Rebecca Scarborough

Rebecca Scarborough is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado. She is also affiliated with the Institute of Cognitive Science. Her research focuses on phonetics and laboratory phonology, particularly exploring systematic variation in speech sounds, communicative factors influencing variation, and the perceptual benefits of such variation for listeners. A key area of study involves nasal coarticulation and its cross-linguistic patterns in languages like French, Brazilian Portuguese, Lakota, and English. Her work bridges phonetic production, acoustic analysis, and perception, emphasizing how variation enhances communication efficiency.

Rebecca’s recent studies investigate topics such as bilingual phonetic boundaries, pitch accent imitation, and the role of multidimensional signals in speech analysis. She employs machine learning techniques, as seen in RNN-based vowel classification research. Her research often addresses lexical neighborhood density effects on phonetic production and perception, highlighting how contextual factors shape speech clarity and adaptability.

Despite her extensive academic contributions, no specific scientific awards are mentioned in the provided materials. Her advising and grants activities are not detailed here, but her affiliation with the Institute of Cognitive Science underscores interdisciplinary collaboration. Her office is located in LBB 142, and she maintains an academic website for further engagement.