Tiffany P Hwa, Christian Jung, Archer R Schaeffer, Natalie Riebe, Shreya Bathula, Jason A Brant, Jianjing Kuang, William J Bologna, Catherine V Palmer
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of native language on phoneme perception in normal-hearing (NH) adults representing the three most commonly spoken languages in the United States (English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese).
Method: A prospective cross-sectional study was performed at a tertiary care institution. Ninety-five NH young adults completed Experiment 1: 36 native English, 32 native Mandarin, and 27 native Spanish speakers, with an average age of 21.5 years, recruited from a university population. A subset of 30 NH participants drawn from the Experiment 1 cohort (10 per language group) completed Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) same-different paradigm was developed using paired stimuli drawn from an 11-step continuum spanning English /d/-/t/ voice onset time (VOT). Pairs were categorized as subtle, intermediate, or pronounced based on degree of VOT contrast. Experiment 2 utilized a 3AFC odd-one-out paradigm with 16 tasks, with an expanded stimulus library. The stimuli were consonant-vowel (CV) and VCV phrases that were inclusive of voicing contrast but also place, manner, and vowel contrasts.
Results: Overall performance in Experiment 1 did not differ significantly across language groups (χ2 = 4.81, p = .090). However, when stratified by degree of VOT contrast, a significant group effect emerged for intermediate VOT pairs (χ2 = 7.59, p = .023), driven by differences between Mandarin and Spanish speakers (χ2 = 7.59, p = .0059, Bonferroni corrected). No significant differences were observed between English speakers and either of the other groups. In Experiment 2, all three language groups achieved 100% accuracy across phoneme pairs spanning multiple contrast types, with no language-related differences detected.
Conclusions: While native language affects discrimination of intermediate VOT contrasts in NH adults, performance converges when using a broader set of stimuli. These results provide preliminary support for discrimination-based approaches to speech perception assessment and highlight the importance of stimulus selection and task design in minimizing language-related bias. Further studies are required to evaluate sensitivity and clinical applicability in more challenging listening environments and with hard of hearing populations.
期刊介绍：
Mission: AJA publishes peer-reviewed research and other scholarly articles pertaining to clinical audiology methods and issues, and serves as an outlet for discussion of related professional and educational issues and ideas. The journal is an international outlet for research on clinical research pertaining to screening, diagnosis, management and outcomes of hearing and balance disorders as well as the etiologies and characteristics of these disorders. The clinical orientation of the journal allows for the publication of reports on audiology as implemented nationally and internationally, including novel clinical procedures, approaches, and cases. AJA seeks to advance evidence-based practice by disseminating the results of new studies as well as providing a forum for critical reviews and meta-analyses of previously published work.
Scope: The broad field of clinical audiology, including audiologic/aural rehabilitation; balance and balance disorders; cultural and linguistic diversity; detection, diagnosis, prevention, habilitation, rehabilitation, and monitoring of hearing loss; hearing aids, cochlear implants, and hearing-assistive technology; hearing disorders; lifespan perspectives on auditory function; speech perception; and tinnitus.
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