语音型噪音对二语者汉语元音声调感知的影响

在安静、语音型噪音、语音调制型噪音三种背景下测量了汉语母语者、汉语中、高水平的韩语母语者感知汉语元音和声调的正确率。安静背景下,三组人的语音感知类似,而在语音型噪音背景下,汉语母语者的感知正确率显著高于中水平二语者。进一步的检验表明中水平二语者在语音型噪音背景下的感知难度较大是由于其受到的语音型噪音中能量掩蔽的影响比母语被试要大,而其受到的信息掩蔽的干扰和另外两组被试相近。     

晚期二语者句法加工过程的调节因素及其效应

针对晚期二语者句法加工能力的发展普遍存在困难这一现象, 近年来采用以ERP为核心技术的脑认知研究发现, 二语者的二语熟练度、一语和二语间具体的句法结构的相似程度、以及以工作记忆为核心的个体认知能力等因素起着各自独立而又相互影响的调节作用, 并且形成了浅层结构理论所主张的晚期二语者的句法加工与母语者有着本质差别的“定性说”与统一竞争模型所主张的晚期二语者和母语者在句法加工上没有本质差别的“量变说”两种理论分野, 二者的分歧集中表现为晚期二语者能否最终形成类母语水平的二语句法加工模式。为此, 需要开展以三个因素如何交互作用为主体的跨语言(二语与一语性质的多样性)研究。     

二语词汇阅读的跨语言语音干扰:语义关联判断任务的证据

研究采用语义关联判断任务探讨二语词汇阅读的跨语言语音干扰现象。共有35名英语专业硕士研究生参加了实验,平均年龄23.17岁;同时为提供比对的基准样本,还挑选了35名英语本族语者参加实验,平均年龄26.06岁。语义关联判断任务实验结果表明,中国英语学习者,在对同音词对进行语义关联判断时,不仅在错误率上要比控制条件显著更高,而且在作出判断时的速度也要显著更慢。这种语音干扰效应的出现为二语词汇阅读时语音信息的自动激活提供了有力的证据。这也说明,在本研究中词汇入口由同音词经过语音路线而通达。另外,结果还表明,中国英语学习者在对由英语元音对比音/i/-/I/组成的词汇最小对立体进行语义判断时,不仅在错误率上要比控制条件显著更高,而且在作出判断时的速度也要显著更慢;但是英语本族语者不管是在错误率还是在反应时,实验条件下与控制条件下都没有区别。这一结果证实了中国学习者在进行二语词汇阅读时跨语言语音干扰的发生,说明二语词汇的心理表征受母语语音系统的影响。     

第二语言学习者形态复杂词的加工机制

大多数语言中, 形态复杂词所占的比例很高。形态复杂词形-义映射的规律性使得读者不仅能直接从心理词典中提取整词语义, 还可以利用形态规则来建构词语的语义。研究发现, 母语者可以利用形态规则来加工复杂词, 但第二语言(二语)学习者的研究结果存在较大的分歧, 且表现出和母语者不一样的结果模式。基于补充学习系统理论和情景性二语者假设, 我们尝试提出了二语形态复杂词加工机制的观点, 并据此解释研究分歧出现的原因。未来的研究需要探究词汇形态家族大小等因素对二语形态复杂词加工的影响, 以及揭示二语形态复杂词加工的神经机制。     

汉语为二语学习者言语产生中的跨语言干扰

采用跨语言长时竞争启动范式探讨汉语为二语学习者言语产生中的跨语言干扰。实验1的被试选择18名俄语为母语者, 实验2选择18名日语为母语者。自变量是命名语言(一语和二语)和学习条件(学过一致、学过不一致和未学过), 因变量是测验阶段被试图片命名的反应时和正确率。实验分为学习阶段和测验阶段, 被试分别用一语和二语命名图片, 观察被试在测验阶段学过一致与学过不一致两种条件下是否都能产生促进效应。实验结果发现, 无论俄语为母语者还是日语为母语者, 被试只有在学过一致条件下的反应时显著快于未学过条件, 而学过不一致条件下的反应时跟未学过没有显著差异。本研究结果表明, 汉语为二语学习者言语产生中存在跨语言干扰, 且语言间书写特征的差异对跨语言干扰没有影响。     

三语者语义通达中的跨语言重复启动效应

采用跨语言重复启动的任务范式探讨三语者的语义通达机制。被试为在广州学习汉语的印度尼西亚留学生48名。自变量是学习条件(包括学过与未学过), 因变量是单词判断的反应时和正确率。实验1探讨三语者在视觉与听觉呈现的三语词汇语义通达任务中是否会借助于一语对等词, 结果发现一语词汇在两种任务条件下都能够发挥中介作用, 此结果表明了三语者与双语者语义通达机制的一致性; 实验2探讨三语者在视觉与听觉呈现的三语词汇语义通达任务中是否会借助于二语对等词, 结果发现二语词汇只能在视觉呈现任务条件下发挥中介作用, 此结果表明二语词汇在三语语义通达过程中的中介作用具有限制性。本研究结果表明三语者的语义通达机制与双语者既有一致性, 也有其限制性。     

二语语音的识别方式与激活脑区

采用行为测量和功能性核磁共振成像技术, 以明确二语语音的激活脑区定位与识别方式。本文对比分析了23名高水平晚双语者在进行高频、强规则性和强词汇性二语真词的同韵判断时, 与假词和对照字符在行为学和影像学上所表现出来的差异。行为学和影像学结果显示：高水平晚双语者在识别真词和假词的语音时, 速度相近, 均明显慢于对照字符的识别; 所激活的脑区集中在左背侧外额叶系统功能区、左腹侧前额叶系统功能区、左背侧顶下系统功能区和双腹侧颞－枕系统功能区; 这些脑区与其母语语音处理的脑区相似, 并在整体上表现出较强的左侧化, 在枕叶和小脑等局部表现出较弱的右侧化。上述结果表明：高水平晚双语者在识别二语语音时, 激活的脑区仍然是母语语音处理的脑区, 采用的可能是合成方式而不是直呼方式。     

声调范畴感知和声调复杂度对音乐音高感知的跨领域影响

采用音高识别与区分任务, 以汉语母语者、越南语母语者和俄语母语者为研究对象, 考察了两个语言加工层面的因素, 即声调范畴感知模式以及不同语言声调系统的复杂度差异对跨领域音乐音高感知的影响。结果发现: (1)汉语和越南语两组声调语言母语者听辨结果符合范畴感知模式, 而俄语母语者是连续感知。在语言和音乐两种刺激条件下, 声调语言母语者在范畴边界宽度、范畴内区分率、范畴间区分率以及区分峰度等指标上不存在显著差异。(2)汉语和越南语两组声调语言母语者的音乐音高区分任务结果差异不显著。实验结果表明: 在行为层面, 母语声调范畴感知模式可以迁移到音乐音高感知中, 但复杂声调系统并不能促进跨领域的音乐音高精细感知。实验结果从语言对音乐音高加工影响的角度支持了“共享论”。     

汉语普通话母语者的节奏组块感知偏好

个体对声音节奏的感知具有明显的偏好,强度上表现为扬抑组块偏好,时长上表现为抑扬组块偏好,这被称作抑扬-扬抑规律,但这一感知规律是否具有跨语言的普遍性却存在争议。本研究以汉语普通话母语者为被试,考察他们对非语音音调序列的节奏组块感知情况,结果发现强度和时长参数下被试对扬抑形式的判断比例均显著高于随机水平,说明汉语普通话母语者在两个参数上的节奏感知中均表现出明显的扬抑偏好,在强度上支持节奏感知偏好具有跨语言普遍性的观点,在时长上不支持节奏感知偏好受到母语短语韵律特征影响的观点。     

婴儿语音感知发展及其机制

语音感知的发展状况对个体的语言发展有着深远影响。生命的第一年中, 在语言经验的作用下, 婴儿的语音感知从最初的普遍性感知逐渐发展为对母语的特异性感知。研究者们提出统计学习机制对这一过程加以解释, 即婴儿对语言环境中语音的频次分布十分敏感, 可以通过对频次分布的计算, 从语音的连续体中区分出在母语中起区别意义作用的各个语音范畴。同时, 功能性重组机制和一些社会性线索也会对婴儿语音感知的发展产生重要影响。     

Learning foreign sounds in an alien world: videogame training improves non-native speech categorization

Although speech categories are defined by multiple acoustic dimensions, some are perceptually weighted more than others and there are residual effects of native-language weightings in non-native speech perception. Recent research on nonlinguistic sound category learning suggests that the distribution characteristics of experienced sounds influence perceptual cue weights: Increasing variability across a dimension leads listeners to rely upon it less in subsequent category learning (Holt & Lotto, 2006). The present experiment investigated the implications of this among native Japanese learning English /r/-/l/ categories. Training was accomplished using a videogame paradigm that emphasizes associations among sound categories, visual information, and players' responses to videogame characters rather than overt categorization or explicit feedback. Subjects who played the game for 2.5h across 5 days exhibited improvements in /r/-/l/ perception on par with 2-4 weeks of explicit categorization training in previous research and exhibited a shift toward more native-like perceptual cue weights.     

Strength of German accent under altered auditory feedback.

Borden's (1979, 1980) hypothesis that speakers with vulnerable speech systems rely more heavily on feedback monitoring than do speakers with less vulnerable systems was investigated. The second language (L2) of a speaker is vulnerable, in comparison with the native language, so alteration to feedback should have a detrimental effect on it, according to this hypothesis. Here, we specifically examined whether altered auditory feedback has an effect on accent strength when speakers speak L2. There were three stages in the experiment. First, 6 German speakers who were fluent in English (their L2) were recorded under six conditions--normal listening, amplified voice level, voice shifted in frequency, delayed auditory feedback, and slowed and accelerated speech rate conditions. Second, judges were trained to rate accent strength. Training was assessed by whether it was successful in separating German speakers speaking English from native English speakers, also speaking English. In the final stage, the judges ranked recordings of each speaker from the first stage as to increasing strength of German accent. The results show that accents were more pronounced under frequency-shifted and delayed auditory feedback conditions than under normal or amplified feedback conditions. Control tests were done to ensure that listeners were judging accent, rather than fluency changes caused by altered auditory feedback. The findings are discussed in terms of Borden's hypothesis and other accounts about why altered auditory feedback disrupts speech control.     

非言语声音影响汉语听者言语声音的知觉

采用启动范式, 以汉语听者为被试, 考察了非言语声音是否影响言语声音的知觉。实验1考察了纯音对辅音范畴连续体知觉的影响, 结果发现纯音影响到辅音范畴连续体的知觉, 表现出频谱对比效应。实验2考察了纯音和复合音对元音知觉的影响, 结果发现与元音共振峰频率一致的纯音或复合音加快了元音的识别, 表现出启动效应。两个实验一致发现非言语声音能够影响言语声音的知觉, 表明言语声音知觉也需要一个前言语的频谱特征分析阶段, 这与言语知觉听觉理论的观点一致。     

Strength of German accent under altered auditory feedback

Borden’s (1979, 1980) hypothesis that speakers with vulnerable speech systems rely more heavily on feedback monitoring than do speakers with less vulnerable systems was investigated. The second language (L2) of a speaker is vulnerable, in comparison with the native language, so alteration to feedback should have a detrimental effect on it, according to this hypothesis. Here, we specifically examined whether altered auditory feedback has an effect on accent strength when speakers speak L2. There were three stages in the experiment. First, 6 German speakers who were fluent in English (their L2) were recorded under six conditions—normal listening, amplified voice level, voice shifted in frequency, delayed auditory feedback, and slowed and accelerated speech rate conditions. Second, judges were trained to rate accent strength. Training was assessed by whether it was successful in separating German speakers speaking English from native English speakers, also speaking English. In the final stage, the judges ranked recordings of each speaker from the first stage as to increasing strength of German accent. The results show that accents were more pronounced under frequency-shifted and delayed auditory feedback conditions than under normal or amplified feedback conditions. Control tests were done to ensure that listeners were judging accent, rather than fluency changes caused by altered auditory feedback. The findings are discussed in terms of Borden’s hypothesis and other accounts about why altered auditory feedback disrupts speech control.     

Ability in perceiving nonnative contrasts: performance on natural and synthetic speech stimuli.

