Phonotactic constraint violations in German grammar are detected automatically in auditory speech processing: A human event‐related potentials study

Abstract

In this human ERP study, effects of language-specific phonotactic restrictions on automatic auditory speech processing were investigated by means of the dorsal fricative assimilation (DFA) that is obligatory in German grammar. Using a multiple passive oddball paradigm, we studied the deviance-related processing of phonotactically ill-formed strings violating DFA. Eight VC-syllables were created by exhaustively combining the vowels [Y,..,...,...] and the dorsal fricatives [Ç X], resulting in four well-formed and four ill-formed stimuli that were contrasted in oddball blocks with changing probabilities of occurrence. Only the ill-formed deviants elicited a negative ERP deflection maximal at about 100 msec after the onset of the fricative. This negativity is considered to reflect a phonotactic evaluation process requiring the activation of implicit phonotactic knowledge from long-term memory and resulting in the automatic detection of a DFA violation.

The role of stimulus cross-splicing in an event-related potentials study. Misleading formant transitions hinder automatic phonological processing

“…In the present paper, however, results from both parts of the experiment are presented and discussed mainly with respect to the effects of the stimulus preparation method. Crucial results from Steinberg et al (2011) are reproduced here in order to render the present paper self-contained. By comparing the data from the natural condition with those from the spliced condition we reconsider the benefits and limits of the splicing technique for creating linguistic stimulus material for ERP experiments.…”

“…Parts of the data obtained from the natural condition have already been published in Steinberg et al (2011). In this article, we focused the discussion on the phonotactic question under investigation by resuming our previous studies on that matter.…”

“…The analysis window for the MMN was set to 200 6 20 ms after stimulus onset for the natural condition (cf. Steinberg et al, 2011) and to 231 6 20 ms for the spliced condition. Figure 5 shows the rereferenced ERPs and difference waves elicited by the illformed (top) and well-formed (bottom) standards and deviants from both the natural condition (A) and the spliced condition (B) for a subset of electrodes.…”

“…The mean age of the remaining sixteen participants (eight male, all right handed) was 26.25 years (range from 21 to 34). The same participants took part in both the spliced and the normal conditions (Steinberg et al, 2011) since both conditions were recorded during the same experimental session.…”

“…Following the analysis routine that we applied for the data from the natural condition (cf. Steinberg et al, 2011) we placed the analysis window a posteriori on the peak latency of the first observable negative-going deflection occurring after 200 ms in the deviant-minusstandard difference wave calculated from the ill-formed stimulus category only (peak latency was averaged over F7-, F3-, Fz-, F4-, F8-, T7-, C3-, Cz-, C4-, and T8 electrode sites). In order to quantify the full MMN amplitude, the scalp ERPs were re-referenced to the averaged signal recorded from the electrodes positioned over the left and right mastoids.…”