Phonetics and Learning, Age & Bilingualism Laboratory (LAB-lab), Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Neurosci Lett. 2021 Jan 1;740:135430. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.135430. Epub 2020 Oct 16.
Cognitive decline is evident in the elderly and it affects speech perception and foreign language learning. A listen-and-repeat training with a challenging speech sound contrast was earlier found to be effective in young monolingual adults and even in advanced L2 university students at the attentive and pre-attentive levels. This study investigates foreign language speech perception in the elderly with the same protocol used with the young adults. Training effects were measured with attentive behavioural measures (N = 9) and with electroencephalography measuring the pre-attentive mismatch negativity (MMN) response (N = 10). Training was effective in identification, but not in discrimination and there were no changes in the MMN. The most attention demanding perceptual functions which benefit from experience-based linguistic knowledge were facilitated through training, whereas pre-attentive processing was unaffected. The elderly would probably benefit from different training types compared to younger adults.
认知能力衰退在老年人中很明显，它会影响言语感知和外语学习。以前的研究发现，在年轻的单语成年人中，甚至在高级的第二语言大学生中，进行具有挑战性的语音对比的听和重复训练，在注意和前注意水平上都是有效的。本研究使用与年轻人相同的方案，调查老年人的外语言语感知。训练效果通过注意行为测量（n=9）和测量前注意性失匹配负波（MMN）反应的脑电图（n=10）进行测量。训练在识别方面有效，但在区分方面无效，MMN 没有变化。受益于基于经验的语言知识的最需要注意力的感知功能通过训练得到了促进，而前注意加工则不受影响。与年轻人相比，老年人可能会受益于不同类型的训练。
