Abstract
Listeners possess a remarkable ability to adapt to acoustic variability in the realization of speech sound categories (e.g., different accents). The current work tests whether non-native listeners adapt their use of acoustic cues in phonetic categorization when they are confronted with changes in the distribution of cues in the input, as native listeners do, and examines to what extent these adaptation patterns are influenced by individual cue-weighting strategies. In line with previous work, native English listeners, who use voice onset time (VOT) as a primary cue to the stop voicing contrast (e.g., ‘pa’ vs. ‘ba’), adjusted their use of f0 (a secondary cue to the contrast) when confronted with a noncanonical “accent” in which the two cues gave conflicting information about category membership. Native Korean listeners’ adaptation strategies, while variable, were predictable based on their initial cue weighting strategies. In particular, listeners who used f0 as the primary cue to category membership adjusted their use of VOT (their secondary cue) in response to the noncanonical accent, mirroring the native pattern of “downweighting” a secondary cue. Results suggest that non-native listeners show native-like sensitivity to distributional information in the input and use this information to adjust categorization, just as native listeners do, with the specific trajectory of category adaptation governed by initial cue-weighting strategies.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 355-367 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2016 |
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Keywords
- Categorization
- L2 speech perception
- Perceptual learning
- Psycholinguistics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sensory Systems
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
Cite this
Individual differences in perceptual adaptability of foreign sound categories. / Schertz, Jessamyn; Cho, Taehong; Lotto, Andrew J; Warner, Natasha.
In: Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, Vol. 78, No. 1, 01.01.2016, p. 355-367.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Individual differences in perceptual adaptability of foreign sound categories
AU - Schertz, Jessamyn
AU - Cho, Taehong
AU - Lotto, Andrew J
AU - Warner, Natasha
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Listeners possess a remarkable ability to adapt to acoustic variability in the realization of speech sound categories (e.g., different accents). The current work tests whether non-native listeners adapt their use of acoustic cues in phonetic categorization when they are confronted with changes in the distribution of cues in the input, as native listeners do, and examines to what extent these adaptation patterns are influenced by individual cue-weighting strategies. In line with previous work, native English listeners, who use voice onset time (VOT) as a primary cue to the stop voicing contrast (e.g., ‘pa’ vs. ‘ba’), adjusted their use of f0 (a secondary cue to the contrast) when confronted with a noncanonical “accent” in which the two cues gave conflicting information about category membership. Native Korean listeners’ adaptation strategies, while variable, were predictable based on their initial cue weighting strategies. In particular, listeners who used f0 as the primary cue to category membership adjusted their use of VOT (their secondary cue) in response to the noncanonical accent, mirroring the native pattern of “downweighting” a secondary cue. Results suggest that non-native listeners show native-like sensitivity to distributional information in the input and use this information to adjust categorization, just as native listeners do, with the specific trajectory of category adaptation governed by initial cue-weighting strategies.
AB - Listeners possess a remarkable ability to adapt to acoustic variability in the realization of speech sound categories (e.g., different accents). The current work tests whether non-native listeners adapt their use of acoustic cues in phonetic categorization when they are confronted with changes in the distribution of cues in the input, as native listeners do, and examines to what extent these adaptation patterns are influenced by individual cue-weighting strategies. In line with previous work, native English listeners, who use voice onset time (VOT) as a primary cue to the stop voicing contrast (e.g., ‘pa’ vs. ‘ba’), adjusted their use of f0 (a secondary cue to the contrast) when confronted with a noncanonical “accent” in which the two cues gave conflicting information about category membership. Native Korean listeners’ adaptation strategies, while variable, were predictable based on their initial cue weighting strategies. In particular, listeners who used f0 as the primary cue to category membership adjusted their use of VOT (their secondary cue) in response to the noncanonical accent, mirroring the native pattern of “downweighting” a secondary cue. Results suggest that non-native listeners show native-like sensitivity to distributional information in the input and use this information to adjust categorization, just as native listeners do, with the specific trajectory of category adaptation governed by initial cue-weighting strategies.
KW - Categorization
KW - L2 speech perception
KW - Perceptual learning
KW - Psycholinguistics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84953636097&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84953636097&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3758/s13414-015-0987-1
DO - 10.3758/s13414-015-0987-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 26404530
AN - SCOPUS:84953636097
VL - 78
SP - 355
EP - 367
JO - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
JF - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
SN - 1943-3921
IS - 1
ER -