Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:52:13.192Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Phonological memory, attention control, and musical ability: Effects of individual differences on rater judgments of second language speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2010

TALIA ISAACS  and
PAVEL TROFIMOVICH
TALIA ISAACS*
Affiliation:
McGill University and Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
PAVEL TROFIMOVICH
Affiliation:
Concordia University and Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Talia Isaacs, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, McGill University, 3700 McTavish Street, Montreal, QC H3A 1Y2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines how listener judgments of second language speech relate to individual differences in listeners’ phonological memory, attention control, and musical ability. Sixty native English listeners (30 music majors, 30 nonmusic majors) rated 40 nonnative speech samples for accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency. The listeners were also assessed for phonological memory (serial recognition), attention control (trail making), and musical aptitude. Results showed that music majors assigned significantly lower scores than nonmusic majors solely for accentedness, particularly for low ability second language speakers. However, the ratings were not significantly affected by individual differences in listeners’ phonological memory and attention control, which implies that these factors do not bias listeners’ subjective judgments of speech. Implications for psycholinguistic research and for high-stakes speaking assessments are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 113 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alexander, J. A., Wong, P. C. M., & Bradlow, A. R. (2005). Lexical tone perception in musicians and non-musicians. Paper presented at Interspeech 2005, Eurospeech, 9th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal. Retrieved September 3, 2010, from http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/ann-bradlow/alexander-wong-bradlow-2005.pdfGoogle Scholar
Anderson-Hsieh, J., & Koehler, K. (1988). The effect of foreign accent and speaking rate on native speaker comprehension. Language Learning, 38, 561–613.Google Scholar
Arbuthnott, K., & Frank, J. (2000). Trail Making Test, Part B as a measure of executive control: Validation using a set-switching paradigm. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 518–528.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arellano, S. I., & Draper, J. E. (1972). Relations between musical aptitudes and second-language learning. Hispania, 55, 111–121.Google Scholar
Assmann, P. F., & Summerfield, Q. (1994). The contribution of waveform interactions to the perception of concurrent vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 95, 471–484.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In Spence, K. W. & Spence, J. T. (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 2, pp. 89–195). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A., Lewis, V., & Vallar, G. (1984). Exploring the articulatory loop. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36A, 233–252.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Working memory and language: An overview. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36, 189–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In Bower, G. H. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 8, pp. 47–89). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bentley, A. (1966). Measures of musical abilities. London: Harrap.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. C. (2006). Two-component theory of the suffix effect: Contrary evidence. Memory & Cognition, 34, 648–667.Google Scholar
Brown, A., Iwashita, N., & McNamara, T. (2005). An examination of rater orientations and test-taker performance on English for academic purposes speaking tasks (TOEFL Monograph 29). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carson, A. D. (1998). Why has musical aptitude assessment fallen flat? And what can we do about it? Journal of Career Assessment, 6, 311–328.Google Scholar
Cheng, L., Myles, J., & Curtis, A. (2004). Targeting language support for non-native English-speaking graduate students at a Canadian university. TESL Canada Journal, 21, 50–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, E. C. (1953). Some experiments on the recognition of speech, with one and with two ears. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 25, 975–979.Google Scholar
Clark-Carter, D. (1997). Doing quantitative psychological research: From design to report. Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Conrad, R. (1960). Very brief delay of immediate recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 45–47.Google Scholar
Corrigan, J., & Hinkeldey, N. (1987). Relationships between Parts A and B of the Trail Making Test. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 402–409.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (1984). On short and long memory stores. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 341–370.Google Scholar
Cowan, N., Elliott, E. M., Saults, J. S., Morey, C. C., Mattox, S., Hismjatullina, A., et al. (2005). On the capacity of attention: Its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cognitive Psychology, 51, 42–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowan, N., Fristoe, N. M., Elliott, E. M., Brunner, R. P., & Saults, J. S. (2006). Score of attention, control of attention, and intelligence in children and adults. Memory and Cognition, 34, 1754–1768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, N., & Saults, J. S. (1995). Memory for speech. In Winitz, H. (Ed.), Human communication and its disorders, a review (Vol. 4, pp. 83–170). Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Craik, F. I. M., & McDowd, J. M. (1987). Age differences in recall and recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13, 474–479.Google Scholar
Crowder, R. G., & Morton, J. (1969). Precategorical acoustic storage. Perception & Psychophysics, 5, 365–373.Google Scholar
Cumming, A. (1990). Expertise in evaluating second language compositions. Language Testing, 7, 31–51.Google Scholar
