Individual differences in the discrimination of novel speech sounds: effects of sex, temporal processing, musical and cognitive abilities.

ABSTRACT: This study examined whether rapid temporal auditory processing, verbal working memory capacity, non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, musical ability and prior foreign language experience predicted how well native English speakers (N=120) discriminated Norwegian tonal and vowel contrasts as well as a non-speech analogue of the tonal contrast and a native vowel contrast presented over noise. Results confirmed a male advantage for temporal and tonal processing, and also revealed that temporal processing was associated with both non-verbal intelligence and speech processing. In contrast, effects of musical ability on non-native speech-sound processing and of inhibitory control on vowel discrimination were not mediated by temporal processing. These results suggest that individual dif

SUBMITTER: Kempe V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3489723 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature