Perception Of Mandarin Lexical Tones Research Articles

High variability phonetic training facilitates categorical perception of Mandarin lexical tones in L2 older adults: A link to auditory processing

The current study investigated the facilitatory effects of High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) in second language (L2) categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical tones. It also explored whether and how individual differences in auditory processing predicted gains from such training. The participants were 32 native English-speaking adults aged over 60 years who were learning Mandarin Chinese as their L2. They were randomly divided into the HVPT group (HG) ( n = 16) and the control group (CG) ( n = 16). Their L2 CP performance was assessed through an identification task and discrimination task before training, immediately after training, and two months later. Auditory processing tests were also conducted to measure the participants’ ability to encode spectral and temporal details of sounds. Linear mixed-effects (LME) models showed that, compared to the CG, the HG exhibited a more pronounced improvement in tonal categorization. Furthermore, regression analysis confirmed that individual differences in perceptual acuity significantly predicted gains from training in L2 CP of Mandarin lexical tones.

Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones and Stops in Mandarin-Speaking Musicians and Nonmusicians

This study investigates the perception of Mandarin lexical tones and stops to examine the degree of overlap between music and language. Eighteen musicians and 21 nonmusicians participated in a typical categorical perception task. Results showed that musicians and nonmusicians had comparable degree of categorical perception of tones and stops. Compared to nonmusicians, musicians exhibited enhanced sensitivities to within-category lexical tone stimuli. However, this improved ability was not observed in the perception of stops. These findings imply that musical experience strengthens the acuity of subtle low-level acoustic variations between within-category lexical tone stimuli without interfering with the high-level phonological representations of lexical tones, and this facilitatory effect is selective and could not readily extend to stop consonants in native language.

Cochlear implant pitch and lexical tone perception in quiet and noise using F0-rate coding

Fundamental frequency (F0) cues to voice/musical pitch can be coded by pulse-rate or amplitude modulation (AM) rate of electrical pulse-trains in cochlear implant (CI) systems. However, for most clinical strategies (e.g., ACE), temporal cues to F0 are often poorly coded, particularly for female and children's voices and/or in background noise. Strategies such as Optimized Pitch And Language (OPAL) and Fundamental Asynchronous Stimulus Timing (FAST) enhance temporal F0 cues. For OPAL, F0 is estimated and used to control the AM rate coded by electrical pulse-trains in channel containing harmonics of F0. Significant benefits of OPAL to pitch ranking, speech intonation, and Mandarin lexical tone recognition have been observed compared to ACE. For FAST, peak-timing information in channel envelopes is used to derive pulse-timing in each channel and therefore much lower stimulation rates are provided resulting in longer battery life. In bilateral CI systems, it provides better ITD sensitivity, lateralization, and spatial release from masking compared to ACE. Presented here are the results of two studies, the first explored pitch perception of harmonic tones presented in quiet and noise using experimental OPAL and FAST strategies, and the second examined Mandarin lexical tone perception in quiet and noise using ACE and OPAL in a clinical processor.

Aging-Related Decline in Phonated and Whispered Speech Perception Not Compensated For by Increased Duration and Intensity: Evidence From Mandarin-Speaking Adult Listeners.

This study aimed to examine how aging and modifications of critical acoustic parameters may affect the perception of whispered speech as a degraded signal. Forty Mandarin-speaking adults were included in the study. Part 1 of the study compared the perception of Mandarin lexical tones, vowels, and syllables in older and younger adults in whispered versus phonated speech conditions. Parts 2 and 3 further examined how modification of duration and intensity cues contributed to the perceptual outcomes. Perception of whispered tones was compromised in older and younger adults. Older adults identified lexical tones less accurately than their younger counterparts, particularly for phonated T2 and T3 and whispered T3. Aging also negatively affected the vowel identification of /i, u/ in the whispered condition. Syllable-level accuracy was largely dependent on the accuracy of lexical tones and vowels. Furthermore, reduced duration led to the decreased accuracy of phonated T3 and whispered T2 and T3 but increased accuracy of phonated T4. Reduced intensity lowered the recognition accuracy for phonated vowels /i, ɤ, o, y/ in older adults and /i, u/ in younger adults, and it also lowered the accuracy of whispered vowels /a, ɤ/ in older adults. Contrary to our expectation, increased duration and intensity did not improve older adults' speech perception in either phonated or whispered conditions. The results suggest that aging adversely affected speech perception in both phonated and whispered conditions with more challenges in identifying whispered speech for older adults. While older adults' diminished performance may be potentially due to problems with processing the degraded temporal and spectral information of the target speech sounds, it cannot be simply compensated for by increasing the duration and intensity of the target sounds beyond the audible level.

Categorical perception of Mandarin lexical tones in language-delayed autistic children.

Some theories suggested that autistic people have better pitch perception skills than non-autistic people. However, in a context where pitch patterns are used to differentiate word meanings (i.e. lexical tones), autistic people may encounter difficulties, especially those with less language experience. We tested this by asking language-delayed autistic children to identify and discriminate two Mandarin lexical tones (/yi/ with Tone 1, meaning 'clothes'; /yi/ with Tone 2, meaning 'aunt'; /yi/: the standard romanization of Mandarin Chinese). On average, these autistic children were 7.35 years old, but their developmental age in language ability was 4.20, lagging behind 7-year-old non-autistic children in terms of language ability. Autistic children's performance in identifying and discriminating lexical tones was compared with two groups of non-autistic children: one group was matched with the autistic group on age, and the other was matched based on language ability. Autistic children performed differently from the non-autistic children matched on age, while autistic and non-autistic children matched on language ability exhibited seemingly similar performance. However, both the non-autistic groups have developed the perceptual ability to process lexical tones as different categories, but this ability was still developing in autistic children. Finally, we found autistic children who performed worse in identifying lexical tones had poorer language ability. The results suggest that language disability might have adverse influence on the development of skills of speech sound processing.

Late mismatch negativity of lexical tone at age 8 predicts Chinese children's reading ability at age 10.

Deficits in phonological processing are commonly reported in dyslexia but longitudinal evidence that poor speech perception compromises reading is scant. This 2-year longitudinal ERP study investigates changes in pre-attentive auditory processing that underlies categorical perception of mandarin lexical tones during the years children learn to read fluently. The main purpose of the present study was to explore the development of lexical tone categorical perception to see if it can predict children's reading ability. Both behavioral and electrophysiological measures were taken in this study. Auditory event-related potentials were collected with a passive listening oddball paradigm. Using a stimulus continuum spanning from one lexical tone category exemplar to another, we identified a between-category and a within-category tone deviant that were acoustically equidistant from a standard stimulus. The standard stimulus occurred on 80% of trials, and one of two deviants (between-category or within-category) equiprobably on the remaining trials. 8-year-old Mandarin speakers participated in both an initial ERP oddball paradigm and returned for a 2-year follow-up. The between-category MMN and within-category MMN significantly correlate with each other at age 8 (p = 0.001) but not at age 10. The between-category MMN at age 8 can predict children's ability at age 10 (p = 0.03) but the within-category cannot. The categorical perception of lexical tone is still developing from age 8 to age 10. The behavioral and electrophysiological results demonstrate that categorical perception of lexical tone at age 8 predicts children's reading ability at age 10.

Audiovisual Mandarin Lexical Tone Perception in Quiet and Noisy Contexts: The Influence of Visual Cues and Speech Rate.

Armed with the theory of embodied cognition proposing tight interactions between perception, motor, and cognition, this study aimed to test the hypothesis that speech rate-altered Mandarin lexical tone perception in quiet and noisy environments could be affected by the bodily dynamic cross-modal information. Fifty-three adult listeners completed a Mandarin tone perception task with 720 tone stimuli in auditory-only (AO), auditory-facial (AF), and auditory-facial-plus-gestural (AFG) modalities, at fast, normal, and slow speech rates under quiet and noisy conditions. In AF and AFG modalities, both congruent and incongruent audiovisual information were designed and presented. Generalized linear mixed-effects models were constructed to analyze the accuracy of tone perception across different conditions. In Mandarin tone perception, the magnitude of enhancement of AF and AFG cues across three speech rates was significantly higher than that of the AO cue in the adverse context of noise, yet additional metaphoric gestures did not show significant differences from the facial information. Furthermore, the performance of auditory tone perception at the fast speech rate was significantly better than that at the normal speech rate when the inputs were incongruent between auditory and visual channels in quiet. This study provided compelling evidence showing that integrated audiovisual information plays a vital role not only in improving lexical tone perception in noise but also in modulating the effects of speech rate on Mandarin tone perception in quiet for native listeners. Our findings, supporting the theory of embodied cognition, are implicational for speech and hearing rehabilitation among both young and old clinical populations.

Effects of First Language Background and Learning Experience in Perceiving Mandarin Lexical Tones: Learners and Nonlearners From English- and Japanese-Speaking Backgrounds.

