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Native-language benefit for understanding speech-in-noise: The contribution of semantics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

NARLY GOLESTANI ,
STUART ROSEN  and
SOPHIE K. SCOTT
NARLY GOLESTANI*
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive NeuroscienceUniversity College London & University Medical School, Geneva
STUART ROSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Phonetics and LinguisticsUniversity College London
SOPHIE K. SCOTT
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive NeuroscienceUniversity College London
*
Address for correspondence: Narly Golestani, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK[email protected]
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Abstract

Bilinguals are better able to perceive speech-in-noise in their native compared to their non-native language. This benefit is thought to be due to greater use of higher-level, linguistic context in the native language. Previous studies showing this have used sentences and do not allow us to determine which level of language contributes to this context benefit. Here, we used a new paradigm that isolates the semantic level of speech, in both languages of bilinguals. Results revealed that in the native language, a semantically related target word facilitates the perception of a previously presented degraded prime word relative to when a semantically unrelated target follows the prime, suggesting a specific contribution of semantics to the native language context benefit. We also found the reverse in the non-native language, where there was a disadvantage of semantic context on word recognition, suggesting that such top–down, contextual information results in semantic interference in one's second language.

Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 385 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

*

This work was supported by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship under the European Commission's FP6 framework to N.G. and by a Wellcome Trust SRF award to S.K.S. We would like to thank David Green and Marc Brysbaert for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

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