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Directional asymmetries reveal a universal bias in adult vowel perception.

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Title: Directional asymmetries reveal a universal bias in adult vowel perception.
Authors: Masapollo, Matthew1, Polka, Linda1 linda.polka@mcgill.ca, Molnar, Monika1, Ménard, Lucie2
Source: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Apr2017, Vol. 141 Issue 4, p2857-2869. 13p.
Subjects: Vowels, Auditory perception, Native language, French-Canadians, Formants (Speech)
Abstract: Research on cross-language vowel perception in both infants and adults has shown that for many vowel contrasts, discrimination is easier when the same pair of vowels is presented in one direction compared to the reverse direction. According to one account, these directional asymmetries reflect a universal bias favoring "focal" vowels (i.e., vowels whose adjacent formants are close in frequency, which concentrates acoustic energy into a narrower spectral region). An alternative, but not mutually exclusive, account is that such effects reflect an experience-dependent bias favoring prototypical instances of native-language vowel categories. To disentangle the effects of focalization and prototypicality, the authors first identified a certain location in phonetic space where vowels were consistently categorized as /u/ by both Canadian-English and Canadian-French listeners, but that nevertheless varied in their stimulus goodness (i.e., the best Canadian-French /u/ exemplars were more focal compared to the best Canadian-English /u/ exemplars). In subsequent AX discrimination tests, both Canadian-English and Canadian-French listeners performed better at discriminating changes from less to more focal /u/'s compared to the reverse, regardless of variation in prototypicality. These findings demonstrate a universal bias favoring vowels with greater formant convergence that operates independently of biases related to language-specific prototype categorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: Directional asymmetries reveal a universal bias in adult vowel perception.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Masapollo%2C+Matthew%22">Masapollo, Matthew</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Polka%2C+Linda%22">Polka, Linda</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> linda.polka@mcgill.ca</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Molnar%2C+Monika%22">Molnar, Monika</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Ménard%2C+Lucie%22">Ménard, Lucie</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+the+Acoustical+Society+of+America%22">Journal of the Acoustical Society of America</searchLink>. Apr2017, Vol. 141 Issue 4, p2857-2869. 13p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Vowels%22">Vowels</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Auditory+perception%22">Auditory perception</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Native+language%22">Native language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22French-Canadians%22">French-Canadians</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Formants+%28Speech%29%22">Formants (Speech)</searchLink>
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  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Research on cross-language vowel perception in both infants and adults has shown that for many vowel contrasts, discrimination is easier when the same pair of vowels is presented in one direction compared to the reverse direction. According to one account, these directional asymmetries reflect a universal bias favoring "focal" vowels (i.e., vowels whose adjacent formants are close in frequency, which concentrates acoustic energy into a narrower spectral region). An alternative, but not mutually exclusive, account is that such effects reflect an experience-dependent bias favoring prototypical instances of native-language vowel categories. To disentangle the effects of focalization and prototypicality, the authors first identified a certain location in phonetic space where vowels were consistently categorized as /u/ by both Canadian-English and Canadian-French listeners, but that nevertheless varied in their stimulus goodness (i.e., the best Canadian-French /u/ exemplars were more focal compared to the best Canadian-English /u/ exemplars). In subsequent AX discrimination tests, both Canadian-English and Canadian-French listeners performed better at discriminating changes from less to more focal /u/'s compared to the reverse, regardless of variation in prototypicality. These findings demonstrate a universal bias favoring vowels with greater formant convergence that operates independently of biases related to language-specific prototype categorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1121/1.4981006
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        Text: English
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        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Auditory perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Native language
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      – SubjectFull: French-Canadians
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      – TitleFull: Directional asymmetries reveal a universal bias in adult vowel perception.
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            NameFull: Molnar, Monika
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              M: 04
              Text: Apr2017
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