Influence Of Lexical Tone Similarity On Spoken Word Recognition In Mandarin Chinese:Evidence From Eye-Tracking

Existing spoken-word recognition models(e.g.,TRACE)agreed that in the process of spoken-word recognition,the phonological similarity between the auditory input signal and lexical representation would affect the activation degree of the lexical candidates.However,previous models were mostly based on non-tonal languages and segmental information,such as English,and Spanish.Unlike alphabetical languages,Tone plays an important role in distinguishing Chinese semantic information.Studies found that different lexical tones shared different similarities.For example,the midrising tone is more phonetically similar to the low-dipping tone than other tone pairs However,the specific mechanism of how tones affect Chinese spoken word recognition was still unclear.This study examined the mechanism of tone in Chinese spoken word recognition through the visual world paradigm combined with eye-tracking technology.Specifically,through two studies,the following two research questions were examined:(1)How does tonal similarity affect phonetic activation in spoken word recognition;(2)How does tonal similarity affect semantic activation in spoken word recognition?Study 1 examined how tonal similarity affects phonetic activation for Chinese auditory word recognition.Study 1 consisted of 2 experiments.In Experiment 1,participants were presented with an auditory target word and simultaneously presented with a visual screen consisting of four words:the target word,a tonal competitor,and two unrelated distractors.For each target word(e.g.,"阳台/yang2tai2/,balcony"),two types of tonal competitors were matched:a high-similarity tonal competitor(e.g.,"养子/yang3zi3/,adopted son"),and a low-similarity tonal competitor(e.g.,"样本/yang4ben3/,samples").The experimental task required the participants to click the target word on the visual screen with the mouse,and recorded their eye movement tracks at the same time.In Experiment 2,for an auditory target word(e.g.,"阳台/yang2tai2/,balcony"),three types of tonal competitor words were matched:same-tone competitor words(e.g.,"羊毛/yang2mao2/,wool"),high-similarity tonal competitor(e.g.,"养子/yang3zi3/,adopted son"),and low-similarity tonal competitor(e.g.,"样本/yang4ben3/,samples").The results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 consistently found a significant phonetic competition effect,that was,the fixation probability on competitors was significantly higher than that on distractors.What’s more,the competitive effect of high-similarity competitors was greater than that of low-similarity competitors.Study 2 examined how tonal similarity affects the activation of semantic information in auditory word recognition.In Experiment 3,a single Chinese word(e.g.,"冷/leng3/”,cold)was presented to the participants in the auditory form.At the same time,participants were presented with a visual presentation:a semantic competitor(e.g.,"温暖/wen1nuan3/,warm")and two unrelated distractors.In the control condition,there was a direct semantic correlation between the semantic competitor("温暖/wen1nuan3/,warm")and the auditory target word("冷/leng3/,cold").In the experimental condition,the semantic competitor word("温暖/wen1nuan3/,warm")was semantically associated with the tonal competitor("冷/leng3/,cold")of the auditory word("棱/leng2/,edge").The experimental task was to judge whether there were words related to the semantics of the auditory stimulus on the screen by pressing the button.Results found that semantic competition effects in both conditions.That was,the fixation probability was bigger on semantically competitors than on two unrelated distractors.And the semantic competition effect under the control condition was greater than that under the experimental condition.It shows that the listener can activate the intermediary words similar to their tones through auditory stimulation,and then activate the semantically related words of the interposition words.This study found that in the process of spoken word recognition,tonal similarity affects the activation of candidate word phonetic information in a continuous and stepby-step manner.And tonal similarity can partially inhibit the activation of semantic information in Chinese spoken word recognition.