The present study investigates the interplay between proficiency and empathy in the development of second language (L2) prosody by analyzing the perception and processing of intonation in questions and statements in L2 Spanish. A total of 225 adult L2 Spanish learners (L1 English) from the Northeastern United States completed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task in which they listened to four utterance types and categorized them as either questions or statements. We used Bayesian multilevel regression and drift diffusion modeling to analyze the 2AFC data as a function of proficiency level and empathy scores for each utterance type. We show that learner response accuracy and sensitivity to intonation are positively correlated with proficiency, and this association is affected by individual empathy levels in both response accuracy and sentence processing. Higher empathic individuals, in comparison with lower empathic individuals, appear to be more sensitive to intonation cues in the process of forming sound-meaning associations, though increased sensitivity does not necessarily imply increased processing speed. The results motivate the inclusion of measures of pragmatic skill, such as empathy, to better account for intonational meaning processing and sentence comprehension in second language acquisition.

本研究通过分析第二语言西班牙语问题和陈述中语调的感知和处理，探讨第二语言（L2）韵律发展中熟练程度和同理心之间的相互作用。来自美国东北部的总共 225 名成年二语西班牙语学习者（一语英语）完成了一项二选一强制选择 (2AFC) 任务，其中他们聆听四种话语类型并将其分类为问题或陈述。我们使用贝叶斯多级回归和漂移扩散模型来分析 2AFC 数据，将其作为每种话语类型的熟练程度和同理心得分的函数。我们表明学习者的反应准确性和对语调的敏感性与熟练程度呈正相关，这种关联在反应准确性和句子处理方面都受到个人同理心水平的影响。与共情能力较低的个体相比，共情能力较高的个体在形成声音-意义关联的过程中似乎对语调线索更加敏感，尽管敏感性的提高并不一定意味着处理速度的提高。研究结果促使纳入语用技能的衡量标准，例如同理心，以更好地解释第二语言习得中的语调意义处理和句子理解。