & Wiener, S. (2022). The perception of intonational and emotional speech prosody produced with and without a face mask: an exploratory individual differences study. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7, 89.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: When speaking with a mask, speakers should increase pitch and volume, if possible. Because facial cues may be obscured, speakers should also be more explicit about their intended emotions/questions.

Gao, Z., Wiener, S., & MacWhinney, B. (2022). Acquisition of Chinese Verb Separation by Adult L2 Learners. Languages, 7 (3):225.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Mandarin Chinese requires that verbs like 'sing' be separated in order to create a verb phrase like 'sing a song.' This is difficult for learners to acquire and this study shows where specific problems arise for adult learners.

Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2022). jTRACE modeling of L2 Mandarin learners’ spoken word recognition at two time points in learning. Proc. 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, (pp. 773-776).
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: TRACE is a model of spoken word recognition. We use this model to simulate adult second language (L2) learners’ spoken word recognition at two time points in learning. These simulations closely matched eye-tracking data we collected in the lab.

Liu, J. & Wiener, S. (2022). Effects of phonological and talker familiarity on second language lexical development. The Mental Lexicon, 17 (1), 132-153.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Our previously reported tonal homophone advantage in L2 word learning (Liu & Wiener, 2020) may have been partially driven by an exceptionally high level of talker familiarity, since that study used a single speaker both for training and testing.

Zhang, H., Wiener, S., & Holt, L. L. (2022). Adjustment of cue weighting in speech by speakers and listeners: Evidence from amplitude and duration modifications of Mandarin Chinese tone. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 151 (2), 992-1005.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Speakers of Mandarin exaggerate secondary cues in whispered speech like duration and amplitude. Listeners make use of this information to understand the intended speech.

Wiener, S., Gao, Z., Li, X., & Wu, Z. (2022). Acquisition of non-sibilant anterior English fricatives by adult second language learners. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 8 (1), 68-94.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Fricatives like 'v' and the 'th' sound are difficult for children acquiring a first language and adults acquiring a second language. This exploratory acoustic study shows where those challenges might lie.

Zhu, J., Chen, X., Chen, F., & Wiener, S. (2022). Individuals with Congenital Amusia show degraded speech perception but preserved statistical learning for tone languages. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65 (1), 53-69.
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Whereas individuals with congenital amusia struggle to process pitch in music and language, their statistical learning of speech sounds remains largely preserved.

Wiener, S. & Liu, J. (2021). Effects of perceptual abilities and lexical knowledge on the phonetic categorization of second language speech. JASA Express Letters 1, 045202.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Non-phonetic, linguistic information can modify second language learners' phonetic categorization of lexical tones. This effect, however, can be constrained by the listener's pitch perception abilities.

Maa, J., Li, X., Ballesteros Soria, N., Gao, Z., Burns, K. E., & Wiener, S. (2021). Second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Language Teaching, 54, 292-296.
 • Summary: This paper introduces the Second Language Acquisition Ph.D. program at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and describes some of the recent research being done by students and faculty.

Liu, J. & Wiener, S. (2021). CFL learners’ Mandarin syllable-tone word production: effects of task and prior phonological and lexical learning. Chinese as a Second Language Research, 9 (2), 31-52.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: When learning new Mandarin words, showing the pinyin romanization can be useful. However, teachers and learners should be mindful that phonological encoding can be affected by learners’ prior phonological and lexical knowledge.

Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (2021). Effects of multi-talker input and instructional method on the dimension-based statistical learning of syllable-tone combinations: An eye-tracking study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 43 (1), 155-180.
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Listeners track statistical knowledge about likely speech sounds. This eye-tracking study showed that the degree to which statistical knowledge was used to recognize words appeared to increase when participants processed more variable speech.

Wiener, S. & Tokowicz, N. (2021). Language proficiency is only part of the story: Lexical access in heritage and non-heritage bilinguals. Second Language Research, 37(4), 681-695.
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Heritage bilinguals--speakers who acquired their non-dominant language at home from birth--showed unique patterns of lexical access distinct from bilinguals who acquired their non-dominant language at a later age in a classroom setting.

