Language exposure benefit to talker learning in an unfamiliar language

Recent research shows that exposure to an unfamiliar language is sufficient in improving talker learning. Here, we further investigated the nature of this effect by exploring individual differences and methodological issues. Two groups of Englishmonolingual adults were recruited: one with regular exposure to French (Montréal), and the other without (Storrs). Both groups learned the voices of English talkers faster than French talkers; however, in contrast to previous findings, no group differences were found in talker learning, which may be due to task differences (4-AFC vs. 2-AFC task). However, stable patterns in individual differences emerged: performance in identifying English talkers was correlated with performance in identifying French talkers for Storrs residents, but not for Montréal residents. These findings suggest that a languagegeneral “talent” contributes to talker learning only in encounters with highly novel languages, and that exposure to the surface acoustic-phonetic properties of an unfamiliar language drives the language