Individual Differences in the Discrimination of Novel Speech Sounds: Effects of Sex,Temporal Processing,Musical and Cognitive Abilities |
| |
| Authors: | Vera Kempe John C. Thoresen Neil W. Kirk Felix Schaeffler Patricia J. Brooks |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom.; 2. Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.; 3. University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom.; 4. Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.; 5. College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center of City University of New York, Staten Island, New York, United States of America.; Utrecht University, The Netherlands, |
| |
| Abstract: | This study examined whether rapid temporal auditory processing, verbal working memory capacity, non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, musical ability and prior foreign language experience predicted how well native English speakers (N = 120) discriminated Norwegian tonal and vowel contrasts as well as a non-speech analogue of the tonal contrast and a native vowel contrast presented over noise. Results confirmed a male advantage for temporal and tonal processing, and also revealed that temporal processing was associated with both non-verbal intelligence and speech processing. In contrast, effects of musical ability on non-native speech-sound processing and of inhibitory control on vowel discrimination were not mediated by temporal processing. These results suggest that individual differences in non-native speech-sound processing are to some extent determined by temporal auditory processing ability, in which males perform better, but are also determined by a host of other abilities that are deployed flexibly depending on the characteristics of the target sounds. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