Liu, J. & Wiener, S. (2020). Homophones facilitate lexical development in a second language. System, 91, 102249.
 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Previously acquired phonological and lexical information can positively affect L2 lexical development so long as the acoustic variability is limited to one speaker.

Chen, T., Koda, K., & Wiener, S. (2020). Word-meaning inference in L2 Chinese: an interactive effect of learners’ linguistic knowledge and words’ semantic transparency. Reading and Writing, 33, 2639–2660.
 • Summary: Each morpheme in a compound word contributes differently to the word’s overall meaning. Learners vary in how well they can use semantics to infere meaning.

Lee, C.-Y. & Wiener, S. (2020). Acoustic-Based and Knowledge-Based Processing of Mandarin Tones by Native and Non-native Speakers. In H-M. Liu, F-M. Tsao, & P. Li (Eds.), Speech perception, production and acquisition: Multidisciplinary approaches in Chinese languages (pp. 37-57). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
 • Summary: This chapter summarizes a number of Mandarin tone perception studies by Chao-Yang Lee, Seth Wiener, and colleagues.

Wiener, S. & Lee, C.-Y. (2020). Multi-Talker Speech Promotes Greater Knowledge-Based Spoken Mandarin Word Recognition in First and Second Language Listeners. Frontiers in Psychology - Language Sciences. 11:214. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00214
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: When faced with different speakers and greater acoustic variability, first and second language listeners tend to activate and recognize more frequent words.

Wiener, S., Chan, M. K. M., & Ito, K. (2020). Do explicit instruction and high variability phonetic training improve non-native speakers’ Mandarin tone productions? The Modern Language Journal, 104 (1), 152-168.
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Beginner adult L2 tone learners should follow a tone production training approach that consists of explicit tone instruction followed by gradual exposure to more variable speech.

Wiener, S. (2020). Second language learners develop non-native lexical processing biases. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23 (1), 119-130.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Consonant and vowel processing biases are determined by the phonological and lexical characteristics of the stimuli being processed and not solely by listeners’ L1. L2 learners can acquire a new bias in a relatively short amount of time.

Wiener, S. & Goss, S. (2019). Second and third language learners’ sensitivity to Japanese pitch accent is additive: An information-based model of pitch perception. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(4), 897-910.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Speaking a tonal language as a first language may improve pitch perception in a new language. We propose an information-based model of pitch perception.

Wiener, S., Murphy, T. K., Goel, A., Christel, M. G., & Holt, L. L. (2019). Incidental learning of non-speech auditory analogs scaffolds second language learners’ perception and production of Mandarin lexical tones. In S. Calhoun, P. Escudero, M. Tabain, and P. Warren (Eds.), Proc. 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019 (pp. 1699-1703). Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
 • Summary: This was a pilot study for our incidental learning videogame. See our Language Learning paper for more recent findings.

Wiener, S., Lee, C.-Y., & Tao, L. (2019). Statistical regularities affect the perception of second language speech: Evidence from adult classroom learners of Mandarin Chinese. Language Learning, 69(3), 527-558.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: L2 learners’ perception of speech changes as a result of experience with phonological and lexical statistical regularities in the input. This happens naturally in a classroom setting.

Wiener, S. & Goss, S. (2018). Perceptual assimilation of non-native prosodic cues: Cross-linguistic effects of lexical F0 learning. Proc. 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody, (pp.947-951).

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Learning lexical pitch variations in an L2 can influence the perception of an additional non-native language that utilizes lexical pitch cues at the phonological and phonetic levels.

Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (2018). Early L2 Spoken Word Recognition Combines Input-Based and Knowledge-Based Processing. Language and Speech, 61(4), 632-656.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Early L2 learners track the distribution of segmental and suprasegmental co-occurrences and make predictions accordingly during spoken word recognition.

