Vowel identification in temporal modulated noise for native and non-native listeners: Effect of language experience

Abstract

Previous work in our laboratories found vowel identification in babble was significant different between Chinese-native listeners in China and United States. As a follow-up, the current study focused on whether the two groups of Chinese listeners had any difference in using temporal cues of noise for vowel identification. Temporal modulation transfer function and vowel identification in temporal modulated noise were measured for American English native (EN) listeners, Chinese-native listeners in United States (CNU), and Chinese-native listeners in China(CNC). Results revealed that TMTF is similar across three groups, indicating that psychophysical temporal processing is independent of listeners’ language backgrounds. However, for vowel identification in noise, EN and CNU listeners showed significantly greater masking release from temporal modulation of the noise than CNC listeners, especially at low SNR conditions (e.g., −12 dB). Altogether, native English exposure may change the use of temporal cues on English vowel identification for Chinese-native listeners.