Learning and generalization of intraphonemic VOT discrimination

A recent study A. E. Carney, G. P. Widin, and N. F. Viemeister, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 62, 961–970 (1977) has shown that with appropriate training listeners can consistently discriminate intraphonemic differences in a synthetic bilabial VOT stop consonant series. We examined whether listeners trained to discriminate intraphonemic differences on one VOT series can also make intraphonemic discriminations on a different VOT series. Identification and discrimination data were initially obtained from a group of six listeners for both a bilabial and a velar VOT stop consonant series. Half the listeners then received discrimination training on the bilabial series and half received training on the velar series. Discrimination and identification data were subsequently obtained from all listeners for both series. Improved final discrimination on the nontraining series indicates that listeners had learned to discriminate VOT per se, while a failure to improve discrimination on the nontraining series indicates that specific properties of the training series had been learned. Supported by NIMH, NICHD.