Selective Adaptation Tests on Mandarin Tone2 and Tone3

The experiment consists of one simple identification test and four selective adaptation tests on a synthesized /da2/-/da3/ continuum. Each selective adaptation test uses one of the four adaptors: tone2 /da/ (DA2), tone3 /da/ (DA3), tone2 /bi/ (BI2) and tone3 /bi/ (BI3). It shows that DA3 shifted the boundary of the continuum and DA2 showed a uniform effect on each stimulus. They both had a selective adaptation effect on the continuum. BI2 and BI3, however, showed no selective adaptation effect on the /da2/-/da3/ continuum. This suggests that tone perception is not independent from segmental perception. On the other hand, DA3 shifted the boundary of the /da2/-/da3/ continuum but had no uniform effect on each stimulus. DA2 showed a uniform effect on each stimulus but did not shift the boundary. Therefore the selective adaptation on the tone2-tone3 continuum is produced in two dimensions: One is the boundary of the categories and the other is the center of each category. This suggests that the turning point position is only an acoustic parameter which is mapped into some abstract features at the phonetic/phonological level in the process of tone2 and tone3 perception.