Distributional learning of speech sounds: An exploratory study into the effects of prior language experience
Abstract
Distributional learning is typically understood as (unattended) tracking of stimulusprobabilities. Distributional training with speech yields mixed results and the influ-encing factors have not yet been fully investigated.
This study explored whether priorlinguistic experience could have an effect on distributional learning outcomes. Czechand Greek adults, whose native languages contain and lack abstract length categories,respectively, were exposed to novel vowels falling into unimodal or bimodal distribu-tions along the durational dimension.
A trending interaction suggested that the Czechsand the Greeks might have been affected differently by the distributional exposure.Improved discrimination of the "trained" contrast was observed in bimodally exposedCzechs (whose prior expectations about length categories could guide learning) and,rather surprisingly, in unimodally exposed Greeks (who, lacking any expectations,might have listened in a noncategorical, auditory mode). Prior linguistic experiencecould thus affect whether and how experienced language users exploit new distribu-tional speech statistics.
This proposal needs to be assessed in future studies.