Effects of carriers on Mandarin tone categorical perception

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of three different carriers on Mandarin tone perception. Three tone continua were constructed: Modified speech, synthesized speech, and nonspeech. Identification tests were conducted for the two speech continua, while discrimination tests were conducted for all the three continua. Results showed that category boundary position differed significantly between the modified speech and synthesized speech continua. Boundary position of the modified speech tone continuum was more toward the rising end than that of the synthesized speech tone continuum, suggesting that greater complexity reduces the overall pitch sensitivity. In the discrimination test, subjects generally exhibited the same pattern for the three continua, but with slightly lower discrimination accuracy for the nonspeech continuum, suggesting the effects of long-term tone language experience of Mandarin is carried over to nonspeech domain.