The perception of the distinction between /r/ and /l/ by native speakers of American English and of Japanese was studied using natural and synthetic speech. The American subjects were all nearly perfect at recognizing the natural speech sounds, whereas there was substantial variation among the Japanese subjects in their accuracy of recognizing /r/ and /l/ except in syllable-final position. A logit model, which additively combined the acoustic information conveyed by F1-transition duration and by F3-onset frequency, provided a good fit to the perception of synthetic /r/ and /l/ by the American subjects. There was substantial variation among the Japanese subjects in whether the F1 and F3 cues had a significant effect on their classifications of the synthetic speech. This variation was related to variation in accuracy of recognizing natural /r/ and /l/, such that greater use of both the F1 cue and the F3 cue in classifying the synthetic speech sounds was positively related to accuracy in recognizing the natural sounds. However, multiple regression showed that use of the F1 cue did not account for significant variance in natural speech performance beyond that accounted for by the F3 cue, indicating that the F3 cue is more important than the F1 cue for Japanese speakers learning English. The relation between performance on natural and synthetic speech also provides external validation of the logit model by showing that it predicts performance outside of the domain of data to which it was fit.     

Listening with an Accent: Speech Perception in a Second Language by Late Bilinguals

The goal of the present study was to examine functioning of late bilinguals in their second language. Specifically, we asked how native and non-native Hebrew speaking listeners perceive accented and native-accented Hebrew speech. To achieve this goal we used the gating paradigm to explore the ability of healthy late fluent bilinguals (Russian and Arabic native speakers) to recognize words in L2 (Hebrew) when they were spoken in an accent like their own, a native accent (Hebrew speakers), or another foreign accent (American accent). The data revealed that for Hebrew speakers, there was no effect of accent, whereas for the two bilingual groups (Russian and Arabic native speakers), stimuli with an accent like their own and the native Hebrew accent, required significantly less phonological information than the other foreign accents. The results support the hypothesis that phonological assimilation works in a similar manner in these two different groups.     

Hearing lips in a second language: visual articulatory information enables the perception of second language sounds

We investigated the effects of visual speech information (articulatory gestures) on the perception of second language (L2) sounds. Previous studies have demonstrated that listeners often fail to hear the difference between certain non-native phonemic contrasts, such as in the case of Spanish native speakers regarding the Catalan sounds /ɛ/ and /e/. Here, we tested whether adding visual information about the articulatory gestures (i.e., lip movements) could enhance this perceptual ability. We found that, for auditory-only presentations, Spanish-dominant bilinguals failed to show sensitivity to the /ɛ/–/e/ contrast, whereas Catalan-dominant bilinguals did. Yet, when the same speech events were presented audiovisually, Spanish-dominants (as well as Catalan-dominants) were sensitive to the phonemic contrast. Finally, when the stimuli were presented only visually (in the absence of sound), none of the two groups presented clear signs of discrimination. Our results suggest that visual speech gestures enhance second language perception at the level of phonological processing especially by way of multisensory integration.     

言语的情绪韵律和情绪语义对听觉去信息掩蔽的作用

言语的情绪信息(情绪性韵律和情绪性语义)具有去听觉掩蔽的作用, 但其去掩蔽的具体机制还不清楚。本研究通过2个实验, 采用主观空间分离范式, 通过操纵掩蔽声类型的方式, 分别探究言语的情绪韵律和情绪语义去信息掩蔽的机制。结果发现, 情绪韵律在知觉信息掩蔽或者在知觉、认知双重信息掩蔽下, 均具有去掩蔽的作用。情绪语义在知觉信息掩蔽下不具有去掩蔽的作用, 但在知觉、认知双重信息掩蔽下具有去掩蔽的作用。这些结果表明, 言语的情绪韵律和情绪语义有着不同的去掩蔽机制。情绪韵律能够优先吸引听者更多的注意, 可以克服掩蔽声音在知觉上造成的干扰, 但对掩蔽声音在内容上的干扰作用很小。言语的情绪语义能够优先获取听者更多的认知加工资源, 具有去认知信息掩蔽的作用, 但不具有去知觉信息掩蔽的作用。