Effects of language experience and stimulus complexity on the categorical perception of pitch direction

Abstract

Whether or not categorical perception results from the operation of a special, language-specific, speech mode remains controversial. In this cross-language (Mandarin Chinese, English) study of the categorical nature of tone perception, we compared native Mandarin and English speakers' perception of a physical continuum of fundamental frequency contours ranging from a level to rising tone in both Mandarin speech and a homologous (nonspeech) harmonic tone. This design permits us to evaluate the effect of language experience by comparing Chinese and English groups; to determine whether categorical perception is speech-specific or domain-general by comparing speech to nonspeech stimuli for both groups; and to examine whether categorical perception involves a separate categorical process, distinct from regions of sensory discontinuity, by comparing speech to nonspeech stimuli for English listeners. Results show evidence of strong categorical perception of speech stimuli for Chinese but not English listeners. Categorical perception of nonspeech stimuli was comparable to that for speech stimuli for Chinese but weaker for English listeners, and perception of nonspeech stimuli was more categorical for English listeners than was perception of speech stimuli. These findings lead us to adopt a memory-based, multistore model of perception in which categorization is domain-general but influenced by long-term categorical representations.

Enhanced production and perception of musical pitch in tone language speakers

“…For example, Chinese speakers, in addition to showing categorical perception of linguistic tone, demonstrate categorical perception of nonspeech tone analogues, whereas English speakers do not (Xu, Gandour, & Francis, 2006). Moreover, Chinese music conservatory students show much higher occurrences of absolute pitch labeling abilities than do American music conservatory students (Deutsch, Henthorn, Marvin, & Xu, 2006).…”

Cross-domain correlation in pitch perception, the influence of native language

“…Such assumption, however, neglects the important fact that lexical tones do not have the same function for tone and non-tone speakers. The absence of lexical tones makes non-tone language listeners perceive them psycho-acoustically rather than phonologically, whereas for tone language speakers, lexical tones are phonological categories rather than pure acoustical pitch variations (Francis, Ciocca, & Ng, 2003;Hallé, Chang, & Best, 2004;Xu, Gandour, & Francis, 2006). Music perception, on the other hand, calls for accurate perception of discrete pitches as small as one semitone, regardless of language background (McDermott & Oxenham, 2008;Trainor & Hannon, 2013).…”

Applications of Static and Dynamic Iterated Rippled Noise to Evaluate Pitch Encoding in the Human Auditory Brainstem

“…1). In a categorical perception experiment [32], it has been demonstrated that this linear rising ramp can be identified as Mandarin Tone 2 with a high level of accuracy.…”

“…Time varying IRN stimuli were generated to produce a curvilinear rising f contour at increasing iteration steps (4,8,16,32,64) (Fig. 1).…”