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Development of non-native vowel discrimination: Improvement without exposure.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Mazuka, R; Hasegawa, M; Tsuji, S
Published in: Developmental psychobiology
February 2014

The present study tested Japanese 4.5- and 10-month old infants' ability to discriminate three German vowel pairs, none of which are contrastive in Japanese, using a visual habituation-dishabituation paradigm. Japanese adults' discrimination of the same pairs was also tested. The results revealed that Japanese 4.5-month old infants discriminated the German /bu:k/-/by:k/ contrast, but they showed no evidence of discriminating the /bi:k/-/be:k/ or /bu:k/-/bo:k/ contrasts. Japanese 10-month old infants, on the other hand, discriminated the German /bi:k/-/be:k/ contrast, while they showed no evidence of discriminating the /bu:k/-/by:k/ or /bu:k/-/bo:k/ contrasts. Japanese adults, in contrast, were highly accurate in their discrimination of all of the pairs. The results indicate that discrimination of non-native contrasts is not always easy even for young infants, and that their ability to discriminate non-native contrasts can improve with age even when they receive no exposure to a language in which the given contrast is phonemic.

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Published In

Developmental psychobiology

DOI

EISSN

1098-2302

ISSN

0012-1630

Publication Date

February 2014

Volume

56

Issue

2

Start / End Page

192 / 209

Related Subject Headings

  • Speech Perception
  • Male
  • Language Development
  • Language
  • Infant
  • Humans
  • Habituation, Psychophysiologic
  • Female
  • Discrimination, Psychological
  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
 

Citation

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Mazuka, R., Hasegawa, M., & Tsuji, S. (2014). Development of non-native vowel discrimination: Improvement without exposure. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(2), 192–209. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21193
Mazuka, Reiko, Mihoko Hasegawa, and Sho Tsuji. “Development of non-native vowel discrimination: Improvement without exposure.Developmental Psychobiology 56, no. 2 (February 2014): 192–209. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.21193.
Mazuka R, Hasegawa M, Tsuji S. Development of non-native vowel discrimination: Improvement without exposure. Developmental psychobiology. 2014 Feb;56(2):192–209.
Mazuka, Reiko, et al. “Development of non-native vowel discrimination: Improvement without exposure.Developmental Psychobiology, vol. 56, no. 2, Feb. 2014, pp. 192–209. Epmc, doi:10.1002/dev.21193.
Mazuka R, Hasegawa M, Tsuji S. Development of non-native vowel discrimination: Improvement without exposure. Developmental psychobiology. 2014 Feb;56(2):192–209.
Journal cover image

Published In

Developmental psychobiology

DOI

EISSN

1098-2302

ISSN

0012-1630

Publication Date

February 2014

Volume

56

Issue

2

Start / End Page

192 / 209

Related Subject Headings

  • Speech Perception
  • Male
  • Language Development
  • Language
  • Infant
  • Humans
  • Habituation, Psychophysiologic
  • Female
  • Discrimination, Psychological
  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology