Forced-choice Identification Task Research Articles

CONCEPTUALLY CUED PERCEPTUAL CATEGORIZATION IN ADULT L2 LEARNERS

AbstractPrevious studies attest that early bilinguals can modify their perceptual identification according to the fine-grained phonetic detail of the language they believe they are hearing. Following Gonzales et al. (2019), we replicate the double phonemic boundary effect in late learners (LBs) using conceptual-based cueing. We administered a forced choice identification task to 169 native English adult learners of Spanish in two sessions. In both sessions, participants identified the same /b/-/p/ voicing continuum, but language context was cued conceptually using the instructions. The data were analyzed using Bayesian multilevel regression. Learners categorized the continuum in a similar manner when they believed they were hearing English. However, when they believed they were hearing Spanish, “voiceless” responses increased as a function of L2 proficiency. This research demonstrates the double phonemic boundary effect can be conceptually cued in LBs and supports accounts positing selective activation of independent perception grammars in L2 learning.

The Acquisition of Mandarin Consonants by English Learners: The Relationship between Perception and Production

This study investigates native English CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) learners’ difficulties with Mandarin consonants at the initial stage of learning and explores the relationship between second language (L2) speech perception and production. Twenty-five native English CFL learners read the eight Mandarin consonants (j/tɕ/, q /tɕʰ/, x /ɕ/, zh /tʂ/, ch /tʂʰ/, sh /ʂ/, z /ts/, and c /tsʰ/) in sentences and identified the target sounds in a forced-choice identification task. Native Mandarin listeners identified the consonants produced by the learners and rated the quality of each sound they identified along a scale of 1 (poor) to 7 (good). The learners’ mean percentage accuracy scores ranged from 29% to 80% for perception and 25% to 88% for production. Moderate correlations between the perception and production scores were found for two of the eight target sounds. The Mandarin retroflex, palatal, and dental fricatives and affricates, though all lack counterparts in English, pose different problems to the English CFL learners. The misperceived retroflex and palatal sounds were substituted with each other in perception but mis-produced palatal sounds were substituted with each other, not with retroflex sounds. The relationship between perception and production of L2 consonants is not straightforward. The findings are discussed in terms of current speech learning models.

Evaluative conditioning of pattern-masked nonwords requires perceptual awareness.

The evaluative conditioning (EC) phenomenon is central to the study of preference acquisition and attitude formation. Early studies have reported EC in the absence of awareness, but more recent work has questioned this conclusion. In previous work, using briefly presented and pattern-masked conditioned stimuli (CSs), we found that above-chance forced-choice identification of CSs is necessary for EC. Here we extend this work by addressing more directly the inherently subjective issue of consciousness. In 2 studies, we assessed whether above-threshold perceptual awareness of CSs is necessary for EC. Contrasting unconscious learning claims, EC was absent under low and intermediate levels of perceptual awareness. Additional findings suggest that the perceptual awareness task does not interfere with EC, and that it is more sensitive than memory-based awareness proxies. We also found that a confounded variant of the forced-choice identification task can artifactually induce EC; and that an unconfounded version of the task does not induce nor interfere with EC. We discuss limitations of the present studies as well as their relevance for the debate about the automaticity of evaluative learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of talker accent on the perception of voicing in syllable-initial plosives by American English monolinguals

A listener's perception of speech is influenced by the talker's characteristics, including their accent. This syllable perception study, which uses a binary forced choice identification task, investigates the effect of talker accent at the level of speech sounds. A single ten-step /ba/-/pa/ continuum varying in voice onset time (VOT) was spliced into identical frame sentences spoken by a native speaker of American English and a non-native speaker whose native language is Mandarin. These frame sentences were modified so that the VOT for the bilabial plosives for both talker conditions is identical. This modification was done to control listeners from using frame sentence VOT as a cue. As the steps in the continuum differed only in terms of VOT for both talker conditions, listeners are only primed by the frame sentence for each item in the experiment. The participants' responses revealed that monolingual American English listeners are more likely to perceive syllables in the native talker condition as /pa/. In particular, the syllable at the 25ms step shows the largest variability between conditions. The results of this study show that listeners can perceive an acoustically identical syllable as being phonemically different when the syllables are spliced into sentences spoken by talkers with different accents.A listener's perception of speech is influenced by the talker's characteristics, including their accent. This syllable perception study, which uses a binary forced choice identification task, investigates the effect of talker accent at the level of speech sounds. A single ten-step /ba/-/pa/ continuum varying in voice onset time (VOT) was spliced into identical frame sentences spoken by a native speaker of American English and a non-native speaker whose native language is Mandarin. These frame sentences were modified so that the VOT for the bilabial plosives for both talker conditions is identical. This modification was done to control listeners from using frame sentence VOT as a cue. As the steps in the continuum differed only in terms of VOT for both talker conditions, listeners are only primed by the frame sentence for each item in the experiment. The participants' responses revealed that monolingual American English listeners are more likely to perceive syllables in the native talker condition as /pa/....

