Assessing Perceptual Difficulty Across Speech Sound Categories and Contrasts to Optimize Minimal Pair Training

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Speech Perception
• Auditory Neuroscience

Background:

• Speech sound perception research often categorizes sounds broadly (manner, place, voicing, nasality).
• Nuanced differences within these categories significantly impact perceptual discrimination.
• Minimal pair contrasts are used in perceptual training, but their effectiveness may vary based on specific sound contrasts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the perceptual difficulty of distinguishing between speech sound categories.
• To identify the difficulty of discriminating individual speech sound contrasts within categories.
• To inform the development of more effective minimal pair contrasts for perceptual training.

Main Methods:

• Utilized psycholinguistic methods and eye-tracking within the Visual World Paradigm.
• Presented 30 adults with normal hearing with auditory words and image choices.
• Included minimal pair competitors differing in manner, place, voicing, or nasality in word-final position.

Main Results:

• Manner and place competitors showed greater perceptual competition than voicing and nasality competitors.
• Significant differences in discrimination difficulty were found among individual manner contrasts.
• Eye-tracking revealed differential fixation patterns to minimal pair competitors over time.

Conclusions:

• Speech sound perception is more nuanced than broad category groupings suggest.
• Individual speech sound contrasts within categories have varying perceptual difficulties.
• Findings can refine minimal pair treatment strategies for speech sound disorders.