title: Cross-language specialization in phonetic processing: English and Hindi perception of /w/-/v/ speech and nonspeech.
abstract: This study examined the perceptual specialization for native-language speech sounds, by comparing native Hindi and English speakers in their perception of a graded set of English /w/-/v/ stimuli that varied in similarity to natural speech. The results demonstrated that language experience does not affect general auditory processes for these types of sounds; there were strong cross-language differences for speech stimuli, and none for stimuli that were nonspeech. However, the cross-language differences extended into a gray area of speech-like stimuli that were difficult to classify, suggesting that the specialization occurred in phonetic processing prior to categorization.
authors.affiliation: University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Department of Speech Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom. p.iverson@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Iverson
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pinet
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rosen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult