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UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences

Paul Iverson

Status: PhD, Reader in Speech Sciences
Address: Room 331, Chandler House, UCL, Wakefield Street, London
Phone: + 44 (0) 20 7679 4237
Email: p.iverson@ucl.ac.uk
Primary Research Dept.: Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences
RAE Research group: Speech and Hearing
Interests: Speech perception, language learning and development, cochlear implants, musical timbre

Research Projects

  • Auditory Specialization for Speech Perception (2008-2011)
    Individuals are born with an ability to discern speech sounds (phonemes) in all of the world's languages, but they develop through childhood so that they become specialized to perceive native-language phonemes. The aim of this study is to test our hypothesis that this specialization for native-language phonemes begins to occur in central auditory processing, at a functional level prior to linguistic categorization. The work uses behavioural measures and MEG to examine and perception of English phonemes by adult native speakers of Sinhala and Japanese
  • Second Language Vowel Perception (2005-2008)
    This project examines vowel perception and plasticity during second- language (L2) learning by adults. The study evaluates whether individuals learn to 'perceptually switch' between their L1 (first- language) and L2 vowel systems, and assesses the role of fine-grained phonetic detail in the learning process. Study 1 will use a new method to generate phonetically detailed L1 (first-language) and L2 perceptual vowel maps for native speakers of Norwegian, German, Spanish, and French. Study 2 will train matched groups of German and Spanish learners to identify English vowels and examine how their L1 and L2 vowel spaces change over time. Study 3 will train French speakers with varying English-language experience. The research will contribute to our scientific understanding of phonetic perception and plasticity, introduce methodological innovations, and help guide the development of new computer-based phonetic training methods.

Taught Courses

Selected Publications

Please note: this list only contains publication data entered before April 2010 into OnCite which has now been withdrawn.
Details of how to update the list to use data from the Research Publications Service can be found here.

36 publications found.