Is there an interlanguage intelligibility benefit in perception of English word stress?

This paper asks whether there is an ‘interlanguage intelligibility benefit’ in perception of word-stress, as has been reported for global sentence recognition. L1 English listeners, and L2 English listeners who are L1 speakers of Arabic dialects from Jordan and Egypt, performed a binary forced-choice identification task on English near-minimal pairs (such as[ˈɒbdʒɛkt] ~ [əbˈdʒɛkt]) produced by an L1 English speaker, and two L2 English speakers from Jordan and Egypt respectively. The results show an overall advantage for L1 English listeners, which replicates the findings of an earlier study for general sentence recognition, and which is also consistent with earlier findings that L1 listeners rely more on structural knowledge than on acoustic cues in stress perception. Non-target-like L2 productions of words with final stress (which are primarily cued in L1 production by vowel reduction in the initial unstressed syllable) were less accurately recognized by L1 English listeners than by L2 listeners, but there was no evidence of a generalized advantage for L2 listeners in response to other L2 stimuli.

The role of F2 and F3 in the perception of liquids for Hindi and Mandarin listeners

Rhotics and laterals are often described as being separated by F3; however, recent work has described lower F2 as a distinguishing quality of rhotics. The current work examines the perception of liquids (rhotics and laterals) by Mandarin and Hindi listeners. Participants completed a forced-choice identification task on a set of 30 stimuli, manipulated from a natural Malayalam production /aɻa/ to vary systematically in F2 and F3. Listeners chose the consonant they heard from a set of approximants (/r/, /l/, /j/, and /w/ or /ʋ/). The results revealed that liquid identification was mostly confined to the mid F2 range, from 1228 Hz to 1728 Hz. Within that range, stimuli with the lowest F2 and F3 values were predominantly identified as rhotics, while those with the highest F2 and F3 values were identified as laterals. The F3 range of 1885 Hz–2135 Hz was ambiguous between rhotics and laterals. The data suggest that F2, as well as F3, plays a key role in rhotic identification, and suggest overlap in the F3 perceptual space for rhotics and laterals for Mandarin and Hindi listeners. The data suggest a complex relationship between F2 and F3 and liquid perception.

The Development of Phonological Stratification: Evidence from Stop Voicing Perception in Gurindji Kriol and Roper Kriol

This study tests the effect of multilingualism and language contact on consonant perception. Here, we explore the emergence of phonological stratification using two alternative forced-choice (2afc) identification task experiments to test listener perception of stop voicing with contrasting minimal pairs modified along a 10-step continuum. We examine a unique language ecology consisting of three languages spoken in Northern Territory, Australia: Roper Kriol (an English-lexifier creole language), Gurindji (Pama-Nyungan), and Gurindji Kriol (a mixed language derived from Gurindji and Kriol). In addition, this study focuses on three distinct age groups: children (group i, 8>), preteens to middle-aged adults (groupii, 10–58), and older adults (groupiii, 65+). Results reveal that both Kriol and Gurindji Kriol listeners in groupiicontrast the labial series [p] and [b]. Contrarily, while alveolar [t] and velar [k] were consistently identifiable by the majority of participants (74%), their voiced counterparts ([d] and [g]) showed random response patterns by 61% of the participants. Responses to the voiced stimuli from the preteen-adult Kriol group were, however, significantly more consistent than in the Gurindji Kriol group, suggesting Kriol listeners may be further along in acquiring the voicing contrast. Significant results regarding listener exposure to Standard English in both language groups also suggests constant exposure to English maybe a catalyst for setting this change in motion. The more varied responses from the Gurindji, Kriol, and Gurindji Kriol listeners in groupsiiandiii, who have little exposure to English, help support these findings.

The role of duration in the perception of vowel merger

Speakers with vowel categories that are considered merged by traditional measures (e.g., F1 and F2 measurements at a single time point) may contrast vowel classes in dimensions beyond vowel quality, such as duration. Durational differences among vowel classes have been observed to persist even in cases of spectral overlap (e.g., Fridland et al., 2014; Labov & Baranowski, 2006), suggesting that duration may serve as a contrastive cue among spectrally-merged or near-merged vowel classes. This paper examines the role of duration in perception in two communities: Youngstown, OH, which exhibits multiple patterns of merger and distinction among POOL-, PULL-, and POLE-CLASS words, and Burlington, VT, whose residents are largely unmerged. This paper presents the results of a forced-choice identification task consisting of lexical stimuli with synthetically manipulated vowel-liquid durations, analyzed in light of participants’ production data. Results indicate that duration influences vowel categorization and is utilized more extensively when spectral cues are diminished or unavailable.

Vowel inventory size matters: assessing cue-weighting in L2 vowel perception

To examine whether L1 vowel inventory size could be a contributing factor to the use of temporal cues in L2 vowel perception, this study assessed the perception of English /i-ɪ/ by 66 learners of four different L1s: Danish, Portuguese, Catalan and Russian. The L2 learners performed a forced-choice identification task containing natural and duration-manipulated stimuli. Findings suggest that the participants’ over-reliance on duration cues seem to be partially related to their L1 vowel inventory size. The participants with the greatest L1 vowel inventory (Danish) demonstrated the most native-like vowel perception and the participants with the smallest L1 vowel inventory (Russian) over-relied on duration cues more than the other learners. Interestingly, the participants with somewhat comparable L1 vowel inventories (Portuguese and Catalan) performed similarly.

Individual differences in second language speech perception across tasks and contrasts: The case of English vowel contrasts by Korean learners

Abstract: The present study examines whether individual differences in second language (L2) learners’ perceptual cue weighting strategies reflect systematic abilities. We tested whether cue weights indicate proficiency in perception using a naturalistic discrimination task as well as whether cue weights are related across contrasts for individual learners. Twenty-four native Korean learners of English completed a two-alternative forced choice identification task on /ɪ/-/i/ and /ɛ/-/æ/ contrasts varying orthogonally in formant frequency and duration to determine their perceptual cue weights. They also completed a two-talker AX discrimination task on natural productions of the same vowels. In the cue-weighting task, we found that individual L2 learners varied greatly in the extent to which they relied on particular phonetic cues. However, individual learners’ perceptual weighting strategies were consistent across contrasts. We also found that more native-like performance on this task – reliance on spectral differences over duration – was related to better recognition of naturally produced vowels in the discrimination task. Therefore, the present study confirms earlier reports that learners vary in the extent to which they rely on particular phonetic cues. Additionally, our results demonstrate that these individual differences reflect systematic cue use across contrasts as well as the ability to discriminate naturally produced stimuli.

Familiarity and Voice Representation: From Acoustic-Based Representation to Voice Averages.

The ability to recognize an individual from their voice is a widespread ability with a long evolutionary history. Yet, the perceptual representation of familiar voices is ill-defined. In two experiments, we explored the neuropsychological processes involved in the perception of voice identity. We specifically explored the hypothesis that familiar voices (trained-to-familiar (Experiment 1), and famous voices (Experiment 2)) are represented as a whole complex pattern, well approximated by the average of multiple utterances produced by a single speaker. In experiment 1, participants learned three voices over several sessions, and performed a three-alternative forced-choice identification task on original voice samples and several “speaker averages,” created by morphing across varying numbers of different vowels (e.g., [a] and [i]) produced by the same speaker. In experiment 2, the same participants performed the same task on voice samples produced by familiar speakers. The two experiments showed that for famous voices, but not for trained-to-familiar voices, identification performance increased and response times decreased as a function of the number of utterances in the averages. This study sheds light on the perceptual representation of familiar voices, and demonstrates the power of average in recognizing familiar voices. The speaker average captures the unique characteristics of a speaker, and thus retains the information essential for recognition; it acts as a prototype of the speaker.

