Semantic processing of regional varieties in native Spanish listeners: the role of accent familiarity

Research shows that nonnative accents differing from a listener’s own can impede comprehension, as described by the Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB). While extensively studied in nonnative contexts, native regional varieties have been less frequently studied, with mixed findings. This study examined native listeners’ real-time sentence processing of geographically distant Spanish varieties. Mexican Spanish speakers listened to accents that matched (Mexican) or mismatched (Peninsular Spain, Puerto Rico) their own, along with nonnative English-accented Spanish. Behavioral results showed high comprehension across all varieties. ERP findings revealed semantic violation N400 effects for the Mexican and familiar Peninsular Spain but not for the less-familiar Puerto Rican accent. An N400 and late negativity appeared for nonnative English-accented Spanish. Results indicate that less-familiar native language varieties challenge, while familiar accents facilitate, lexico-semantic access during real-time sentence processing. Findings support a generalized intra-language processing benefit for regional varieties beyond matched speech, further refining the ISIB hypothesis.