Convergence to shortened and lengthened voice onset time in an imitation task

Convergence to variation in voice onset time (VOT) of English voiceless stops is reported to be selective, with speakers adjusting their VOTs after exposure to stimuli with lengthened, but not shortened, VOT. The current study re-examined this proposed selectivity with an explicit imitation paradigm designed to maximize convergence, using stimuli with more extreme differences, and explored the perceptual salience of the differences in a discrimination task. Participants showed phonetic convergence to both shortened and lengthened VOT, and better discrimination of shortened than lengthened VOT. Results suggest that there is no general constraint against convergence to shortened VOT.