The role of linguistic experience in the hemispheric perception of Mandarin tone.

Abstract

The current study investigated whether and to what extent lexical tone is processed as linguistic information by native Mandarin listeners, early Mandarin‐Dutch bilinguals, second year Dutch students of Chinese, and monolingual Dutch students. Dichotic listening task was conducted in each of the four groups in order to determine to what extent the processing of lexical tones in Mandarin was lateralized to the left hemisphere. The majority of native Mandarin listeners revealed a right‐ear advantage (REA) corresponding to a left‐hemisphere lateralization in the perception of Mandarin tones. Similar to the native Chinese listeners, the Dutch‐Mandarin bilinguals also exhibited an REA. Moreover, the left‐hemisphere dominance was even more evident for these proficient bilinguals than for the native listeners. However, the Dutch listeners without any experience with Mandarin or other tonal languages showed no ear advantage. For the second year Chinese major listeners, five listeners revealed an REA, while others exhibited a bilateral pattern. The results suggested that there is a tendency for a right‐ear advantage corresponding to left‐hemisphere superiority for listeners with at least some basic experience of Mandarin tones.