Individual Differences in Nonnative Lexical Tone Perception: Effects of Tone Language Repertoire and Musical Experience

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2022 Oct 17

PMID 36248535

Authors

Xin Ru Toh

Fun Lau

Francis C K Wong

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This study sought to understand the effects of tone language repertoire and musical experience on nonnative lexical tone perception and production. Thirty-one participants completed a tone discrimination task, an imitation task, and a musical abilities task. Results showed that a larger tone language repertoire and musical experience both enhanced tone discrimination performance. However, the effects were not additive, as musical experience was associated with tone discrimination performance for single-tone language speakers, but such association was not seen for dual-tone language speakers. Furthermore, among single-tone language speakers, but not among dual-tone language speakers, musical experience and musical aptitude positively correlated with tone discrimination accuracy. It is thus concluded that individuals with varying extents of tone language experience may adopt different strategies when performing tone discrimination tasks; single-tone language speakers may draw on their musical expertise while dual-tone language speakers may rely on their extensive tone language experience instead.

Citing Articles

A Novel Dual-Language Touch-Screen Intervention to Slow Down Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Yow W, Sou K, Wong A Innov Aging. 2024; 8(7):igae052.

PMID: 38974776 PMC: 11227001. DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igae052.

Successful aging of musicians: Preservation of sensorimotor regions aids audiovisual speech-in-noise perception.

Zhang L, Wang X, Alain C, Du Y Sci Adv. 2023; 9(17):eadg7056.

PMID: 37126550 PMC: 10132752. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg7056.

Enduring musician advantage among former musicians in prosodic pitch perception.

Toh X, Tan S, Wong G, Lau F, Wong F Sci Rep. 2023; 13(1):2657.

PMID: 36788323 PMC: 9929097. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29733-3.

References

Chen A, Peter V, Wijnen F, Schnack H, Burnham D . Are lexical tones musical? Native language's influence on neural response to pitch in different domains. Brain Lang. 2018; 180-182:31-41. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2018.04.006. View

Bent T, Bradlow A, Wright B . The influence of linguistic experience on the cognitive processing of pitch in speech and nonspeech sounds. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2006; 32(1):97-103. DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.32.1.97. View

Kuo Y, Rosen S, Faulkner A . Acoustic cues to tonal contrasts in Mandarin: implications for cochlear implants. J Acoust Soc Am. 2008; 123(5):2815. DOI: 10.1121/1.2896755. View

Wong P, Fu W, Cheung E . Cantonese-Speaking Children Do Not Acquire Tone Perception before Tone Production-A Perceptual and Acoustic Study of Three-Year-Olds' Monosyllabic Tones. Front Psychol. 2017; 8:1450. PMC: 5581918. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01450. View

Ong J, Wong P, Liu F . Musicians show enhanced perception, but not production, of native lexical tones. J Acoust Soc Am. 2020; 148(6):3443. DOI: 10.1121/10.0002776. View

Corriveau K, Pasquini E, Goswami U . Basic auditory processing skills and specific language impairment: a new look at an old hypothesis. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2007; 50(3):647-66. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2007/046). View

Wong P, Schwartz R, Jenkins J . Perception and production of lexical tones by 3-year-old, Mandarin-speaking children. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2006; 48(5):1065-79. DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2005/074). View

Poltrock S, Chen H, Kwok C, Cheung H, Nazzi T . Adult Learning of Novel Words in a Non-native Language: Consonants, Vowels, and Tones. Front Psychol. 2018; 9:1211. PMC: 6066720. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01211. View

Lee C, Lekich A, Zhang Y . Perception of pitch height in lexical and musical tones by English-speaking musicians and nonmusicians. J Acoust Soc Am. 2014; 135(3):1607-15. DOI: 10.1121/1.4864473. View

10.

Liu L, Lai R, Singh L, Kalashnikova M, Wong P, Kasisopa B . The tone atlas of perceptual discriminability and perceptual distance: Four tone languages and five language groups. Brain Lang. 2022; 229:105106. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105106. View

11.

Wong P, Tsz-Tin Leung C . Suprasegmental Features Are Not Acquired Early: Perception and Production of Monosyllabic Cantonese Lexical Tones in 4- to 6-Year-Old Preschool Children. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018; 61(5):1070-1085. DOI: 10.1044/2018_JSLHR-S-17-0288. View

12.

White-Schwoch T, Woodruff Carr K, Anderson S, Strait D, Kraus N . Older adults benefit from music training early in life: biological evidence for long-term training-driven plasticity. J Neurosci. 2013; 33(45):17667-74. PMC: 3818545. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2560-13.2013. View

13.

Tallal P, Gaab N . Dynamic auditory processing, musical experience and language development. Trends Neurosci. 2006; 29(7):382-390. DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2006.06.003. View

14.

Hu A, Wang M, Li Y, Tang Q, Gu F . Dong speakers outperform Mandarin speakers in behavioral pitch discrimination. J Acoust Soc Am. 2020; 147(1):EL62. DOI: 10.1121/10.0000604. View

15.

Qin Z, Zhang C, Wang W . The effect of Mandarin listeners' musical and pitch aptitude on perceptual learning of Cantonese level-tones. J Acoust Soc Am. 2021; 149(1):435. DOI: 10.1121/10.0003330. View

16.

Skoe E, Kraus N . A little goes a long way: how the adult brain is shaped by musical training in childhood. J Neurosci. 2012; 32(34):11507-10. PMC: 6703757. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1949-12.2012. View

17.

Wong P, Lam K . Characteristics of Effective Auditory Training: Implications From Two Training Programs That Successfully Trained Nonnative Cantonese Tone Identification in Monolingual Mandarin and Bilingual Mandarin-Taiwanese Tone Speakers. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021; 64(7):2490-2512. DOI: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00436. View

18.

Tong X, Tong X, King Yiu F . Beyond Auditory Sensory Processing Deficits: Lexical Tone Perception Deficits in Chinese Children With Developmental Dyslexia. J Learn Disabil. 2017; 51(3):293-301. DOI: 10.1177/0022219417712018. View

19.

Tsukada K, Kondo M . The Perception of Mandarin Lexical Tones by Native Speakers of Burmese. Lang Speech. 2018; 62(4):625-640. DOI: 10.1177/0023830918806550. View

20.

Mok P, Zuo D . The separation between music and speech: evidence from the perception of Cantonese tones. J Acoust Soc Am. 2012; 132(4):2711-20. DOI: 10.1121/1.4747010. View