Impersonations are vocal caricatures
Some imitators and impressionists have the uncanny ability to sound exactly like the person they
Monica Wagner
Having been raised with two languages herself, Mónica Wagner is interested in how people use and learn multiple languages, especially when it comes to the sounds of languages. During her licence in psychology (National University of Córdoba, Argentina) she looked into whether people who speak two (or more) languages, when wanting to say the word for ‘dog,’ consider the name in both of their languages. Then, during her Master’s in cognitive neuroscience (Radboud University, The Netherlands), she looked at the other side of the coin: whether bilinguals can selectively listen in one of their languages (sometimes even the wrong one!) and the role of the context they’re in at the moment or whether or not the speaker has a foreign accent. Currently Mónica is working on her PhD at the Donders Centre for Cognition (The Netherlands), where she’s studying individual differences in foreign accent, that is, why some people struggle so much to get rid of their foreign accent in a second language, while others seem to be able to acquire a nativelike accent almost effortlessly. She is new to the Donders Wonders team but will likely blog a lot about her favorite topics: languages, bilinguals, and accents!
The science behind the Laurel-Yanny debate
Again, the internet is divided over a viral meme: an audio clip where some hear
Shifting gears: language changes with context
Talking in a noisy car can be annoying. You almost have to shout to be
What misheard song lyrics can tell us about how we understand speech
Song lyrics are often misheard and can be a lot of fun. But these mishearings
Auditory illusions: When your mother tongue plays tricks on your ears
When trying to speak a foreign language, your native language can influence your pronunciation, but
Scientists read Wikipedia, too
Teachers often warn students to be wary of what they read on Wikipedia, but recent
Adults unconsciously mimic each other’s speech
Children are like parrots, copying how people around them talk. It’s how they learn to
Oopsie whoopsie! Baby talk is actually good for babies
Many of us are guilty of it: as soon as we see a baby, we
A fast Spanish speaker? That’s not saying much
Learners of some languages, like Spanish, often complain that native speakers talk too quickly. But
An accent is in the ‘ear’ of the beholder
It can be frustrating to be misunderstood due to your foreign accent, or when you’re