Perception and production of Mandarin vowels by teenagers–blind and sighted

Abstract

This study aims to explore the perception and production of Mandarin vowels by the blind and sighted. Twenty blind and twenty sighted teenagers participated in the identification and pronunciation experiment of five Mandarin vowels. We calculated the variability and contrast parameters in the first and the second formant space to investigate the articulatory and perceptual abilities of subjects. The Coefficient of Variation (CV) used to quantify vowel variability reflected the precision of perception and production. The result demonstrated that blind people had more variable perceptions, but there was no difference in production. Vowel contrast was represented by the Average Vowel Space (AVS) of /a/, /i/and/u/, reflecting the distinguishability of vowels. The AVSs of the blind were significantly smaller in perception than the sighted, but larger in production. We found that the difference in perception mainly comes from the second formant. Also, the specific vowel absence observed in blind participants in the perceptual experiment suggested that the lack of vision is likely to bring about differences in vowel perception cues. Unfortunately, we did not find any correlations between perception and production in terms of precision and distinction. Improved experiments are required to explore the relationship between perception and production.