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Cited by 161Phonetics and Phonology ResearchCategorization, perception, and languageLinguistic Variation and Morphology

The effects of experimental variables on the perception of American English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese listeners

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Yamada, Reiko A., Tohkura, Yoh’Ichi·1992·Perception & Psychophysics
DOI 10.3758/bf03206698
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Abstract

The effects of variations in response categories, subjects' perception of natural speech, and stimulus range on the identification of American English /r/ and /l/ by native speakers of Japanese were investigated. Three experiments using a synthesized /rait/-/lait/ series showed that all these variables affected identification and discrimination performance by Japanese subjects. Furthermore, some of the perceptual characteristics of /r/ and /l/ for Japanese listeners were clarified: (1) Japanese listeners identified some of the stimuli of the series as /w/. (2) A positive correlation between the perception of synthesized stimuli and naturally spoken stimuli was found. Japanese listeners who were able to easily identify naturally spoken stimuli perceived the synthetic series categorically but still perceived a /w/ category on the series. (3) The stimulus range showed a striking effect on identification consistency; identification of /r/ and /l/ was strongly affected by the stimulus range, the /w/ identification less so. This indicates that Japanese listeners tend to make relative judgments between /r/ and /l/.

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  • When acquiring a second language, certain phonetic distinctions are notoriously difficult to master both in speech perception and production, as shown by the difficulty of the /r-l/ distinction for native speakers of Japanese even after training.

    “When acquiring a second language, certain phonetic distinctions are notoriously difficult to master both in speech perception and production, as shown, for example, by the difficulty of the /r-l/ distinction for native speakers of Japanese, even after training (11, 78, 111, 112).”

    From A new view of language acquisition (2000) · cites this paper as [112]

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Research works printed but not linked: 9

  1. CYPHERS, D. S. (1985). Spire: A speech research tool. Unpublished master's thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
  2. KLATT, D. H. (1980). Software for a cascadelparallel formant syn- thesizer. Journal ofthe Acoustical Society ofAmerica, 67, 971-995.
  3. in speech-and nonspeech-like patterns. Journal ofthe Acoustical Society of Japan, 29, 315.
  4. LOGAN, J. S., LIVELY, S. E., '" PIsoNI, D. B. (1991). Training Japanese listeners to identify Irl and Ill. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 89, 874-886.
  5. MILLER, G. A., HEISE, G. A., "" LICHTEN, W. (1951). The intelligi- bility of speech as a function of thecontext of thetest materials. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 41, 329-335.
  6. STRANGE, W. (1991). Learning non-native phoneme contrasts: Inter- actions among subject, stimulus, and task variables. In Y. Tohkura, E. Vatikiotis-Bateson, & Y. Sagisaka (Eds.), Speech perception, pro- duction and linguistic structure (pp. 197-220). Tokyo: Ohmsha, Ltd.
  7. YAMADA, R. A., "" TOHKURA, Y. (l99la). Age effect on acquisition of non-native phonemes: Perception of English Irl, and III for native speakers of Japanese. Proceedings ofthe 12th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 4, 450-453.
  8. YAMADA, R. A., ""TOHKURA, Y. (l99lb). Perception of American En- glish Irl and II/ by native speakers of Japanese. In Y. Tohkura, E. Vatikiotis-Bateson, & Y. Sagisaka (Eds.), Speech perception, pro- duction and linguistic structure (pp. 155-174). Tokyo: Ohmsha, Ltd.
  9. ZUE, V. W., ""CYPHERS, D. S. (1985). The MIT Spire system. Proceed- ings of Speech Tech (pp. 277-279). New York: Media Dimensions. (Manuscript received February 8, 1991; revision accepted for publication March 25, 1992.)

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Authors
Yamada, R. A., & Tohkura, Y.
Affiliations
Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (JP)
Venue
Perception & Psychophysics
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
1992-07
Volume
52
Issue
4
Pages
376-392
ISSN
  • 0031-5117 (ISSN-L)
  • 1532-5962
DOI
10.3758/bf03206698
OpenAlex
W2088724121
Cited by
161
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 2
FWCI
1.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Perception & Psychophysics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
Keywords
American English, Japanese listeners, second language speech perception, stimulus range, response categories, categorical perception, relative judgment
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Attention, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Ethnicity, Female, Humans, Japan, Language, Male, Phonetics, Psychoacoustics, Sound Spectrography, Speech Perception

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