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This study employed the N400 event-related potential (ERP) to investigate how observing different types of gestures at learning affects the subsequent processing of L2 Mandarin words differing in lexical tone by L1 English speakers. The effects of pitch gestures conveying lexical tones (e.g., upwards diagonal movements for rising tone), semantic gestures conveying word meanings (e.g., waving goodbye for to wave), and no gesture were compared. In a lexical tone discrimination task, larger N400s for Mandarin target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in lexical tone were observed for words learned with pitch gesture. In a meaning discrimination task, larger N400s for English target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in meaning were observed for words learned with pitch and semantic gesture. These findings provide the first neural evidence that observing gestures during L2 word learning enhances subsequent phonological and semantic processing of learned L2 words.
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Low tone bias during perception of period doubling
Period-doubled voice consists of two alternating periods with multiple frequencies and is often perceived as rough with an indeterminate pitch. Past pitch-matching studies in period-doubled voice found that the perceived pitch was lower as the degree of amplitude and frequency modulation between the two alternating periods increased. The perceptual outcome also differed across f0s and modulation types: a lower f0 prompted earlier identification of a lower pitch, and the matched pitch dropped more quickly in frequency- than amplitude-modulated tokens (Sun & Xu, 2002; Bergan & Titze, 2001). However, it is unclear how listeners perceive period doubling when identifying linguistic tones. In an artificial language learning paradigm, this study used resynthesized stimuli with alternating amplitudes and/or frequencies of varying degrees, based on a production study of period-doubled voice (Huang, 2022). Listeners were native speakers of English and Mandarin. We confirm the positive relationship between the modulation degree and the proportion of low tones heard, and find that frequency modulation biased listeners to choose more low-tone options than amplitude modulation. However, a higher f0 (300 Hz) leads to a low-tone percept in more amplitude-modulated tokens than a lower f0 (200 Hz). Both English and Mandarin listeners behaved similarly, suggesting that pitch perception during period doubling is not language-specific. Furthermore, period doubling is predicted to signal low tones in languages, even when the f0 is high.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2141433
- PAR ID:
- 10392332
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
- Volume:
- 152
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0001-4966
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- A172 to A172
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0015927
