Lower-level acoustics underlie higher-level phonological categories in lexical tone perception

Higher-level linguistic categories dominate lower-level acoustics in lexical tone processing.

Native tonal-language speakers exhibit reduced sensitivity to lexical tone differences within, compared to across, categories (higher-level linguistic category influence). Yet, sensitivity is enhanced among musically trained, non-tonal-language-speaking individuals (lower-level acoustics processing influence). The current study investigated the relative contribution of higher- and lower-level i...

Neurocognitive networks in higher-level visual perception

Visual Form Perception Can Be a Cognitive Correlate of Lower Level Math Categories for Teenagers

Numerous studies have assessed the cognitive correlates of performance in mathematics, but little research has been conducted to systematically examine the relations between visual perception as the starting point of visuospatial processing and typical mathematical performance. In the current study, we recruited 223 seventh graders to perform a visual form perception task (figure matching), num...

Lexical Tone Perception in Early Infancy

In order to shed light on the perceptual reorganization of lexical tones in the first year of life, in the current study, we tested Dutch native infants (6, 9, 11-month-old) on their discrimination of Mandarin Chinese high rising tone (T2) and low-dipping tone (T3) using a visual fixation paradigm. The infants were habituated on multiple tokens produced by two female native speakers, carrying e...

The visual perception of lexical tone

Visual speech (lipreading) supports speech perception not only when the auditory signal is limited, degraded, or miss-ing, but also in mismatched auditory and visual speech component conditions when the auditory signal is clear and undegraded. While most of this research has been done with segments (consonants and vowels), research at MARCS has now provided evidence for visual speech cues for n...