缅北禁地

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Staff Profile

Dr Laurence White

Reader in Speech Science

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 6528
  • Personal Website:
  • Address: Room 2.22
    Speech and Language Sciences
    School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences
    King George VI Building
    缅北禁地
    缅北禁地 upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

From September 2024: Director of Research, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.


Qualifications

PhD in Linguistics, University of Edinburgh

MPhil in Computer Speech and Language Processing, University of Cambridge

BA in Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford


Professional membership

Experimental Psychology Society

British Association of Academic Phoneticians

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy



Research

My research explores speech perception, speech production and their relationship. A focus in my perceptual work has been the mechanisms by which listeners locate the boundaries between spoken words, in typical adult speech processing, infant language development and second language acquisition. In speech production, I am interested in the form and functions of prosody, in particular, speech rhythm and timing.


Some recent work considers prosody in interaction, examining the timing of conversational turns and the impact of conditions such as depression on the dynamics of speech prosody. We are also working on a three-year ESRC-funded project (2024-27), "", with research associate and co-investigator Julie Morris.


For a full publication list, including links, please see my personal research website:


PhD students supervised

Current:

  • (缅北禁地, 2021-): Using first language transfer to predict effectiveness of training for second language tone perception.
  • (缅北禁地, 2023-): Individual differences in temporal predictions in speech: word segmentation and conversational turn-taking.
  • (缅北禁地, 2025-): A longitudinal study of patient and therapist prosody in psychotherapy sessions for people with depression.


Completed:

  • (Plymouth, 2014-17): The impact of voice on trust attributions.
  • Siyu Chen (Greenwich, 2017-21, as external supervisor): A psycholinguistic study of bilingual lexical access: the tone-intonation interface and implications for L2 tone acquisition.
  • Saleh Ghadanfari (缅北禁地, 2018-22): Hierarchical timing in varieties of Kuwaiti Arabic.
  • Andreas Krug (缅北禁地, 2019-2023): The roles of familiarity, intelligibility and attitude in the processing of native and non-native accents.
  • (缅北禁地, 2019-2024): Creating a story-based dynamic assessment to identify Developmental Language Disorder in children learning English as an additional language.
  • (缅北禁地, 2020-2025): Conversational turn timing: The effects of prosody and ragmatic context in production and perception.


PhD studentship applications for January 2027

Applications are encouraged for PhD projects on the broad theme of prosody in speech perception and production, under the supervision of Laurence White and colleagues in Speech and Language Sciences at 缅北禁地.


Proposals should be finalised by January 2027: please contact as soon as possible to indicate your areas of research interest. Potential themes include, but are not limited to:

  • Prosody in interaction, such as the timing of conversational turns across languages.
  • The impact of psychiatric conditions such as depression and dementia on the dynamics of speech prosody.
  • The roles of regional and second language accent information in speech processing.


Studentships are available via open competition from Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership (NINE DTP: https://www.ninedtp.ac.uk/).


Overview

Prosody, the melody and timing of speech, tells us about not only the structure and content of spoken interactions, but also the emotional state, attitudes and social origins of conversation partners. We know that our linguistic background can affect our interpretation of prosody, but how far are such perceptual biases determined by experience? Are there prosodic codes that are interpreted consistently by listeners whatever their linguistic background? What could universal cues tell us about the evolutionary origin and historical development of languages? Conversely, how is our use of prosody in speaking and listening affected by individual differences in perception and cognition, including developmental and acquired language disorders? How well do differences along prosodic dimensions predict the ease with which native speakers of one language can learn another?

 

Research projects addressing these and related themes lend themselves to a range of experimental approaches including: behavioural research, with adults and infants; articulatory analysis; computational modelling and evolutionary simulations; neuroscientific studies using electroencephalography (EEG). Experience in any of these techniques would be useful, as would experience of inferential statistical analysis.

 

Students with an interest in spoken language and relevant degree qualifications are encouraged to contact Laurence White (laurence.white@newcastle.ac.uk) for further discussion.

Teaching

Degree Programme Director: BSc Speech and Language Therapy; Master of Speech and Language Sciences.


Teaching: Brain and Behaviour II/III (Neurology/Neuropsychology), Research Methods III, Research Methods IV.

Module Leader: SPE3056 Research Methods III and SPE4050 Research Methods IV.




