Mismatch negativity reflects the affect of training on speech perception.

Abstract

An adult’s ability to perceive speech sounds that do not occur in their native language is influenced by the relationship between the new and native language phonology and by the individual’s capacity to perceive acoustic differences. Individual differences are important: even after phonetic training, adults with similar language backgrounds exhibit significant individual differences in their ability to learn difficult non‐native speech sounds [Polka (1991); Pruitt, Strange, Polka, & Aguilar (1990)]. Neurophysiologic changes due to learning are also reflected in the mismatch negativity (MMN) response and are indicative of the effects of training [Naatanen et al. (1993) and Kraus et al. (1995)]. The present experiment included two groups of six normal‐hearing monolingual American‐English speakers. The experimental group was trained to identify a voiced, unaspirated, dental stop consonant. The control group received no training on the dental. Electrophysiologic responses were measured for both groups in response to the dental and alveolar contrasts using a perceptual mapping procedure. Training improved the experimental group’s ability to perceive the non‐native contrast. Training effects were also reflected in the MMN response, as observed by increased duration and decreased onset latency.