Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, IsraelDepartment of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Psychophysiology. 2011 Nov;48(11):1517-1531. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01227.x. Epub 2011 Jul 18.
In an increasingly globalized world mastering a second language (L2) provides a clear advantage. However, after early childhood, not everyone can easily learn a foreign language. The present study explored whether the large variability found in L2 attainment in the normal population, not diagnosed as learning disabled, is related to preattentive speech perception abilities. Using event-related potentials (ERPs) we examined the mismatch negativity, P3a, and the late discriminative negativity (MMN-P3a-LDN) complex, which served as an index for preattentive foreign phonological contrast discrimination abilities. Our results show that, compared to unsuccessful L2 learners, successful L2 learners had shorter latencies of the MMN and P3a components and higher amplitudes of the LDN component. These results suggest that unsuccessful L2 learners have a deficient speech perception mechanism.
在日益全球化的世界中，掌握第二语言（L2）具有明显的优势。然而，过了儿童早期，并非每个人都能轻松地学习外语。本研究探讨了在正常人群中发现的 L2 习得的巨大可变性，这些人没有被诊断为学习障碍，是否与非注意言语感知能力有关。我们使用事件相关电位（ERPs）检查了失匹配负波（MMN）、P3a 和晚期辨别负波（MMN-P3a-LDN）复合体，这些作为非注意性外语语音对比辨别能力的指标。我们的结果表明，与不成功的 L2 学习者相比，成功的 L2 学习者的 MMN 和 P3a 成分的潜伏期更短，LDN 成分的振幅更高。这些结果表明，不成功的 L2 学习者的言语感知机制存在缺陷。
