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Learning Foreign Sounds in an Alien World: Videogame Training Improves Non‐Native Speech Categorization
Author(s) -
Lim Sungjoo,
Holt Lori L.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01192.x
Subject(s) - categorization , perception , psychology , perceptual learning , dimension (graph theory) , cognitive psychology , linguistics , speech recognition , computer science , mathematics , neuroscience , pure mathematics , philosophy
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 2.5 h 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.