BACKGROUND: Tone languages such as Thai and Mandarin Chinese use differences
in fundamental frequency (F0, pitch) to distinguish lexical meaning.
Previous behavioral studies have shown that native speakers of a
non-tone language have difficulty discriminating among tone contrasts
and are sensitive to different F0 dimensions than speakers of a tone
language. The aim of the present ERP study was to investigate the
effect of language background and training on the non-attentive processing
of lexical tones. EEG was recorded from 12 adult native speakers
of Mandarin Chinese, 12 native speakers of American English, and
11 Thai speakers while they were watching a movie and were presented
with multiple tokens of low-falling, mid-level and high-rising Thai
lexical tones. High-rising or low-falling tokens were presented as
deviants among mid-level standard tokens, and vice versa. EEG data
and data from a behavioral discrimination task were collected before
and after a two-day perceptual categorization training task. RESULTS:
Behavioral discrimination improved after training in both the Chinese
and the English groups. Low-falling tone deviants versus standards
elicited a mismatch negativity (MMN) in all language groups. Before,
but not after training, the English speakers showed a larger MMN
compared to the Chinese, even though English speakers performed worst
in the behavioral tasks. The MMN was followed by a late negativity,
which became smaller with improved discrimination. The High-rising
deviants versus standards elicited a late negativity, which was left-lateralized
only in the English and Chinese groups. CONCLUSION: Results showed
that native speakers of English, Chinese and Thai recruited largely
similar mechanisms when non-attentively processing Thai lexical tones.
However, native Thai speakers differed from the Chinese and English
speakers with respect to the processing of late F0 contour differences
(high-rising versus mid-level tones). In addition, native speakers
of a non-tone language (English) were initially more sensitive to
F0 onset differences (low-falling versus mid-level contrast), which
was suppressed as a result of training. This result converges with
results from previous behavioral studies and supports the view that
attentive as well as non-attentive processing of F0 contrasts is
affected by language background, but is malleable even in adult learners.
:Kaan et al._2008_Thai lexical tone perception in native speakers of Thai, English and Mandarin Chinese an event-related potentials training study.pdf:PDF
%0 Journal Article
%1 Kaan2008
%A Kaan, Edith
%A Barkley, Christopher M
%A Bao, Mingzhen
%A Wayland, Ratree
%D 2008
%J BMC Neuroscience
%K (Psychology),Discrimination (Psychology): Acoustic Behavior,Verbal Behavior: Perception,Auditory Perception,Pitch Perception,Speech Perception: Potentials,Evoked Potentials: States,Verbal Stimulation,Adult,Auditory Tests,Male,Phonetics,Pitch Time,Reaction Time: methods,Thailand,United physiology physiology,Brain,Brain: physiology,China,Discrimination physiology,Electroencephalography,Evoked physiology,Female,Humans,Language,Language physiology,Reaction physiology,Speech physiology,Teaching,Teaching:
%P 53
%R 10.1186/1471-2202-9-53
%T Thai lexical tone perception in native speakers of Thai, English
and Mandarin Chinese: an event-related potentials training study
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18573210
%V 9
%X BACKGROUND: Tone languages such as Thai and Mandarin Chinese use differences
in fundamental frequency (F0, pitch) to distinguish lexical meaning.
Previous behavioral studies have shown that native speakers of a
non-tone language have difficulty discriminating among tone contrasts
and are sensitive to different F0 dimensions than speakers of a tone
language. The aim of the present ERP study was to investigate the
effect of language background and training on the non-attentive processing
of lexical tones. EEG was recorded from 12 adult native speakers
of Mandarin Chinese, 12 native speakers of American English, and
11 Thai speakers while they were watching a movie and were presented
with multiple tokens of low-falling, mid-level and high-rising Thai
lexical tones. High-rising or low-falling tokens were presented as
deviants among mid-level standard tokens, and vice versa. EEG data
and data from a behavioral discrimination task were collected before
and after a two-day perceptual categorization training task. RESULTS:
Behavioral discrimination improved after training in both the Chinese
and the English groups. Low-falling tone deviants versus standards
elicited a mismatch negativity (MMN) in all language groups. Before,
but not after training, the English speakers showed a larger MMN
compared to the Chinese, even though English speakers performed worst
in the behavioral tasks. The MMN was followed by a late negativity,
which became smaller with improved discrimination. The High-rising
deviants versus standards elicited a late negativity, which was left-lateralized
only in the English and Chinese groups. CONCLUSION: Results showed
that native speakers of English, Chinese and Thai recruited largely
similar mechanisms when non-attentively processing Thai lexical tones.
However, native Thai speakers differed from the Chinese and English
speakers with respect to the processing of late F0 contour differences
(high-rising versus mid-level tones). In addition, native speakers
of a non-tone language (English) were initially more sensitive to
F0 onset differences (low-falling versus mid-level contrast), which
was suppressed as a result of training. This result converges with
results from previous behavioral studies and supports the view that
attentive as well as non-attentive processing of F0 contrasts is
affected by language background, but is malleable even in adult learners.
@article{Kaan2008,
abstract = {BACKGROUND: Tone languages such as Thai and Mandarin Chinese use differences
in fundamental frequency (F0, pitch) to distinguish lexical meaning.
Previous behavioral studies have shown that native speakers of a
non-tone language have difficulty discriminating among tone contrasts
and are sensitive to different F0 dimensions than speakers of a tone
language. The aim of the present ERP study was to investigate the
effect of language background and training on the non-attentive processing
of lexical tones. EEG was recorded from 12 adult native speakers
of Mandarin Chinese, 12 native speakers of American English, and
11 Thai speakers while they were watching a movie and were presented
with multiple tokens of low-falling, mid-level and high-rising Thai
lexical tones. High-rising or low-falling tokens were presented as
deviants among mid-level standard tokens, and vice versa. EEG data
and data from a behavioral discrimination task were collected before
and after a two-day perceptual categorization training task. RESULTS:
Behavioral discrimination improved after training in both the Chinese
and the English groups. Low-falling tone deviants versus standards
elicited a mismatch negativity (MMN) in all language groups. Before,
but not after training, the English speakers showed a larger MMN
compared to the Chinese, even though English speakers performed worst
in the behavioral tasks. The MMN was followed by a late negativity,
which became smaller with improved discrimination. The High-rising
deviants versus standards elicited a late negativity, which was left-lateralized
only in the English and Chinese groups. CONCLUSION: Results showed
that native speakers of English, Chinese and Thai recruited largely
similar mechanisms when non-attentively processing Thai lexical tones.
However, native Thai speakers differed from the Chinese and English
speakers with respect to the processing of late F0 contour differences
(high-rising versus mid-level tones). In addition, native speakers
of a non-tone language (English) were initially more sensitive to
F0 onset differences (low-falling versus mid-level contrast), which
was suppressed as a result of training. This result converges with
results from previous behavioral studies and supports the view that
attentive as well as non-attentive processing of F0 contrasts is
affected by language background, but is malleable even in adult learners.},
added-at = {2011-03-27T17:20:41.000+0200},
author = {Kaan, Edith and Barkley, Christopher M and Bao, Mingzhen and Wayland, Ratree},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/28bebf47d24a20f18ed524750c249830f/yevb0},
doi = {10.1186/1471-2202-9-53},
file = {:Kaan et al._2008_Thai lexical tone perception in native speakers of Thai, English and Mandarin Chinese an event-related potentials training study.pdf:PDF},
interhash = {619af9ca2a0bede77de06c0f3af5624e},
intrahash = {8bebf47d24a20f18ed524750c249830f},
issn = {1471-2202},
journal = {BMC Neuroscience},
keywords = {(Psychology),Discrimination (Psychology): Acoustic Behavior,Verbal Behavior: Perception,Auditory Perception,Pitch Perception,Speech Perception: Potentials,Evoked Potentials: States,Verbal Stimulation,Adult,Auditory Tests,Male,Phonetics,Pitch Time,Reaction Time: methods,Thailand,United physiology physiology,Brain,Brain: physiology,China,Discrimination physiology,Electroencephalography,Evoked physiology,Female,Humans,Language,Language physiology,Reaction physiology,Speech physiology,Teaching,Teaching:},
pages = 53,
pmid = {18573210},
timestamp = {2011-03-27T17:20:55.000+0200},
title = {Thai lexical tone perception in native speakers of Thai, English
and Mandarin Chinese: an event-related potentials training study},
url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18573210},
volume = 9,
year = 2008
}