Cognitive basis of individual differences in speech perception, production and representations: The role of domain general attentional switching

Abstract

This study investigated whether individual differences in cognitive functions, attentional abilities in particular, were associated with individual differences in the quality of phonological representations, resulting in variability in speech perception and production. To do so, we took advantage of a tone merging phenomenon in Cantonese, and identified three groups of typically developed speakers who could differentiate the two rising tones (high and low rising) in both perception and production [+Per+Pro], only in perception [+Per-Pro], or in neither modalities [-Per-Pro]. Perception and production were reflected, respectively, by discrimination sensitivity d′ and acoustic measures of pitch offset and rise time differences. Components of event-related potential (ERP)-the mismatch negativity (MMN) and the ERPs to amplitude rise time-were taken to reflect the representations of the acoustic cues of tones. Components of attention and working memory in the auditory and visual modalities were assessed with published test batteries. The results show that individual differences in both perception and production are linked to how listeners encode and represent the acoustic cues (pitch contour and rise time) as reflected by ERPs. The present study has advanced our knowledge from previous work by integrating measures of perception, production, attention, and those reflecting quality of representation, to offer a comprehensive account for the underlying cognitive factors of individual differences in speech processing. Particularly, it is proposed that domain-general attentional switching affects the quality of perceptual representations of the acoustic cues, giving rise to individual differences in perception and production.

Differences in Working Memory Capacity Affect Online Spoken Word Recognition: Evidence From Eye Movements

“…One should also entertain the possibility that executive functions, other than working memory span, might underlay some of the effects noted in our study (Wingfield, 2016). For example, effectiveness of attentional switch was found to correlate with the perception of fundamental speech contrasts (Ou & Law, 2017). In their studies, Ou and Law suggest that the perception of tonal differences in Cantonese were related to scores on an attentional switch task.…”

“…Although conceptions of working memory differ among theorists (cf. (Baddeley, 2012; Cowan, 1999; Engle, 2002; Oberauer, 2002), there is general agreement that the essence of working memory is represented by individuals’ limited capacity to retain information while manipulating this information in memory or while performing a concurrent task (cf. Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; McCabe, Roediger, III., McDaniel, Balota, & Hambrick, 2010; Postle, 2006).…”

Phonetic Convergence, Language Talent, Personality and Attention

“…Looked at from another perspective, bilingual speakers do seem to profit from a cognitive processing benefit, evident from generally lower switch costs in a Simon Test and faster RTs in tasks with high working memory demands (Bialystok et al, 2004). The impact of differing attention skills in L2 and bilingual contexts was also studied for VOT productions (Lev-Ari and Peperkamp, 2013), the perception and production of vowels and consonants (Darcy et al, 2016;Safronova, 2016), and tone perception and production (Ou et al, 2015;Ou and Law, 2017). The effects of poorer attention (switching or inhibitory) control bearing on speech processing have been also previously documented in elderly listeners, leading to stronger perceptual learning effects Scharenborg et al, 2015).…”

“…E-Skala provides a general measure (E-Skala General) and two subscales: the E-Skala Social (reflecting "social concern") and the E-Skala Empathy (reflecting "readiness for empathy"). As far as cognitive abilities are concerned, tests of phonological working memory (Gathercole et al, 1994) were also carried out, as it has repeatedly been argued that "phonological short term memory" can predict success in L2 as well as L1 learning and phonological processing (e.g., Baddeley, 2003;Ou et al, 2015;Ou and Law, 2017;Serafini, 2017). For the current study measures for subjects' digit span forward, digit span backward and non-word repetition span were gathered.…”

Dissociation of tone merger and congenital amusia in Hong Kong Cantonese

“…There is some evidence that tone merger in Hong Kong Cantonese can be partially explained by non-linguistic factors [12,24]. For instance, Ou and colleagues [12] found that visual working memory (as assessed by Coding and Cancellation of WAIS-IV) and auditory attentional switching ability (as assessed by Elevator Counting with Reversal in the Test of Everyday Attention) significantly explained the overall response latencies of tone discrimination in non-merging and merging individuals.…”