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The role of linguistic experience in the hemispheric processing of lexical tone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2004

YUE WANG ,
DAWN M. BEHNE ,
ALLARD JONGMAN  and
JOAN A. SERENO
YUE WANG
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
DAWN M. BEHNE
Affiliation:
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
ALLARD JONGMAN
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
JOAN A. SERENO
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Abstract

This study investigated hemispheric lateralization of Mandarin tone. Four groups of listeners were examined: native Mandarin listeners, English–Mandarin bilinguals, Norwegian listeners with experience with Norwegian tone, and American listeners with no tone experience. Tone pairs were dichotically presented and listeners identified which tone they heard in each ear. For the Mandarin listeners, 57% of the total errors occurred in the left ear, indicating a right-ear (left-hemisphere) advantage. The English–Mandarin bilinguals exhibited nativelike patterns, with 56% left-ear errors. However, no ear advantage was found for the Norwegian or American listeners (48 and 47% left-ear errors, respectively). Results indicate left-hemisphere dominance of Mandarin tone by native and proficient bilingual listeners, whereas nonnative listeners show no evidence of lateralization, regardless of their familiarity with lexical tone.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , June 2004 , pp. 449 - 466
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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