Wiener, S. (2017). Changes in early L2 cue-weighting of non-native speech: Evidence from learners of Mandarin Chinese. Proc. of Interspeech 2017, (pp. 1765-1769).
 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: Learners of a second language rapidly change how they weight different cues in speech. This can change and often leads to a learning plateau.

Wiener, S., Ito, K., & Speer, S. R. (2016). Individual variability in the distributional learning of L2 lexical tone. In J. Barnes, A. Brugos, S. Shattuck-Hufnagel, and N. Veilleux (Eds.), Proc. 8th International Conference on Speech Prosody (pp. 538-542). Boston, MA.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: L2 learners are sensitive to statistical information available from novel input, and this learning takes place during an early stage of acquisition in successful L2 learners

Wiener, S. & Ito, K. (2016). Impoverished acoustic input triggers probability-based tone processing in mono-dialect Mandarin listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 56, 38-51.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: At an early stage of speech processing--before sufficient acoustic information can inform the listener about the word--previously learned distributional knowledge can be used to aid spoken word recognition.

Wiener, S. & Turnbull, R. (2016). Constraints of Tones, Vowels and Consonants on Lexical Selection in Mandarin Chinese. Language and Speech, 59(1), 59-82.

 • Materials: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: During lexical selection, Mandarin tonal information is lower- priority than consonants and vowels. Vowel information most tightly constrains Mandarin lexical access. This finding is counter to the vowel mutability hypothesis.

Wiener, S. & Ito, K. (2015). Do syllable-specific tonal probabilities guide lexical access? Evidence from Mandarin, Shanghai and Cantonese speakers. Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, 30(9), 1048-1060.
 • Summary: This eye-tracking study shows the time course of lexical access in a tonal language.

Posters

Wiener, S. & Bramlett, A. A. (2025). Vowel and consonant mutability in English: Evidence from a (new web-based) word reconstruction task. 15th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB15), San Sebastian, Spain.

 • Materials and Data: Available on Open Science Framework
 • Summary: You can use a visual analog scale to measure vowel and consonant mutability via the internet.

Bramlett, A. A., Brown, B., Dueck, J., & Wiener, S. (2024). Measuring music and prosody: accounting for variation in non-native speech discrimination with working memory, specialized music skills, and music background. Speech Prosody 2024, Leiden, The Netherlands.
 • Summary: Musical ability can positively impact sensitivity to speech, but how should we measure musical ability? We found that music background, discrimination ability, and auditory-motor temporal integration capture related and divergent aspects of music experience.

Bramlett, A., Tu, C.-Y., Liu, X., & Wiener, S. (2023). An eye-tracking replication without an eye tracker: Capturing predictive sentence processing of accented speech via the internet, 36th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Pittsburgh, PA.
 • Summary: You can use web cameras to carry out a high quality eye-tracking study.

Bramlett, A. A. & Wiener, S. (2022). jTRACE modeling of L2 Mandarin learners’ spoken word recognition at two time points in learning. Speech Prosody 2022, Lisbon, Portugal.
 • Summary: TRACE is a model of spoken word recognition. We use this model to simulate adult second language (L2) learners’ spoken word recognition at two time points in learning. These simulations closely matched eye-tracking data we collected in the lab.

Lin, Y., Rohde, H., & Wiener, S. (2022). More participants, fewer trials: A silver lining of moving eye-tracking experiments online, 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of California, Santa Cruz (Online).
 • Summary: You can design web-based eye-tracking studies on the internet and run more participants and fewer trials.

Cole, K., Chan, B., & Wiener, S. (2022). Black Aggression in the Wake of Pandemic Panic: Effects of Word Choice and Race on Speaker Judgments, 96th Linguistics Society of America Meeting, Washington DC.
 • Summary: Speakers who used more aggressive language were rated more negative than speakers who used less aggressive language. This was true irrespective of the topic (e.g., COVID-19 or social media).

Lab Alumni