Does high variability training improve the learning of non-native phoneme contrasts over low variability training? A replication

Brekelmans, Gwen; Lavan, Nadine; Saito, Haruka; Clayards, Meghan; Wonnacott, Elizabeth

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2022.104352

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Despite the efficacy of HVPT, the role of input variability in L2 speech learning is still controversial and underappreciated. As most HVPT studies did not attempt to isolate or determine the specific source of variability which may lead to robust learning of L2 speech sounds, it remains an open question why some studies found an advantage of talker variability (Brosseau-Lapré et al, 2013;Deng et al, 2018;Hardison, 2003;Kartushina & Martin, 2019;Lively et al, 1993;Perrachione et al, 2011;Uchihara et al, 2022), while others did not (Brekelmans et al, 2022;Dong et al, 2019;Giannakopoulou et al, 2017;Wiener et al, 2020). Our recent training studies (Cheng et al, 2019; provided tentative evidence that generalization can be induced by acoustic variability in phonetically irrelevant (or secondary) cues that may reside in but are not limited to talker variability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Other studies showed that single-talker training also engendered generalization, which could be further enhanced by greater talker variability (Perrachione et al, 2011;Wong, 2014). There have also been reports that single-talker versus multiple-talker training produced equivalent amounts of generalization (Brekelmans et al, 2022;Dong et al, 2019;Giannakopoulou et al, 2017). The researchers cautiously interpreted that these mixed results might be due to learner differences or other sources of variability introduced by training input or setting.…”

Section: The Role Of Input Variability In L2 Speech Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cognitive Factors in Nonnative Phonetic Learning: Impacts of Working Memory and Selective Attention on the Benefits and Costs of Talker Variability

Zhang¹,

Cheng²,

Zhang³

2022

Preprint

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Talker variability has been reported to facilitate generalization and retention of speech learning, but is also shown to place demands on cognitive resources. Our recent study provided evidence that phonetically-irrelevant acoustic variability in single-talker (ST) speech is sufficient to induce equivalent amounts of learning to the use of multiple-talker (MT) training. This study is a follow-up contrasting MT versus ST training with varying degrees of temporal exaggeration to examine how cognitive measures of individual learners may influence the role of input variability in immediate learning and long-term retention. Native Chinese-speaking adults were trained on the English /i/-/ɪ/ contrast. We assessed the trainees’ working memory and selective attention before training. Trained participants showed retention of more native-like cue weighting in both perception and production regardless of talker variability condition. The ST training group showed long-term benefit in word identification, whereas the MT training group did not retain the improvement. The results demonstrate the role of phonetically-irrelevant variability in robust speech learning and modulatory functions of nonlinguistic working memory and selective attention, highlighting the necessity to consider the interaction between input characteristics, task difficulty, and individual differences in cognitive abilities in assessing learning outcomes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: The Role Of Input Variability In L2 Speech Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Factors in Nonnative Phonetic Learning: Impacts of Working Memory and Selective Attention on the Benefits and Costs of Talker Variability

Zhang¹,

Cheng²,

Zhang³

2022

Preprint

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“…A headphone check will usually filter out participants with low attention, low effort, or poor listening environments, but other types of checks for accuracy or attention will also filter out such participants. Some studies which use headphone checks also use additional checks for attention or audio quality, such as excluding participants with low accuracy on clear items (Brown et al, 2018;Mills, Shorey, Theodore, & Stilp, 2022;Saltzman & Myers, 2021) or inaccurate responses for catch trials that instruct them to provide a specific response (Brekelmans, Lavan, Saito, Clayards, & Wonnacott, 2022;Nayak et al, 2022;Seow & Hauser, 2022). Including multiple types of checks makes it difficult to evaluate which one(s) were most valuable in filtering out participants with low attention or poor listening environments and not filtering out additional participants.…”

Section: Online Versus In-person Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Huggins check, only recently popularized by Milne et al, 2021, already appears in many experiments (e.g., Beier & Ferreira, 2022Brekelmans et al, 2022;Ringer, Schröger, & Grimm, 2022;Tamati, Sevich, Clausing, & Moberly, 2022;Wu & Holt, 2022).…”

Section: Checking For Headphonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do headphone checks impact perception data?

Sanker¹

2023

Laboratory Phonology

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Headphone checks have rapidly become an assumed part of best practices in online perception studies. Do they actually improve our ability to find phonological patterns? This study attempts to replicate several perceptual effects that depend on different aspects of the acoustic signal, testing whether requiring participants to pass two commonly used headphone checks (Huggins pitch perception, Milne et al., 2021; dichotic loudness perception, Woods, Siegel, Traer, & McDermott, 2017) impacts the results or the sample population being used. Participants who pass the Huggins check exhibit a larger effect of spectral tilt on perceived vowel duration, but no other effects were strengthened by either headphone check. Headphone checks actually resulted in a weaker effect of coda voicing on perceived vowel duration. A look at who is excluded by the headphone checks shows that both of them produce exclusions that are imbalanced by participants' age, gender, education, and geographic region. These imbalanced exclusions have the potential to impact experimental results in a range of ways. Thus, while headphone checks are likely to be valuable for some types of experiments, for others they might have unintended effects, and for many studies they are unlikely to have any substantial effect on the results.

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“…2021b;Brekelmans et al 2022). Some cross-linguistic studies reported an interaction between variability of training materials and perceptual aptitude of trainees (i.e., baseline ability for perceiving pitch) while learning non-native lexical tones(Perrachione et al 2011;Sadakata & McQueen 2014;Dong et al 2019;Qin et al 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Benefits of High Variability Phonetic Training in Mandarin-speaking Kindergarteners with Cochlear Implants: Evidence from Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones

Zhang¹,

Wen²,

Ding³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Objectives: Although pitch reception poses a great challenge for individuals with cochlear implants (CIs), formal auditory training (e.g., high variability phonetic training, HVPT) has been shown to provide direct benefits in pitch-related perceptual performances such as lexical tone recognition for CI users. As lexical tones in spoken language are expressed with a multitude of distinct spectral, temporal, and intensity cues, it is important to determine the sources of training benefits for CI users. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a rigorous fine-scale evaluation with the categorical perception (CP) paradigm to control the acoustic parameters and test the efficacy and sustainability of HVPT for Mandarin-speaking pediatric CI recipients. The main hypothesis was that HVPT-induced perceptual learning would greatly enhance CI users’ ability to extract the primary pitch contours from spoken words for lexical tone identification and discrimination. Furthermore, individual differences in immediate and long-term gains from training would likely be attributable to baseline performance and duration of CI use. Design: Twenty-eight prelingually deaf Mandarin-speaking kindergarteners with CIs were tested. Half of them received five sessions of HVPT within a period of three weeks. The other half served as control who did not receive the formal training. Two classical CP tasks on a tonal continuum from Mandarin Tone 1 (high-flat in pitch) to Tone 2 (mid-rising in pitch) with fixed acoustic features of duration and intensity were administered before (pretest), immediately after (posttest), and 10 weeks post training termination (follow-up test). Participants were instructed to either label a speech stimulus along the continuum (i.e., identification task) or determine whether a pair of stimuli separated by zero or two steps from the continuum was the same or different (i.e., discrimination task). Identification function measures (i.e., boundary position and boundary width) and discrimination function scores (i.e., between-category score, within-category score, and peakedness score) were assessed for each child participant across the three test sessions.Results: Linear mixed-effects (LME) models showed significant training-induced enhancement in lexical tone categorization with significantly narrower boundary width and better between-category discrimination in the immediate posttest over pretest for the trainees. Furthermore, training-induced gains were reliably retained in the follow-up test 10 weeks after training. By contrast, no significant changes were found in the control group across sessions. Regression analysis confirmed that baseline performance (i.e., boundary width in the pretest session) and duration of CI use were significant predictors for the magnitude of training-induced benefits. Conclusions: The stringent CP tests with synthesized stimuli that excluded acoustic cues other than the pitch contour and were never used in training showed strong evidence for the efficacy of HVPT in yielding immediate and sustained improvement in lexical tone categorization for Mandarin-speaking children with CIs. The training results and individual differences have remarkable implications for developing personalized computer-based short-term HVPT protocols that may have sustainable long-term benefits for aural rehabilitation in this clinical population.

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Does high variability training improve the learning of non-native phoneme contrasts over low variability training? A replication

Cited by 16 publications

References 94 publications

Cognitive Factors in Nonnative Phonetic Learning: Impacts of Working Memory and Selective Attention on the Benefits and Costs of Talker Variability

Cognitive Factors in Nonnative Phonetic Learning: Impacts of Working Memory and Selective Attention on the Benefits and Costs of Talker Variability

How do headphone checks impact perception data?

Sustainable Benefits of High Variability Phonetic Training in Mandarin-speaking Kindergarteners with Cochlear Implants: Evidence from Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones

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