Perception of native language speech sounds does not predict non-native speech sound learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
pp. 3516-3516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Fuhrmeister ◽  
Emily Myers
Keyword(s):  
Native Language ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Sound Learning

Visual and auditory native language interference in perceptual learning of non-native speech sounds

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
pp. 2162-2162
Author(s):  
Pamela Fuhrmeister ◽  
F. Sayako Earle ◽  
Jay Rueckl ◽  
Emily Myers
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

scholarly journals Neural Representation of Articulable and Inarticulable Novel Sound Contrasts: The Role of the Dorsal Stream

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-364
Author(s):  
David I. Saltzman ◽  
Emily B. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Dorsal Stream ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Native Speech

The extent that articulatory information embedded in incoming speech contributes to the formation of new perceptual categories for speech sounds has been a matter of discourse for decades. It has been theorized that the acquisition of new speech sound categories requires a network of sensory and speech motor cortical areas (the “dorsal stream”) to successfully integrate auditory and articulatory information. However, it is possible that these brain regions are not sensitive specifically to articulatory information, but instead are sensitive to the abstract phonological categories being learned. We tested this hypothesis by training participants over the course of several days on an articulable non-native speech contrast and acoustically matched inarticulable nonspeech analogues. After reaching comparable levels of proficiency with the two sets of stimuli, activation was measured in fMRI as participants passively listened to both sound types. Decoding of category membership for the articulable speech contrast alone revealed a series of left and right hemisphere regions outside of the dorsal stream that have previously been implicated in the emergence of non-native speech sound categories, while no regions could successfully decode the inarticulable nonspeech contrast. Although activation patterns in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, and the supplementary motor area provided better information for decoding articulable (speech) sounds compared to the inarticulable (sine wave) sounds, the finding that dorsal stream regions do not emerge as good decoders of the articulable contrast alone suggests that other factors, including the strength and structure of the emerging speech categories are more likely drivers of dorsal stream activation for novel sound learning.

Nederlandse Baby's Gebruiken Statistische Informatie om Spraakklanken te Leren Onderscheiden

2008 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
Desiree Capel ◽  
Elise de Bree ◽  
Annemarie Kerkhoff ◽  
Frank Wijnen
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Statistical Distribution ◽  
First Year ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Bimodal Condition ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
First Year Of Life

Phonemes are perceived categorically and this perception is language-specific for adult listeners. Infants initially are "universal" listeners, capable of discriminating both native and non-native speech contrasts. This ability disappears in the first year of life. Maye et al. (Cognition (2002)) propose that statistical learning is responsible for this change to language-specific perception. They were the first to show that infants of 6 and 8 months old use statistical distribution of phonetic variation in learning to discriminate speech sounds. A replication of this experiment studied 10-11-month-old Dutch infants. They were exposed to either a bimodal or a unimodal frequency distribution of an 8-step speech sound continuum based on the Hindi voiced and voiceless retroflex plosives (/da/ en /ta/). The results show that only infants in the bimodal condition could discriminate the contrast, representing the speech sounds in two categories rather than one.

scholarly journals Category labels induce boundary-dependent perceptual warping in learned speech categories

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Swan ◽  
Emily Myers
Keyword(s):  
Native Language ◽  
Category Boundary ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Perceptual Sensitivity ◽  
Relative Placement ◽  
Relevant Category ◽  
Category Labels ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Phonetic Contrasts ◽  
Stable Categories

Adults tend to perceive speech sounds from their native language as members of distinct and stable categories; however, they fail to perceive differences between many non-native speech sounds without a great deal of training. The present study investigates the effects of categorization training on adults’ ability to discriminate non-native phonetic contrasts. It was hypothesized that only individuals who successfully learned the appropriate categories would show selective improvements in discriminating between-category contrasts. Participants were trained to categorize progressively narrow phonetic contrasts across one of two non-native boundaries, with discrimination pre- and post-tests completed to measure the effects of training on participants’ perceptual sensitivity. Results suggest that changes in adults’ ability to discriminate a non-native contrast depend on their successful learning of the relevant category structure. Furthermore, post-training identification functions show that changes in perceptual categories specifically correspond to their relative placement of the category boundary. Taken together, these results indicate that learning to assign category labels to a non-native speech continuum is sufficient to induce discontinuous perception of between- versus within-category contrasts.

scholarly journals Examining group differences in between-participant variability in non-native speech sound learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Fuhrmeister
Keyword(s):  
Speech Sound ◽  
Training Group ◽  
Original Study ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Discrimination Test ◽  
Vowel Context ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Sound Learning

AbstractMany studies on non-native speech sound learning report a large amount of between-participant variability. This variability allows us to ask interesting questions about non-native speech sound learning, such as whether certain training paradigms give rise to more or less between-participant variability. This study presents a reanalysis of Fuhrmeister and Myers (Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 82(4), 2049-2065, 2020) and tests whether different types of phonetic training lead to group differences in between-participant variability. The original study trained participants on a non-native speech sound contrast in two different phonological (vowel) contexts and tested for differences in means between a group that received blocked training (one vowel context at a time) and interleaved training (vowel contexts were randomized). No statistically significant differences in means were found between the two groups in the original study on a discrimination test (a same-different judgment). However, the current reanalysis tested group differences in between-participant variability and found greater variability in the blocked training group immediately after training because this group had a larger proportion of participants with higher-than-average scores. After a period of offline consolidation, this group difference in variability decreased substantially. This suggests that the type and difficulty of phonetic training (blocked vs. interleaved) may initially give rise to differences in between-participant variability, but offline consolidation may attenuate that variability and have an equalizing effect across participants. This reanalysis supports the view that examining between-participant variability in addition to means when analyzing data can give us a more complete picture of the effects being tested.

Adults Show Initial Advantages Over Children in Learning Difficult Nonnative Speech Sounds

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (8) ◽  
pp. 2667-2679
Author(s):  
Pamela Fuhrmeister ◽  
Brianna Schlemmer ◽  
Emily B. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Learning Trajectory ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Perceptual Skills ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Efficient Learning ◽  
Sound Learning

Purpose Children and early adolescents seem to have an advantage over adults in acquiring nonnative speech sounds, supported by evidence showing that earlier age of acquisition strongly predicts second language attainment. Although many factors influence children’s ultimate success in language learning, it is unknown whether children rely on different, perhaps more efficient learning mechanisms than adults. Method The current study compared children (aged 10–16 years) and adults in their learning of a nonnative Hindi contrast. We tested the hypothesis that younger participants would show superior baseline discriminability or learning of the contrast, better memory for new sounds after a delay, or improved generalization to a new talker's voice. Measures of phonological and auditory skills were collected to determine whether individual variability in these skills predicts nonnative speech sound learning and whether these potential relationships differ between adults and children. Results Adults showed superior pretraining sensitivity to the contrast compared to children, and these pretraining discrimination scores predicted learning and retention. Even though adults seemed to have an initial advantage in learning, children improved after a period of off-line consolidation on the trained identification task and began to catch up to adults after an overnight delay. Additionally, perceptual skills that predicted speech sound learning differed between adults and children, suggesting they rely on different learning mechanisms. Conclusions These findings challenge the view that children are simply better speech sound learners than adults and suggest that their advantages may be due to different learning mechanisms or better retention of nonnative contrasts over the broader language learning trajectory. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12735914

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