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (1997). Accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility: Evidence from four L1s. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 1–16.Google Scholar
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 379–397.Google Scholar
Derwing, T. M., Rossiter, M. J., Munro, M. J., & Thomson, R. I. (2004). Second language fluency: Judgments on different tasks. Language Learning, 54, 665–679.Google Scholar
Derwing, T. M., Thomson, R. I., & Munro, M. J. (2006). English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers. System, 34, 183–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dexter, E. S., & Omwake, K. T. (1934). The relation between pitch discrimination and accent in modern languages. Journal of Applied Psychology, 18, 267–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downey, R., Farhady, H., Present-Thomas, R., Suzuki, M., & Van Moere, A. (2008). Evaluation of the usefulness of the Versant for English Test: A response. Language Assessment Quarterly, 5, 160–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupoux, E., Peperkamp, S., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2001). A robust method to study stress “deafness.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 1606–1618.Google Scholar
Eckes, T. (2008). Rater types in writing performance assessments: A classification approach to rater variability. Language Testing, 25, 155–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elder, C., Barkhuizen, G., Knoch, U., & von Randow, J. (2007). Evaluating rater responses to an online training program for L2 writing assessment. Language Testing, 24, 37–64.Google Scholar
Elder, C., Knoch, U., Barkhuizen, G., & von Randow, J. (2005). Individual feedback to enhance rater training. Does it work? Language Assessment Quarterly, 2, 175–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C., & Sinclair, S. G. (1996). Working memory and the acquisition of vocabulary and syntax: Putting language in good order. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A, 234–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eviatar, Z. (1998). Attention as a psychological entity and its effects on language and communication. In Stemmer, B. & Whitaker, H. A. (Eds.), Handbook of neurolinguistics (pp. 275–287). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., Munro, M. J., & MacKay, I. R. A. (1995). Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97, 3125–3134.Google Scholar
Fortkamp, M. B. M. (1999). Working memory capacity and elements of L2 speech production. Communication and Cognition, 32, 259–295.Google Scholar
Fox, J. (2005). Re-thinking second language (L2) admission requirements: Problems with language–residency criteria and the need for language assessment and support. Language Assessment Quarterly, 2, 85–115.Google Scholar
French, L. M., & O'Brien, I. (2008). Phonological memory and children's second language grammar learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 463–487.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S., Hitch, G. J., Service, E., & Martin, A. J. (1997). Phonological short-term memory and new word learning in children. Developmental Psychology, 33, 966–979.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gathercole, S. E., Pickering, S. J., Hall, M., & Peaker, S. M. (2001). Dissociable lexical and phonological influences on serial recognition and serial recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 1–30.Google Scholar
Gordon, E. E. (1967). Implications for the use of the “Musical Aptitude Profile” with college and university freshman music students. Journal of Research in Music Education, 15, 32–40.Google Scholar
Gordon, E. E. (1995). Manual: Musical Aptitude Profile. Chicago: GIA Publications.Google Scholar
Gordon, E. E. (2001). A three-year study of the Musical Aptitude Profile. Chicago: GIA Publications.Google Scholar
Gordon, P. C., Eberhardt, J. L., & Rueckl, J. G. (1993). Attentional modulation of the phonetic significance of acoustic cues. Cognitive Psychology, 25, 1–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottfried, T. L. (2007). Music and language learning: Effect of musical training on learning L2 speech contrasts. In Bohn, O.-S. & Munro, M. J. (Eds.), Language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege (pp. 221–237). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Gould, O. N., Saum, C., & Belter, J. (2002). Recall and subjective reactions to speaking styles: Does age matter? Experimental Aging Research, 28, 199–213.Google Scholar
Hervais-Adelman, A., Davis, M. H., Johnsrude, I. S., & Carlyon, R. P. (2008). Perceptual learning of noise vocoded words: Effects of feedback and lexicality. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34, 460–474.Google ScholarPubMed
Jacquemot, C., Dupoux, E., Decouche, O., & Bachoud-Lévi, A.-C. (2006). Misperception in sentences but not in words: Speech perception and the phonological buffer. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23, 949–971.Google Scholar
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, S., & Trofimovich, P. (2008). Intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness of L2 speech: The role of listener experience and semantic context. Canadian Modern Language Review, 64, 459–489.Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-H. (2009). An investigation into native and non-native teachers’ judgments of oral English performance: A mixed methods approach. Language Testing, 26, 187–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kormos, J., & Sáfár, A. (2008). Phonological short-term memory, working memory and foreign language performance in intensive language learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 261–271.Google Scholar
Lee, T. M. C., Cheung, C. C. Y., Chan, J. K. P., & Chan, C. C. H. (2000). Trail making across languages. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 772–778.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levis, J. (2005). Pronunciation and the assessment of spoken language. In Hughes, R. (Ed.), Spoken English, applied linguistics and TESOL: Challenges for theory and practice (pp. 245–270). London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lumley, T., & McNamara, T. F. (1995). Rater characteristics and rater bias: Implications for training. Language Testing, 12, 54–71.Google Scholar
Luoma, S. (2001). A review of the Test of Spoken English (TSE). Language Testing, 18, 225–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mareüil, P., & Vieru-Dimulescu, B. (2006). The contribution of prosody to the perception of foreign accent. Phonetica, 63, 247–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masoura, E. V., & Gathercole, S. E. (2005). Contrasting contributions of phonological short-term memory and long-term knowledge to vocabulary learning in a foreign language. Memory, 13, 422–429.Google Scholar
Morton, J., Crowder, R. G., & Prussin, H. A. (1971). Experiments with the stimulus suffix effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 91, 169–190.Google Scholar
Mullennix, J. W., Sawusch, J. R., & Garrison, L. F. (1992). Automaticity and the detection of speech. Memory & Cognition, 20, 40–50.Google Scholar
Munro, M., & Derwing, T. (1999). Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 49, 285–310.Google Scholar
Munro, M. J., & Derwing, T. M. (2001). Modeling perceptions of the accentedness and comprehensibility of L2 speech: The role of speaking rate. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 451–468.Google Scholar
Myford, C. M., & Wolfe, E. W. (2000). Monitoring sources of variability within the Test of Spoken English assessment system (TOEFL Research Report 65). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Nakata, H. (2002). Correlations between musical and Japanese phonetic aptitudes by native speakers of English. Reading Working Papers in Linguistics, 6, 1–23.Google Scholar
O'Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Collentine, J., & Freed, B. (2006). Phonological memory and lexical, narrative, and grammatical skills in second-language oral production by adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 377–402.Google Scholar
O'Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Freed, B. F., & Collentine, J. (2007). Phonological memory predicts second language oral fluency gains in adults. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 557–582.Google Scholar
O'Loughlin, K. (2007). An investigation into the role of gender in the IELTS oral interview. In Taylor, L. & Falvey, P. (Eds.), IELTS collected papers: Research in speaking and writing assessment (pp. 63–97). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oomen, C. C. E., & Postma, A. (2002). Limitations in processing resources and speech monitoring. Language and Cognitive Processes, 17, 163–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patel, A. D., Peretz, I., Tramo, M., & Labreque, R. (1998). Processing prosodic and musical patterns: A neuropsychological investigation. Brain and Language, 61, 123–144.Google Scholar
Pimsleur, P., Stockwell, R. P., & Comrey, A. L. (1962). Foreign language learning ability. Journal of Educational Psychology, 53, 15–26.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & DiGirolamo, (2000). Attention in cognitive neuroscience: An overview. In Gazzaniga, M. S. & Bizzi, E. (Eds.), The new cognitive neurosciences (pp. 623–631). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, E. J., & Rowe, W. G. (1976). Stimulus suffix effects with speech and nonspeech sounds. Memory & Cognition, 4, 128–131.Google Scholar
Schön, D., Magne, C., & Besson, M. (2004). The music of speech: Music training facilitates pitch processing in both music and language. Psychophysiology, 41, 341–349.Google Scholar
Seashore, C. E. (1919). The psychology of musical talent. New York: Silver, Burdett.Google Scholar
Slevc, L. R., & Miyake, A. (2006). Individual differences in second-language proficiency: Does musical ability matter? Psychological Science, 17, 675–681.Google Scholar
Smith, S. C. (1997). UAB [Computer software]. Birmingham, AL: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences.Google Scholar
Snowling, M., Chiat, S., & Hulme, S. (1991). Words, nonwords, and phonological processes: Some comments on Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, & Baddeley. Applied Psycholinguistics, 12, 369–373.Google Scholar
Tahta, S., Wood, M., & Loewenthal, K. (1981). Foreign accents: Factors related to transfer of accent from the first language to a second language. Language and Speech, 24, 265–272.Google Scholar
Talmy, L. (1996). The windowing of attention. In Shibatani, M. & Thompson, S. A. (Eds.), Grammatical constructions (pp. 235–288). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. (2007). The impact of the joint-funded research studies on the IELTS Speaking Module. In Taylor, L. & Falvey, P. (Eds.), IELTS collected papers: Research in speaking and writing assessment (pp. 185–194). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Templer, B. (2004). High-stakes testing at high fees: Notes and queries on the international English proficiency assessment market. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 2. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.jceps.com/?pageID=article&articleID=21Google Scholar
Trofimovich, P., Ammar, A., & Gatbonton, E. (2007). How effective are recasts? The role of attention, memory, and analytical ability. In Mackey, A. (Ed.), Conversational interaction in second language acquisition (pp. 171–195). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trofimovich, P., Gatbonton, E., & Segalowitz, N. (2007). A dynamic look at L2 phonological learning: Seeking processing explanations for implicational phenomena. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 407–448.Google Scholar
US Army Individual Test Battery. (1944). Manual of directions and scoring. Washington, DC: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
von Kriegstein, K., Eger, E., Kleinschmidt, A., & Giraud, A. L. (2003). Modulation of neural responses to speech by directing attention to voices or verbal content. Cognitive Brain Research, 17, 48–55.Google Scholar
Wing, H. D. (1968). Tests of musical ability and appreciation: An investigation into the measurement, distribution, and development of musical capacity (2nd ed.). London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, N., & Cowan, N. (1995). The cocktail party phenomenon revisited: Attention and memory in the classic selective listening procedure of Cherry (1953). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 243–262.Google Scholar