Strategic Deployment of Orthographic Knowledge in Phoneme Detection

Abstract

The phoneme detection task is widely used in spoken-word recognition research. Alphabetically literate participants, however, are more used to explicit representations of letters than of phonemes. The present study explored whether phoneme detection is sensitive to how target phonemes are, or may be, orthographically realized. Listeners detected the target sounds [b, m, t, f, s, k] in word-initial position in sequences of isolated English words. Response times were faster to the targets [b, m, t], which have consistent word-initial spelling, than to the targets [f, s, k], which are inconsistently spelled, but only when spelling was rendered salient by the presence in the experiment of many irregularly spelled filler words. Within the inconsistent targets [f, s, k], there was no significant difference between responses to targets in words with more usual (foam, seed, cattle) versus less usual (phone, cede, kettle) spellings. Phoneme detection is thus not necessarily sensitive to orthographic effects; knowledge of spelling stored in the lexical representations of words does not automatically become available as word candidates are activated. However, salient orthographic manipulations in experimental input can induce such sensitivity. We attribute this to listeners' experience of the value of spelling in everyday situations that encourage phonemic decisions (such as learning new names). Key words

Orthographic Consistency and Word-Frequency Effects in Auditory Word Recognition: New Evidence from Lexical Decision and Rime Detection

“…Despite this growing body of evidence, some psycholinguists have argued that orthographic effects on spoken language are exclusively strategic, post-lexical or restricted to peculiar (low-frequency) words (see, e.g., Taft et al, 2008; Cutler et al, 2010; Damian and Bowers, 2010). …”

Second Language Pronunciation Assessment

“…Recalling what was noted above about the effects of literacy, it is also likely that listeners will visualize possible spellings of the word, assuming that they have time and inclination to do so (see Cutler et al, 2010;Ong, 2002). Using full vowels in chocolate facilitates the drawing of sound-spelling analogies with other words, such as late.…”

The reversal of the BÄREN-BEEREN merger in Austrian Standard German

“…The Bären-Beeren merger in Austrian Standard German occurs across the board -in all speech varieties -such that the Bären vowel is considered the same as the Beeren vowel; therefore, pronunciation studies (like Ehrlich, 2010;Moosmüller, 2007) do not even investigate them separately. Is the distinction made in the dialects?…”

“…In order to eliminate the physiological differences, but maintain the phonological and sociolinguistic differences, a normalization procedure is common in studies of this type. Here we used the Fabricius and Watt normalization technique, conducted with the package {vow-els} in the R statistical analysis environment (Fabricius, Watt, & Johnson, 2009;Thomas & Kendall, 2007;Watt & Fabricius, 2002). On the basis of the maximal vowel space of each speaker, this normalization procedure calculates the individual centre of gravity in the oral cavity and transforms the F1 and F2 for each token accordingly.…”

“…On the basis of the maximal vowel space of each speaker, this normalization procedure calculates the individual centre of gravity in the oral cavity and transforms the F1 and F2 for each token accordingly. The interested reader is referred to Fabricius et al (2009) and Watt & Fabricius (2002) for details about this procedure.…”