Collaborative research: learning new sounds - understanding and overcoming phonological interference in songbirds and humans

The National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers awarded the Research Foundation of the City University of New York, doing business as RFCUNY - York College, $389,498 on May 1, 2026, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to conduct collaborative research on phonological interference in language and song learning.

The project combines second-song learning experiments in zebra finches with second-language learning experiments in adult humans to test a hypothesis that similar mechanisms for learning new sounds have evolved across songbird and human species. The research addresses phonological interference—the tendency of sounds learned first in a native language to impede acquisition of similar sounds in a second language learned in adulthood—and aims to improve adult language learning outcomes. The work encompasses vocal communication system evolution across species and training for high-school and undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research skills through involvement in birdsong and speech learning experiments.

Place of performance is Jamaica, New York. The award period runs from May 1, 2026, through April 30, 2029. The assistance type is a Project Grant.

Abstract

How do people communicate successfully with other people? Part of being understood is pronouncing words so they are not confused with other words. The difference between back and pack in english, for example, is just a single sound, but if someone does not get that difference right they may not be understood. Although young children learn such differences in their first language easily, adults learning a new language typically do not. Is IT possible to improve adults' learning of sounds in other languages so that people will be able to communicate more easily and more successfully? This study uses information from experiments with songbirds to advance a new hypothesis about how learners ? Whether they are humans or birds ? Learn new sounds. Just as humans can be bilingual, some bird species can be ?bilingual? As well: they are capable of learning new songs after early life. This study proposes that a similar way of learning sounds has evolved in both songbirds and humans, and combines ?second song? Learning experiments in zebra finches and second language learning experiments in adult humans. The research will help to better understand how vocal communication systems evolve across different species and how to improve language learning outcomes in human adults. The project will also train high-school and undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research skills through involvement in birdsong and speech learning experiments. This project also advances NSF?S priorities in artificial intelligence. Both songbirds and humans can learn multiple songs or languages, an important adaptation to life in complex social groups. In humans this ability has a paradoxical downside: the sounds that are learned first, in one?S native language (L1), can interfere with learning similar sounds as an adult in a second language (L2). Three important features of phonological interference remain ILL-understood: what the mechanisms are that cause such interference, whether phonological interference is uniquely human or shared with other animal vocal learners like songbirds, and how to reduce interference and promote effective learning. This collaborative study will advance the understanding of the mechanisms underlying phonological interference, the generality of interference across species, and ways to reduce or eliminate IT. The study investigates the hypothesis that the mechanism responsible for subtle changes in native sound categories that occur throughout life (e.g., to accommodate variability across and within speakers) directly interferes with learning new sounds. The additional hypothesis is that a similar mechanism has evolved convergently in highly social songbirds, causing interference in learning new songs. To test these hypotheses, and to derive an auditory training method for reducing interference in both birdsong and speech learning, the study combines experiments inducing second song learning in zebra finches, with a multi-session study of L2 sound learning in adult humans. The study will yield insights into how life-long adaptation of previously learned skills affects DE novo learning in humans and other animals and can yield the first songbird-derived method for improving L2 speech sound learning. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.