This research compared individuals from two first language (L1) backgrounds (English and Japanese) to determine how they may differ in their perception of Mandarin tones (Tones 1 vs. 2 [T1-T2], Tones 1 vs. 3 [T1-T3], Tones 1 vs. 4 [T1-T4], Tones 2 vs. 3 [T2-T3], Tones 2 vs. 4 [T2-T4], Tones 3 vs. 4 [T3-T4]) on account of their L1. The participants included two groups of learners of Mandarin (23 English speakers, 18 Japanese speakers), two groups of nonlearners of Mandarin (24 English speakers, 21 Japanese speakers), and a control group of 10 Mandarin speakers. A four-alternative forced-choice discrimination task that included 360 trials was presented in three blocks of 120 trials. The native Mandarin group was more accurate in their tonal discrimination of all six tone pairs than all the nonnative groups. While Japanese nonlearners generally outperformed English nonlearners in their overall perception of Mandarin lexical tones, L1-based differences were less extensive for the two groups of learners. Both learner groups were least accurate on T2-T3 and most accurate on T3-T4. The results suggest that with classroom experience, English speakers can overcome their initial disadvantage and learn lexical tones in a new language as successfully as speakers of Japanese with classroom experience.

Aging Effects on Categorical Perception of Mandarin Lexical Tones in Noise.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the aging effects on the categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical Tones 1-4 and Tones 1-2 in noise. It also investigated whether listeners' categorical tone perception in noise correlated with their general tone identification of 20 natural vowel-plus-tone signals in noise. Method Twelve younger and 12 older listeners with normal hearing were recruited in both tone identification and discrimination tasks in a CP paradigm where fundamental frequency contours of target stimuli varied systematically from the flat tone (Tone 1) to the rising/falling tones (Tones 2/4). Both tasks were conducted in quiet and noise with signal-to-noise ratios set at -5 and -10 dB, respectively, and general tone identification of natural speech signals was also tested in noise conditions. Results Compared with younger listeners, older listeners had shallower identification slopes and smaller discrimination peakedness in Tones 1-2/4 perception in all listening conditions, except for Tones 1-4 perception in quiet where no group differences were found. Meanwhile, noise affected Tones 1-2/4 perception: The signal-to-noise ratio condition at -10 dB brought shallower slope in Tones 1-2/4 identification and less peakedness in Tones 1-4 discrimination for both listener groups. Older listeners' CP in noise, the identification slopes in particular, positively correlated with their general tone identification in noise, but such correlations were partially missing for younger listeners. Conclusions Both aging and the presence of speech-shaped noise significantly reduced the CP of Mandarin Tones 1-2/4. Listeners' Mandarin tone recognition may be related to their CP of Mandarin tones.

汉语普通话声调感知的老年化效应：来自ERP的证据

汉语普通话声调感知的老年化效应：来自ERP的证据

Effects of language proficiency in categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese tones

This study compared the perception of Mandarin Chinese lexical tones by 20 adult native Mandarin Chinese speakers and 17 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners with different levels of Chinese proficiency. We were particularly interested in confirming the effects of language experience and further assessing how Chinese proficiency might influence the perception of Mandarin lexical tones. Three types of continuum were used in identification and discrimination tasks, including tone 1 (T1)/tone 2 (T2), tone 1/tone 4 (T4) and tone 2/tone 4. Unlike the native speakers of Chinese who demonstrated clear categorical perception for all the continua, the CFL learners showed reduced accuracy in identification and discrimination results. Furthermore, proficiency data correlated with categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical tones, suggesting that categorical perception of key phonological contrasts in the second language can be considered as a reliable indicator of language proficiency.This study compared the perception of Mandarin Chinese lexical tones by 20 adult native Mandarin Chinese speakers and 17 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners with different levels of Chinese proficiency. We were particularly interested in confirming the effects of language experience and further assessing how Chinese proficiency might influence the perception of Mandarin lexical tones. Three types of continuum were used in identification and discrimination tasks, including tone 1 (T1)/tone 2 (T2), tone 1/tone 4 (T4) and tone 2/tone 4. Unlike the native speakers of Chinese who demonstrated clear categorical perception for all the continua, the CFL learners showed reduced accuracy in identification and discrimination results. Furthermore, proficiency data correlated with categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical tones, suggesting that categorical perception of key phonological contrasts in the second language can be considered as a reliable indicator of language proficiency.