The perception–production link revisited: The case of Japanese learners' English /ɹ/ performance

The current study re‐examines how second language speech perception and production are related in the context of the acquisition of English /ɹ/ by 45 adult Japanese learners with various proficiency levels. Perception was evaluated using a two‐alternative forced choice identification task, while pronunciation performance was assessed via multiple task/analysis contexts. Overall, the participants' perception performance was correlated with the global qualities (accuracy, intelligibility) of their production ability both at controlled and spontaneous speech levels. In light of the results of acoustic analyses, however, their perception ability was only significantly predictive of their redeployment of existing articulatory parameters (i.e., lower F2 for the rate and degree of tongue retraction), not the acquisition of new articulatory parameters (i.e., lower F3 for labial, palatal, and pharyngeal constrictions).

Earlier or Higher? Comparing French rising-falling contour with rising contour in a corpus of conversation

In French intonation, a rising-falling contour (RF) has been described by many authors, but the characteristics of its phonetic realization as well at its phonological status remain controversial. Is its f0 movement temporally aligned earlier compared to the f0 movement of the simple rise (R)? Or is it scaled higher in the speaker’s pitch range? Does it convey conviction and obviousness while the simple rise rather announces that the speaker has more to say? Firstly, the present study compared the phonetic implementation of RF and R in a corpus of naturally occurring conversation. Through the application of a wavelet-based functional mixed model, we could detect significant differences between the shapes of the f0 curves corresponding to RF and R contours. Results show that RF and R mainly differ with respect to the timing of the rise and the amplitude of the falling part. They thus support the claim that these characteristics are more important than the scaling of the pitch peak for the implementation of the contrast between RF and R. Secondly, the results of a forced choice identification task performed by naïve listeners show that they consistently associate the RF contour with the expression of conviction and obviousness and the R contour with the indication that the speaker has more to say.

Power priming and speech perception

English listeners use information about speaker gender in categorizing a sibilant as /s/ or /ʃ/. This study investigates whether sibilant categorization is influenced by whether cues to speaker gender are congruous and whether self-perceived power in turn influences one’s ability to process incongruous gender cues. One’s self-perceived power, the perceived capacity to control another individual’s resources, can inhibit how one attends to information associated with a social category. Participants were primed experimentally for a high or low degree of self-perceived power. They then performed a forced-choice identification task—for each trial, participants were presented with an auditory stimulus—a word ranging from “sigh” to “shy”—and a visual stimulus—a male or female face—and they indicated whether they heard “sigh” or “shy.” Participant likelihood to respond “sigh” was significantly influenced by speaker gender, whether the gender of the face matched that of the speaker, and the power prime the partici...

Perception-production relations in later development of American English rhotics

It is known that some adult listeners have more sharply defined perceptual categories than others, and listeners with more precise auditory targets are also more precise in their production of contrasts. There is additionally evidence that children who have not yet mastered production of a contrast show diminished performance on perceptual measures of the same contrast. To date, however, few studies have investigated developmental perception-production relations using the fine-grained measures typical of adult studies. Existing evidence suggests that perception and production can be closely connected in development, but this relationship may break down as perception and articulation mature at different rates. This study evaluated perception and production of the English /r-w/ contrast in 40 typically-developing children aged 9–14. Perceptual sensitivity was measured with a logistic function fitted over responses in a forced-choice identification task using two synthetic 10-step continua from rake to wake. Participants also produced rhotic and non-rhotic words. Across participants, there was a significant correlation between perceptual acuity and rhoticity in production, although this effect was only observed for one of two continua tested. These results provide preliminary evidence compatible with the hypothesis that children with a more refined auditory target for a sound also produce that sound more accurately.

Effects of L1 tone on perception of L2 tone - a study of Mandarin tone learning by native Cantonese children

In the present study, the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) was tested on its applicability in child L2 lexical tone acquisition. The possible effect of L1 (Cantonese) lexical tones on L2 (Mandarin) lexical tone learning was explored. Accuracy rate and error patterns were examined with an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task. Forty-nine native Cantonese-speaking students aged 8 years participated in the study. Results revealed that these children exhibited nearly perfect performance in the discrimination of Mandarin tones. However, significant tone differences were detected in the identification task. Tone 4 (T4) was identified with the lowest accuracy, and T1 with the highest. Error analysis revealed that Mandarin T2-T3 was the most confusing pair, followed by the T1-T4 pair. The inherent phonetic similarity between lexical tones in a language and the tone similarities across languages may also have contributed to perception difficulties, which could help to refine and supplement the PAM in the tonal/suprasegmental domain.

