Effects of Second Language Study of Phonemic Discrimination and Auditory Event-Related Potentials in Adults

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of acquisition of a second language on auditory event-related brain potentials and discrimination of foreign language phonemes by 36 women (ages 18 to 47 years), and 25 men (ages 18 to 36 years) and of varying linguistic background, in response to synthetic versions of Japanese phonemes. Subjects were subsequently tested on discrimination between spoken Japanese phonemes. Analysis indicated that the men and women differed in phonological processing and in the way acquisition of the second language affected phonological processing.

References

Bialystok

Hakuta

(1994) Chapter. In Bialystok

(Ed.), In other words, the science and psychology of second language acquisition. New York: Basic Books. Pp. 16–20.

Bush

A. M.

(1993) Effect of high latitude on the variability of human event-related brain potentials. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univer. of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.

Bush

A. M.

Emery

(1985) Circadian and arousal related influences on the auditory P300 event-related potential. In Technology and the Scientist, Proceedings of the 1985 Arctic Science Conference, AAAS-Arctic Division, UAF, Fairbanks, AK. (Poster session) P. 12.

Daniel

H. J.

(1991) Are male and female Homo sapiens selected for different auditory stimuli? In von Raffler-Engel

Wind

Jonker

(Eds.), Studies in Language Origins: Vol. 2. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing. Pp. 66–75.

Dehaene-Lambertz

Dehaene

(1994) Speed and cerebral correlates of syllable discrimination in infants. Nature, 370, 292–296.

Eimas

P. D.

Corbit

(1973) Selective adaptation of linguistic feature detectors. Cognitive Psychology, 4, 99–109.

Ellis

H. C.

Hunt

R. R.

(1993) Fundamentals of cognitive psychology. (5th ed.) Dubuque, IA: Brown.

Guyton

A. C.

(1991) Basic neuroscience. (2nd ed.) Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.

Kimura

(1993) Sex differences in the brain. In Mind and brain: Readings from the Scientific American. New York: Freeman. Pp. 78–89.

10.

Kolb

Wishaw

I. Q.

(1990) Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. (3rd ed.) New York: Freeman.

11.

Kuhl

Williams

Lacerda

Sevens

Lindbaum

(1992) Linguistic experience alters phonetic perception in infants by 6 months of age. Science, 255, 606–608.

12.

Nasman

(1988) Parietal P3 amplitude as an indicator of category discrimination (Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Information Service. (No. 8902677)

13.

Pfefferbaum

Ford

Johnson

Jr. Wenegrat

Kopell

B. S.

(1993) Manipulation of P3 latency: Speed vs accuracy. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 55, 188–197.

14.

Picton

T. W.

Stuss

D. T.

Champagne

S. C.

Nelson

R. F.

(1984) The effects of age on human event-related potentials. Psychophysiology, 21, 312–325.

15.

Rockstroh

Elbert

Canavan

Lutzenberger

Birbaumer

(1989) Slow cortical potentials and behavior. Baltimore, MD: Urban. Pp. 72–76.

16.

Salkind

N. J.

(1994) Exploring research. (2nd ed.) New York: Macmillan.

17.

Sams

Aulanko

Aaltonen

Näätänen

(1990) Event-related potentials to infrequent changes in synthesized phonemic stimuli. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2, 344–357.

18.

Shaywitz

B. A.

Shaywitz

S. E.

Pugh

K. R.

Constable

R. T.

Skudlarski

Fulbright

R. K.

Bronen

R. A.

Fletcher

R. K.

Shankweller

D. P.

Katz

Gore

J. C.

(1995) Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language. Nature, 373, 607–609.

19.

Tabachnik

B. G.

Fidell

L. S.

(1996) Using multivariate statistics. (3rd ed.) New York: HarperCollins.

20.

Werker

J. F.

Frost

P. E.

McGurk

(1992) La langue les levres: Cross-language influences on bimodal speech perception. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 46, 331–368