Are Asian Language Speakers Similar or Different? The Perception of Mandarin Lexical Tones by Naïve Listeners from Tonal Language Backgrounds: A Preliminary Comparison of Thai and Vietnamese Listeners

Mandarin is one of the most representative tonal languages in the world with four tone categories (Tone 1 (T1): high level (ā); Tone 2 (T2): high rising (á); Tone 3 (T3): dipping (ǎ); Tone 4 (T4): high falling (à)). Learning Mandarin tones is known to be difficult for speakers from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The perception of Mandarin tones by naïve, non-native listeners from two tonal languages with a larger tone inventory than Mandarin—Thai and Vietnamese—was examined. The listeners’ discrimination accuracy of six tone pairs (T1–T2, T1–T3, T1–T4, T2–T3, T2–T4, T3–T4) was assessed and compared to that of native speakers of Mandarin on the one hand and Australian English on the other hand. The Thai and Vietnamese groups were clearly less accurate than the Mandarin group and showed a different pattern of results from each other. The Australian English group was less accurate than the Thai group only for T2–T4 and did not differ from the Vietnamese group for any of the pairs. Taken together, these findings suggest that first language tone knowledge may not necessarily be facilitative and that lack of experience with lexical tones may not disadvantage listeners from non-tonal language backgrounds in processing unfamiliar tones.

The Perception of Mandarin Lexical Tones by Native Speakers of Burmese.

This study examines the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by native speakers of Burmese who use lexical tones in their first language (L1) but are naïve to Mandarin. Unlike Mandarin tones, which are primarily cued by pitch, Burmese tones are cued by phonation type as well as pitch. The question of interest is whether Burmese listeners can utilize their L1 experience in processing unfamiliar Mandarin tones. Burmese listeners' discrimination accuracy was compared with that of Mandarin listeners and Australian English listeners. The Australian English group was included as a control group with a non-tonal background. Accuracy of perception of six tone pairs (T1-T2, T1-T3, T1-T4, T2-T3, T2-T4, T3-T4) was assessed in a discrimination test. Our main findings are 1) Mandarin listeners were more accurate than non-native listeners in discriminating all tone pairs, 2) Australian English listeners naïve to Mandarin were more accurate than similarly naïve Burmese listeners in discriminating all tone pairs except for T2-T4, and 3) Burmese listeners had the greatest trouble discriminating T2-T3 and T1-T2. Taken together, the results suggest that merely possessing lexical tones in L1 may not necessarily facilitate the perception of non-native tones, and that the active use of phonation type in encoding L1 tones may have played a role in Burmese listeners' less than optimal perception of Mandarin tones.

Aging effects on categorical perception of Mandarin tones in noise

The current study aimed at investigating the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin lexical tones with varied fundamental frequency (F0) contours in noise. Mandarin tone identification and tone discrimination in quiet and noise were measured for younger and older listeners in a categorical perception paradigm where the stimuli continua varied their F0 contour systematically from the level to the rising/falling tones. Results reported that older listeners, in contrast with their younger counterparts, performed with less stimulus-tuned changes in both identification and discrimination functions and smaller peakedness in the discrimination function for both level-rising and level-falling tones. The aging effects on Mandarin tone categoricality were observed in both quiet and noise. Moreover, noise aggravated the aging effects, especially with the high SNR condition. Plus, older listeners’ identification and discrimination functions in CP paradigm positively correlated with their performance in general speech identification in noise; such correlation was not found with younger listeners. Our study suggested that older listeners had less categoricality in both identification and discrimination functions for the level-rising and level-falling tones, probably due to the aging-related decline in temporal processing.

The perception of Mandarin lexical tones by native Korean speakers differing in their experience with Mandarin

While it is well established that non-native speakers differ from native speakers in their perception and/or production of Mandarin lexical tones, empirical studies focusing on non-native learners are still limited. The objective of this study is to add to the current understanding of lexical tone perception by comparing native speakers of standard Korean from the Seoul/Kyunggi area differing in Mandarin experience (NK1, NK2) with native speakers of Mandarin. NK1 ( n = 10) had no experience with Mandarin whereas NK2 ( n = 10) consisted of highly advanced learners of Mandarin. A group of 10 native Mandarin (NM) speakers was included as controls. Accuracy of perception of six tone pairs (T1–T2, T1–T3, T1–T4, T2–T3, T2–T4, T3–T4) was assessed in a four-alternative forced-choice discrimination test. As expected, the NK2 group with extensive Mandarin learning experience resembled the NM group to a greater extent than did the NK1 group. T2–T3 was the hardest pair for both NK groups, but NK2 had the largest advantage over NK1 for this pair. Apart from T2–T3 which is generally considered difficult, tone pairs involving T1 caused some misperception by the NK groups. This may be related to the difficulty with perceiving a level tone which shows the least fundamental frequency (F0) movement and possibly has limited perceptual salience.