An exploration of methods for rating children's productions of sibilant fricatives

Background: This paper examines three methods for providing ratings of within-category detail in children's productions of /s/ and /ʃ/.Method: A group of listeners (n = 61) participated in a rating task in which a forced-choice phoneme identification task was followed by one of three measures of phoneme goodness: visual analog scaling, direct magnitude estimation, or a Likert-scale judgment.Results: All three types of ratings were similarly correlated with sounds' acoustic characteristics. Visual analog scaling and Likert-scale judgments had higher intrarater reliability than did direct magnitude estimation. Moreover, both of them elicited a wider range of judgments than did direct magnitude estimation.Conclusion: Based on our evaluation, Likert-scale judgments and visual analog scaling are equally useful tasks for eliciting within-category judgments. Of these two, visual analog scaling may be preferable because it allows for more distinct levels of response.

The Effects of Language Dominance in the Perception and Production of the Galician Mid Vowel Contrasts

Aims: This study investigates the perception and production of the Galician mid vowel contrasts by 54 early Spanish-Galician bilinguals in the cities of Vigo and Santiago (Galicia, Spain). Empirical data is provided to examine the role of language dominance in the perception and production of Galician mid vowel contrasts in order to determine whether the Galician vowel system is becoming more Spanish-like as a result of extensive contact with Spanish in urban areas. Methods: Perception and production data for each mid vowel contrast were collected in (1) binary forced-choice identification tasks, (2) AX discrimination tasks and (3) a reading-aloud task. Results: Results from binary forced-choice identification and AX discrimination tasks indicate that Spanish-dominant bilinguals have great difficulty in discriminating between these mid vowels while Galician-dominant subjects display a robust categorical identification of the two mid vowel categories. Acoustic analyses of their productions show that Galician-dominant bilinguals implement a Galician-specific /e/-/ɛ/ contrast but Spanish-dominant ones produce a single, merged Spanish-like front mid vowel. However, both language dominance groups seem to maintain a more robust /o/-/ɔ/ contrast. This asymmetry between front and back mid vowels is found in the productions of both language dominance groups. Conclusion: These results show that language dominance is a strong predictor of the production and perception abilities of Spanish-Galician bilinguals, and that only Galician-dominant subjects in these urban areas possess two independent phonetic categories in the front and back mid vowel space.

Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English

The present study explored the production and perception of the /i/-/I/ vowel contrast in second language (L2)-dominant early learners of American English who no longer fluently speak their first language (L1, Spanish). The production task analyzed the extent to which the early learner group differed from controls (native English speakers and L1-Spanish late-onset learners of English) with regard to duration and spectral centroids. The perception experiment examined how these early learners classified resynthesized stimuli drawn from the /i/-/I/ contrast using distinct acoustic cues - spectral and temporal - in a 2-alternative forced choice identification task. The first experiment revealed that the early learners produced the contrast in a native-like manner in terms of the spectral envelope and duration use. The second experiment found that early learners differed from both control groups in how they categorized the /i/-/I/ continua based on spectrum and duration, and the extent to which they rely on these two cues. The effects of linguistic experience on L2 phonetic behavior are discussed.

The perception of language-specific phonetic categories does not guarantee accurate phonological representations in the lexicon of early bilinguals

ABSTRACTThis study examines the perception and processing of the Catalan /e/–/ɛ/ and /o/–/ɔ/ vowel contrasts by 60 Spanish–Catalan bilinguals in Majorca (Spain). Results from binary forced-choice identification, AX discrimination, and lexical decision tasks show that even though these early and highly proficient bilinguals demonstrate a high accuracy in perceptual identification and discrimination tasks, they have difficulties distinguishing between words and nonwords in a lexical decision task. Spanish dominants also exhibited higher error rates than Catalan dominants in the lexical decision task. These findings provide evidence that making explicit judgments regarding whether a certain sound belongs to a phonemic category (i.e., as accomplished via identification and discrimination tasks) does not entail that listeners have an appropriate representation at the lexical level.