Skip to main content
Log in

To What Extent do we Hear Phonemic Contrasts in a Non-native Regional Variety? Tracking the Dynamics of Perceptual Processing with EEG

  • Published:
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This combined ERP and behavioral experiment explores the dynamics of processing during the discrimination of vowels in a non-native regional variety. Southern listeners were presented with three word forms, two of which are encountered in both Standard and Southern French ([kot] and [kut]), whereas the third one exists in Standard but not Southern French ([kot]). EEG recordings suggest that all of the word pairs were discriminated by the listeners, although discrimination arose about 100ms later for the pairs which included the non-native word form than for those which contained word forms common to both French varieties. Behavioral data provide evidence that vowel discrimination is sensitive to the influence of the listeners’ native phonemic inventory at a late decisional stage of processing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Best C. T. (1994) The emergence of language-specific phonemic influences in infant speech perception. In: Goodman J., Nusbaum H. C. (Eds.) The development of speech perception: The transition from speech sounds to spoken words. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 167–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Best C. T., McRoberts G. W., Sithole N. M. (1988) Examination of perceptual reorganization for nonnative speech contrasts: Zulu click discrimination by English-speaking adults and infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 14: 345–360

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brunellière A., Dufour S., Nguyen N., Frauenfelder U. (2009) Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for the impact of regional variation on phoneme perception. Cognition 111: 390–396

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conrey B., Potts G., Niedzielski N. (2005) Effects of dialect on merger perception: ERP and behavioral correlates. Brain and Language 95: 435–449

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler A., Weber A., Otake T. (2006) Asymmetric mapping from phonetic to lexical representations in second-language listening. Journal of Phonetics 34: 269–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dehaene-Lambertz G. (1997) Electrophysiological correlates of categorical phoneme perception in adults. Neuroreport 8: 919–924

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dehaene-Lambertz G., Dupoux E., Gout A. (2000) Electrophysiological correlates of phonological processing: A cross-linguistic study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12: 635–647

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diesch E., Luce T. (2000) Topographic and temporal indices of vowel spectral envelope extraction in the human auditory cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12: 878–893

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dufour S., Nguyen N., Frauenfelder U. H. (2007) The perception of phonemic contrasts in a non-native dialect. Journal of Acoustical Society of America 121: EL131–EL136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dupoux E., Peperkamp S., Sebastián-Gallés N. (2001) A robust method to study stress ‘deafness’. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 110: 1606–1618

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ettlinger M., Johnson K. (2009) Vowel discrimination by English, French and Turkish Speakers: An exemplar-based approach to speech perception. Phonetica 66: 222–242

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eulitz C., Lahiri A. (2004) Neurobiological evidence for abstract phonological representations in the mental lexicon during speech recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16: 577–583

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flege J., Yeni-Komshian G., Liu S. (1999) Age constraints on second language learning. Journal of Memory and Language 41: 78–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram J. C. L., Park S. -G. (1997) Cross-language vowel perception and production by Japanese and Korean learners of English. Journal of Phonetics 25: 437–470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janson T., Schulman R. (1983) Non-distinctive features and their use. Journal of Linguistics 19: 321–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labov W., Karan M., Miller C. (1991) Near-mergers and the suspension of phonemic contrast. Language Variation and Change 3: 33–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Logan J. S., Lively S. E., Pisoni D. B. (1991) Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: A first report. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 89: 874–886

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Näätänen R., Winkler I. (1999) The concept of auditory stimulus representation in neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin 125: 826–859

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Näätänen R., Lehtokoski A., Lennes M., Cheour M., Huotilainen M., Iivonen A., Vainio M., Alku P., Ilmoniemi R. J., Luuk A., Allik J., Sinkkonen J., Alho K. (1997) Language-specific phoneme representations revealed by electric and magnetic brain responses. Nature 358: 432–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Näätänen R., Paavilainen P., Rinne T., Ahlo K. (2007) The mismatch negativity (MMN) in basic research of central auditory processing: A review. Clinical Neurophysiology 11: 2544–2590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obleser J., Elbert T., Lahiri A., Eulitz C. (2003) Cortical representation of vowels reflects acoustic dissimilarity determined by formant frequencies. Cognitive Brain Research 15: 207–213

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oldfield R. C. (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9: 97–113

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pallier C., Bosch L., Sebastian-Galles N. (1997a) A limit on behavioural plasticity in speech perception. Cognition 64: B9–B17

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pallier C., Christophe A., Mehler J. (1997b) Language-specific listening. Trends in Cognitive Science 1: 129–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pallier C., Colomé A., Sebastián-Gallés N. (2001) The influence of native-language phonology on lexical access: Exemplar-based versus abstract lexical entries. Psychological Science 12: 445–449

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips C. (2001) Levels of representation in the electrophysiology of speech perception. Cognitive Science 25: 711–731

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polka L., Bohn O. -S. (2003) Asymmetries in vowel perception. Speech Communication 41: 221–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strange W., Dittmann S. (1984) Effects of discrimination training on the perception of /r-l/ by Japanese adults learning English. Perception Psychophysics 36: 131–145

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Trehub S. (1976) The discrimination of foreign speech contrasts by infants and adults. Child Development 47: 466–472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werker J. F. (1994) Cross-language speech perception: Developmental change does not involve loss. In: Goodman J., Nusbaum H. C. (Eds.) The development of speech perception: The transition from speech sounds to spoken words. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 93–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Werker J. F., Tees R. C. (1984) Phonemic and phonetic factors in adult cross-language speech perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 75: 1866–1878

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Werker J. F., Gilbert J. H. V., Humphrey G. K., Tees R. C. (1981) Developmental aspects of cross-language speech perception. Child Development 52: 349–355

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sophie Dufour.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dufour, S., Brunellière, A. & Nguyen, N. To What Extent do we Hear Phonemic Contrasts in a Non-native Regional Variety? Tracking the Dynamics of Perceptual Processing with EEG. J Psycholinguist Res 42, 161–173 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-012-9212-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-012-9212-8

Keywords

Navigation