  • Iverson,P. (Forthcoming). Encoding, decoding, and acquisition. in Cohn,A.C., Fougeron,C., Huffman,M. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Laboratory Phonology. Oxford University Press
  • Iverson,P., Pinet,M., Evans,B.G. (Forthcoming). Auditory training for experienced and inexperienced second-language learners: Native French speakers learning English vowels. Applied Psycholinguistics . ISSN: 0142-7164
  • Pinet,M., Iverson,P. (Forthcoming). Talker-listener accent interactions in speech-in-noise recognition: Effects of prosodic manipulation as a function of language experience. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . ISSN: 0001-4966
  • Hattori,K., Iverson,P. (2009). English /r/-/l/ category assimilation by Japanese adults: Individual differences and the link to identification accuracy. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 125(1), 469-479. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Evans,B.G. (2009). Learning English vowels with different first-language vowel systems II: Auditory training for native Spanish and German speakers. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 122(5), 2842-2854. ISSN: 0001-4966
  • Leff,A.P., Iverson,P., Schofield,T.M., Kilner,J.M., Crinion,J.T., Friston,K.J., Price,C.J. (2009). Vowel-specific mismatch responses in the anterior superior temporal gyrus: An fMRI study. Cortex 45(4), 517-526. ISSN: 0010-9452 PubMed link [DOI link]
  • Schofield,T.M., Iverson,P., Kiebel,S.J., Stephan,K.E., Kilner,J.M., Friston,K.J., Crinion,J.T., Price,C.J., Leff,A.P. (2009). Changing meaning causes coupling changes within higher levels of the cortical hierarchy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106(28), 11765-11770. ISSN: 0027-8424 PubMed link [DOI link]
  • Ylinen,S., Uther,M., Latvala,A., Vepsäläinen,S., Iverson,P., Akahane-Yamada,R.,Näätänen,R. (2009). Training the brain to weight speech cues differently: a study of Finnish second-language users of English. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 1-14. ISSN: 0898-929X [Online]
  • Zhang,Y., Kuhl,P.K., Imada,T., Iverson,P., Pruitt,J., Stevens,E.B., Kawakatsu,M., Tohkura,Y., Nemoto,I. (2009). Neural Signatures of Phonetic Learning in Adulthood: A Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Study. Neuroimage 46, 226-240. ISSN: 1053-8119 PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Ekanayake,D., Hamann,S., Sennema,A., Evans,B.G. (2008). Category and perceptual interference in second-language phoneme learning: An examination of English /w/-/v/ learning by Sinhala, German, and Dutch speakers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 34(5), 1305-1316. ISSN: 0096-1523 PDF link
  • Evans,B.G., Iverson,P. (2007). Plasticity in vowel perception and production: A study of accent change in young adults. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 121(6), 3814-3826. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Hattori,K., Iverson,P. (2007). Examination of similarity between English /r/, /l/, and Japanese flap: An investigation of best exemplars by English and Japanese speakers. 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrücken, Germany, 1777-1780 PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Evans,B.G. (2007). Auditory training of English vowels for first-language speakers of Spanish and German. 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrücken, Germany, 1625-1628 PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Evans,B.G. (2007). Learning English vowels with different first-language vowel systems: Perception of formant targets, formant movement, and duration. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 122(5), 2842-2854. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Rosen,S., Iverson,P. (2007). Constructing adequate non-speech analogues: what is special about speech anyway? Developmental Science 10(2), 165-168. ISSN: 1363-755X PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Smith,C.A., Evans,B.G. (2006). Vowel recognition via cochlear implants and noise vocoders: Effects of formant movement and duration. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 120(6), 3998-4006. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Kuhl,P.K., Stevens,E., Hayashi,A., Deguchi,T., Kiritani,S., Iverson,P. (2006). Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months. Developmental Science 9(2), 13-21. ISSN: 1363-755X PDF link [DOI link]
  • Iverson,P., Hazan,V., Bannister,K. (2005). Phonetic training with acoustic cue manipulations: A comparison of methods for teaching English /r/-/l/ to Japanese adults. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 118, 3267-3278. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Evans,B.G., Iverson,P. (2004). Vowel normalization for accent: an investigation of best exemplar locations in northern and southern British English sentences. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 115(1), 352-361. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Evans,B.G., Iverson,P. (2003). Vowel normalization for accent: a comparison of northern and southern British English speakers. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona PDF link
  • Iverson,P. (2003). Evaluating the function of phonetic perceptual phenomena within speech recognition: An examination of the perception of /d/–/t/ by adult cochlear implant users. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 113, 1056-1064. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Iverson,P., Evans,B.G. (2003). A goodness optimization method for investigating phonetic categorization. Proceedings of the the 15th International Conference of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Kuhl,P.K., Akahane-Yamada,R., Diesch,E., Tohkura,Y., Kettermann,A., Siebert,C. (2003). A perceptual interference account of acquisition difficulties for non-native phonemes. Cognition 87, B47-B57. ISSN: 0010-0277 PDF link [DOI link]
  • Iverson,P, Bradlow,A.R. (2002). The recognition of clear speech by adult cochlear implant users. Temporal Integration in the Perception of Speech, Hawkins,S, Nguyen,N (ed.) , 78-78 PDF link
  • Iverson,P. (2002). A choice theory method for evaluating audiovisual phoneme recognition. Speech, Hearing and Language: work in progress 14, 85-92. ISSN: 1470-8507 PDF link
  • Iverson,P., Kuhl,P.K. (2000). Perceptual magnet and phoneme boundary effects in speech perception: Do they arise from a common mechanism? Perception and Psychophysics 62, 874-886. ISSN: 0031-5117 PubMed link
  • Zhang,Y., Kuhl,P.K., Imada,T., Iverson,P., Pruitt,,J., Kotani,M., Stevens,E. (2000). Neural plasticity revealed in perceptual training of a Japanese adult listener to learn American /l-r/ contrast: a whole-head magnetoencephalography study. Sixth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, , 3, 953-956
  • Diesch,E., Iverson,P., Kettermann,A., Siebert,C. (1999). Measuring the perceptual magnet effect in the perception of German /i/ Psychological Research 62, 1-19. ISSN: 0340-0727 PubMed link
  • Schellenberg,E. G., Iverson,P., McKinnon,M. C. (1999). Name that tune: Identifying popular recordings from brief excerpts. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 6, 641-646. ISSN: 1069-9384 PubMed link
  • Bernstein,L. E., Iverson,P., Auer,E. T. (1997). Elucidating the complex relationships between phonetic perception and word recognition in audiovisual speech perception. Proceedings of the ESCA/ESCOP Workshop on Audio-Visual Speech Processing, Grenoble, France:ESCA, 88-92
  • Iverson,P., Kuhl,P. K. (1996). Influences of phonetic identification and category goodness on American listeners' perception of /r/ and /l/ Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 92, 1130-1140. ISSN: 0001-4966 PubMed link
  • Iverson,P. (1995). Auditory stream segregation by musical timbre: Effects of static and dynamic acoustic attributes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 21, 751-763. ISSN: 0096-1523 PubMed link
  • Iverson,P., Kuhl,P.K. (1995). Mapping the perceptual magnet effect for speech using signal detection theory and multidimensional scaling. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 97, 553-562. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link
  • Kuhl,P. K., Iverson,P. (1995). Linguistic experience and the "perceptual magnet effect." in Strange, W. (ed.) Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research. Baltimore, MD: York Press, 121-154
  • Iverson,P., Krumhansl,C.L. (1993). Isolating the dynamic attributes of musical timbre. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 94, 2595-2603. ISSN: 0001-4966 PDF link
  • Krumhansl,C.L., Iverson,P. (1992). Perceptual interactions between musical pitch and timbre. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 18, 739-751. ISSN: 0096-1523 PubMed link

Current PhD Students

  • Georgina Oliver
  • Melanie Preece-Pinet
  • Dong-jin Shin
  • Anita Wagner

Completed PhD Students

  • Bronwen G. Evans
    Plasticity in speech perception and production: A study of accent change in young adults (2005)
  • Kota Hatori

(Possibly incomplete list)

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