Best Catherine T, Mathur Gaurav, Miranda Karen A, Lillo-Martin Diane
University of Western Sydney, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia and Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, Connecticut.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2010 Apr;72(3):747-62. doi: 10.3758/APP.72.3.747.
We investigated effects of sign language experience on deaf and hearing participants' categorical perception of minimal manual contrast stimuli that met key criteria of speech perception research. A continuum of meaningless dynamic stimuli was created with a morphing approach, which manipulated videorecorded productions of phonotactically permissible pseudosigns differing between American Sign Language (ASL) handshapes that contrast on a single articulatory dimension (U-V: finger-spreading). AXB discrimination and AXB categorization and goodness ratings on the target items were completed by deaf early (native) signers (DE), deaf late (nonnative) signers (DL), hearing late (L2) signers (HL), and hearing nonsigners (HN). Categorization and goodness functions were less categorical and had different boundaries for DL participants than for DE and HL participants. Shape and level of discrimination functions also differed by ASL experience and hearing status, with DL signers showing better performance than DE, HL, and especially HN participants, particularly at the U end of the continuum. Although no group displayed a peak in discrimination at the category boundary, thus failing to support classic categorical perception, discrimination was consistent with categorization in other ways that differed among the groups. Thus, perception of phonetic variations underlying this minimal sign contrast is systematically affected by language experience.
我们研究了手语经验对聋人和听力正常参与者对符合言语感知研究关键标准的最小手动对比刺激的范畴知觉的影响。采用变形方法创建了一个连续的无意义动态刺激，该方法操纵了美国手语（ASL）手部形状不同的语音允许伪手势的视频记录，这些手部形状在单个发音维度（U-V：手指伸展）上形成对比。早期（母语）聋人手语使用者（DE）、晚期（非母语）聋人手语使用者（DL）、晚期（第二语言）听力正常手语使用者（HL）和听力正常非手语使用者（HN）完成了对目标项目的AXB辨别、AXB分类和好感度评分。与DE和HL参与者相比，DL参与者的分类和好感度函数的范畴性较低，且边界不同。辨别函数的形状和水平也因ASL经验和听力状况而异，DL手语使用者的表现优于DE、HL，尤其是HN参与者，特别是在连续体的U端。尽管没有一组在范畴边界处的辨别出现峰值，因此未能支持经典的范畴知觉，但辨别的方式在其他方面与分类一致，且在不同组之间存在差异。因此，这种最小手语对比背后的语音变化知觉受到语言经验的系统性影响。
