Effects of native language on phonetic processing in Dutch and American listeners

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Effects of native language on phonetic processing in Dutch and American listeners Alex Brandmeyer1*, P. Desain1 and James M. McQueen1, 2, 3 1 Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognition, Radboud University Nijme, Netherlands 2 Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands 3 Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands Behavioral and electrophysiological studies have revealed differences in the processing of speech sounds stemming from language differences. For example, although mismatch-negativity (MMN) ERP components are elicited by phonetic contrasts which are phonemic in the listener's native language, the same contrast may fall within a phonemic category and hence not elicit an MMN in nonnative listeners. These differences are also reflected in behavioral experiments, such as those using the two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) categorization task. Such experiments have shown that Dutch and American listeners differ in their processing of stop consonants. The presence or absence of prevoicing is for Dutch listeners the most salient cue for distinguishing voiced and unvoiced stops. In contrast, the amount of aspiration prior to voice onset is the primary cue for American listeners. The present study tested 2 Dutch and 2 American listeners using EEG and behavioral paradigms to investigate how changes in Voice Onset Time (VOT) are processed by native and nonnative listeners. A token of the syllable /pa/, spoken by a male, native American English speaker, was used to create a /pa/-/ba/ test continuum. The amount of aspiration prior to voicing (i.e. VOT) was successively reduced, but syllable duration was kept constant by inserting additional periods of voicing from the steady-state portion of the vowel. These manipulated tokens were then used as semi-random deviant stimuli in an oddball paradigm task which measured the EEG signal of the participants while they watched a silent film. The original /pa/ token was presented as a standard, occurring 85% of the time. Following EEG measurement, participants completed a 2AFC task in which the deviant stimuli had to be categorized as either /pa/ or /ba/. We hypothesized that the American participants would show a successively increasing MMN response to deviant stimuli with more reduced aspiration, while Dutch listeners would have no response, or a significantly reduced response compared to their American counterparts. We also hypothesized that the strength of the MMN response to a deviant stimulus would correlate with the certainty of judgments made for the same stimulus in the behavioral task. Implications of the results for the representation and processing of speech sounds by native and nonnative listeners will be discussed. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Brandmeyer A, Desain P and McQueen JM (2009). Effects of native language on phonetic processing in Dutch and American listeners. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.077 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Mar 2009; Published Online: 25 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Alex Brandmeyer, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognition, Radboud University Nijme, Nijmegen, Netherlands, a.brandmeyer@donders.ru.nl Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Alex Brandmeyer P. Desain James M McQueen Google Alex Brandmeyer P. Desain James M McQueen Google Scholar Alex Brandmeyer P. Desain James M McQueen PubMed Alex Brandmeyer P. Desain James M McQueen Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.