Quality of frequency-following response to speech sounds linked with left prefrontal hemodynamic activity using fNIRS+EEG

Quality of frequency-following response to speech sounds linked with left prefrontal hemodynamic activity using fNIRS+EEG

Perception of Similar and Dissimilar Lexical Tones by Non‐Tone‐Learning Infants

This study examined the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by non‐tone‐learning infants. We tested French‐learning 4‐, 8‐, and 11‐month‐olds on Tone 2 (rising) versus Tone 3 (dipping), the most acoustically similar contrast in Mandarin, and on Tone 1 (high) versus Tone 4 (falling), acoustically more dissimilar contrast. We hypothesized that sensitivity should decline with age for the similar contrast, and the dissimilar contrast should remain more discriminable. Infants were habituated to one tone and tested with the same tone versus the contrastive tone. Results showed that the dissimilar T1–T4 contrast was consistently discriminated by all three ages, whereas the discrimination of the similar T2–T3 contrast revealed a tendency to decline over the ages. These results suggest that relative to consonants and vowels, perceptual sensitivity to lexical tones remains stronger in non‐tone‐learning infants. Discrimination of lexical tones is affected by both acoustic salience and perceptual attunement to the native‐language phonology.

The perception of Mandarin lexical tones by native Japanese adult listeners with and without Mandarin learning experience

Processing lexical tones is known to be difficult for non-native speakers from various language backgrounds. Perceptual accuracy of six Mandarin tone contrasts (T1–T2, T1–T3, T1–T4, T2–T3, T2–T4, T3–T4) of two groups of Japanese listeners (learners and non-learners) and a control group of Mandarin listeners were compared in Mandarin learning experience, phonetic context, and speaker gender. Both Japanese groups perceived T2–T3 poorly, but the learner group was significantly better than the non-learner group for this and the T1–T2 contrasts. The learners’ advantage was observed across various phonetic contexts (initial consonants and tone bearing vowels), suggesting that their tone perception was more stable and resistant to speaker variation. In regard to speaker gender, both Japanese groups perceived the T2–T3 contrast more poorly, and T1–T2 and T1–T4 contrasts more successfully, when produced by female speakers.

The Relative Contributions of Temporal Envelope and Fine Structure to Mandarin Lexical Tone Perception in Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder.

Previous studies have demonstrated that temporal envelope (E) is sufficient for speech perception, while fine structure (FS) is important for pitch perception for normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) have an impaired ability to use FS in lexical tone perception due to the reduced frequency resolution. Listeners with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) may have deficits in temporal resolution. Little is known about how such deficits may impact their ability to use E and FS to perceive lexical tone, and whether it is the deficit in temporal resolution or frequency resolution that may lead to more detrimental effects on FS processing in pitch perception. Three experiments were conducted in the present study. Experiment I used the "auditory chimera" technique to investigate how SNHL and ANSD listeners would achieve lexical tone recognition using either the E or the FS cues. Experiment II tested their frequency resolution as measured with their psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs). Experiment III tested their temporal resolution as measured with the temporal gap detection (TGD) threshold. The results showed that the SNHL listeners had reduced frequency selectivity, but intact temporal resolution ability, while the ANSD listeners had degraded temporal resolution ability, but intact frequency selectivity. In comparison with the SNHL listeners, the ANSD listeners had severely degraded ability to process the FS cues and thus their ability to perceive lexical tone mainly depended on the ability to use the E cues. These results suggested that, in comparison with the detrimental impact of the reduced frequency selectivity, the impaired temporal resolution may lead to more degraded FS processing in pitch perception.

The perception of Mandarin lexical tones by listeners from different linguistic backgrounds

Abstract Two groups of non-native adult learners of Mandarin in Australia were directly compared in their ability to perceive monosyllabic Mandarin words contrasting in lexical tones. They differed in their linguistic experience (non-heritage (n=10), heritage (n=12)). A group of eight native Mandarin speakers and a group of ten functionally monolingual speakers of Australian English were included as controls. All non-native learners used English as their primary language of communication. However, the heritage learners were able to communicate in Cantonese as well as English. The primary question of interest was whether heritage learners’ knowledge of contrastive tone in Cantonese might give them an advantage over English-speaking learners in perceiving tone contrasts in Mandarin. In general, there were more similarities than differences between the two groups of learners in their response patterns. Of the six tone contrasts examined (T1-T2, T1-T3, T1-T4, T2-T3, T2-T4, T3-T4), the two groups significantly differed only on T1-T4. The heritage learners were less accurate on T1-T4 than the non-heritage learners who are monolingual speakers of Australian English. On the other hand, the non-heritage learners were more accurate than Australian English speakers with no prior experience with Mandarin on all tone contrasts. Thus, we conclude that simply having an exposure to and functional knowledge of another tonal language since early childhood does not guarantee accurate perception of Mandarin tones in comparison with adult learners without prior experience with tonal languages.