Publications

  • Articles

    • Ghadanfari S, al-Tamimi J, Khattab G, White L. . Language and Speech 2026, Epub ahead of print.
    • Torre I, White L, Goslin J, Knight S. . Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 2024, 77(10), 1957-1966.
    • Hoogland D, White L, Knight S. . Languages 2023, 8(2), 115.
    • Torre I, Goslin J, White L. . Computers in Human Behavior 2020, 105, 106215.
    • White L, Benavides-Varela S, Mády K. . Journal of Phonetics 2020, 81, 100982.
    • Palmer SD, Hutson J, White L, Mattys SL. . Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition 2019, 45(1), 139-146.
    • Floccia C, Sambrook TD, Luche CD, Kwok R, Goslin J, White L, Cattani A, Sullivan E, Abbott-Smith K, Krott A, Mills D, Rowland C, Gervain J, Plunkett K. . Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 2018, 83(1), 7-29.
    • Floccia C, Keren-Portnoy T, DePaolis R, Duffy H, Delle Luche C, Durrant S, White L, Goslin J, Vihman M. . Cognition 2016, 148, 1-9.
    • White L, Mattys SL, Stefansdottir L, Jones V. . Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2015, 138(2), 1214-1220.
    • White L, Floccia C, Goslin J, Butler J. . Language Learning 2014, 64(s2), 27-44.
    • White L. . Speech Communication 2014, 63-64, 38-54.
    • Adelman JS, Johnson RL, McCormick SF, McKague M, Kinoshita S, Bowers JS, Perry JR, Lupker SJ, Forster KI, Cortese MJ, Scaltritti M, Aschenbrenner AJ, Coane JH, White L, Yap MJ, Davis C, Kim J, Davis CJ. . Behavior Research Methods 2014, 46(4), 1052-1067.
    • Monaghan P, White L, Merkx MM. . Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2013, 134(1), EL45.
    • White L, Mattys SL, Wiget L. . Frontiers in Psychology 2012, 3, 375.
    • White L, Mattys SL, Wiget L. . Journal of Memory and Language 2012, 66(4), 665-679.
    • White L, Melhorn JF, Mattys SL. . Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 2010, 63(3), 544-554.
    • Wiget L, White L, Schuppler B, Grenon I, Rauch O, Mattys SL. . Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2010, 127(3), 1559-1569.
    • White L, Turk AE. . Journal of Phonetics 2010, 38(3), 459-471.
    • Ladd DR, Schepman A, White L, Quarmby LM, Stackhouse R. . Journal of Phonetics 2009, 37(2), 145-161.
    • Liss JM, White L, Mattys SL, Lansford K, Lotto AJ, Spitzer SM, Caviness JN. . Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2009, 52(5), 1334-1352.
    • Mattys SL, Melhorn JF, White L. . Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 2007, 33(4), 960-977.
    • White L, Mattys SL. . Journal of Phonetics 2007, 35(4), 501-522.
    • Mattys SL, White L, Melhorn JF. . Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2005, 134(4), 477-500.
    • Turk AE, White L. . Journal of Phonetics 1999, 27(2), 171-206.
    • Foster JC, McInnes FR, Jack MA, Love S, Dutton RT, Nairn IA, White LS. . Behaviour & Information Technology 1998, 17(2), 82-92.

  • Book Chapters

    • Ghadanfari S, White L. . In: Meyer, L; Strauss, A, ed. Rhythms of Speech and Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2026.
    • White L. . In: Shirley-Ann Rueschemeyer and M. Gareth Gaskell, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp.5-30.
    • White L, Liss JM, Dellwo V. . In: Assessment of Motor Speech Disorders. San Diego: Plural, 2011, pp.231-252.
    • White L, Payne E, Mattys SL. . In: Marina Vigario, Sonia Frota and M. Joao Freitas, ed. Phonetics and Phonology: Interactions and Interrelations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009, pp.137-158.
    • White L, Mattys SL. . In: Pilar Prieto, Joan Mascaró and Maria-Josep Solé, ed. Segmental and Prosodic Issues in Romance Phonology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007, pp.237-257.
    • White L, Turk AE. . In: R. Lawrence, ed. Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics Volume 18, Part 9: Speech and Hearing '96. St. Albans: Institute of Acoustics, 1996, pp.171-178.
    • McInnes FR, White L, Foster JC, Jack MA. . In: Proceedings of the ESCA Workshop on Spoken Dialogue Systems. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 1995, pp.149-152.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

    • Krug A, Khattab G, White L. . In: Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences – ICPhS 2023. 2023, Prague: International Phonetic Association.
    • Li Y, White L, Khattab G. . In: Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences – ICPhS 2023. 2023, Prague: International Phonetic Association.
    • White L, Mattys S, Knight S, Saunders T, Macbeath L. . In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody - Speech Prosody 2022. 2022, Lisbon, Portugal: International Speech Communication Association.
    • Torre I, Goslin J, White L, Zanatto D. Trust in artificial voices: A "congruency effect" of first impressions and behavioural experience. In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. 2018, Association for Computing Machinery.
    • Torre I, Goslin J, White L, Zanatto D. . In: Proceedings of the Technology, Mind and Society (TechMindSociety '18). 2018, Washington, DC, USA: ACM.
    • Morris-Haynes R, White L, Mattys SL. . In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody. 2016, Boston, USA: International Speech Communications Association.
    • White L, Luche CD, Floccia C. . In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody. 2016, Boston, USA: International Speech Communications Association.
    • Torre I, White L, Goslin J. . In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody. 2016, Boston, USA: International Speech Communications Association.
    • Morris Haynes R, White L, Mattys S. . In: 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. 2015, Glasgow: International Phonetic Association.
    • Torre I, Goslin J, White L. . In: 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. 2015, Glasgow: International Phonetic Association.
    • White L, Mattys S, Steffansdottir L, Jones V. . In: Proceedings of the VIIth International Conference on Speech Prosody. 2014, Dublin: International Speech Communications Association.
    • White L, Wiget L, Rauch O, Mattys SL. . In: 5th Conference on Speech Prosody. 2010, Chicago, IL, USA: International Speech Communication Association.
    • White L, Mady K. . In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Speech Prosody (SP 2008). 2008, Campinas, Brazil: International Speech Communications Association.
    • Grenon I, White L. . In: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 32). 2008, Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press.
    • White L, Mattys SL, Series L, Gage S. . In: Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVI). 2007, Saarbrucken, Germany: Universität des Saarlandes.
    • Turk A, White L. . In: 5th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (EUROSPEECH '97). 1997, Rhodes, Greece: International Speech Communication Association.