Work

Cross-language perceptual similarity predicts categorial discrimination of American vowels by naïve Japanese listeners

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: Current speech perception models propose that relative perceptual difficulties with non-native segmental contrasts can be predicted from cross-language phonetic similarities. Japanese (J) listeners performed a categorical discrimination task in which nine contrasts (six adjacent height pairs, three front/back pairs) involving eight American (AE) vowels [iː, ɪ, ε, æː, ɑː, ʌ, ʊ, uː] in /hVbə/ disyllables were tested. The listeners also completed a perceptual assimilation task (categorization as J vowels with category goodness ratings). Perceptual assimilation patterns (quantified as categorization overlap scores) were highly predictive of discrimination accuracy (r(s)=0.93). Results suggested that J listeners used both spectral and temporal information in discriminating vowel contrasts.

Source: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

DOI: 10.1121/1.3630221

Authors: Winifred Strange, Miwako Hisagi, Reiko Akahane-Yamada, Rieko Kubo

Institutions: City University of New York, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Phonetics and Phonology Research

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: U.S. Public Health Service, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Awards: Study on the model and the system that enhance the various learning processes in foreign language acquisiton, G5795652552, G7195419762