TY - JOUR

T1 - Auditory discrimination of voice-onset time and its relationship with reading ability

AU - Arciuli, Joanne

AU - Rankine, Tracey

AU - Monaghan, Padraic

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - The perception of voice-onset time (VOT) during dichotic listening provides unique insight regarding auditory discrimination processes and, as such, an opportunity to learn more about individual differences in reading ability. We analysed the responses elicited by four VOT conditions: short-long pairs (SL), where a syllable with a short VOT was presented to the left ear and a syllable with a long VOT was presented to the right ear, as well as long-short (LS), short-short (SS), and long-long (LL) pairs. Stimuli were presented in three attention conditions, where participants were instructed to attend to either the left or right ear, or received no instruction. By around 9.5 years of age children perform similarly to adults in terms of the size and relative magnitude of the right ear advantage (REA) elicited by each of the four VOT conditions. Overall, SL pairs elicited the largest REA and LS pairs elicited a left ear advantage (LEA), reflecting stimulus-driven bottom-up processes. However, children were less able to modulate their responses according to attention condition, reflecting a lack of top-down control. Effective direction of attention to one ear or the other was related to measures of reading accuracy and comprehension, indicating that reading skill is associated with top-down control of bottom-up perceptual processes.

AB - The perception of voice-onset time (VOT) during dichotic listening provides unique insight regarding auditory discrimination processes and, as such, an opportunity to learn more about individual differences in reading ability. We analysed the responses elicited by four VOT conditions: short-long pairs (SL), where a syllable with a short VOT was presented to the left ear and a syllable with a long VOT was presented to the right ear, as well as long-short (LS), short-short (SS), and long-long (LL) pairs. Stimuli were presented in three attention conditions, where participants were instructed to attend to either the left or right ear, or received no instruction. By around 9.5 years of age children perform similarly to adults in terms of the size and relative magnitude of the right ear advantage (REA) elicited by each of the four VOT conditions. Overall, SL pairs elicited the largest REA and LS pairs elicited a left ear advantage (LEA), reflecting stimulus-driven bottom-up processes. However, children were less able to modulate their responses according to attention condition, reflecting a lack of top-down control. Effective direction of attention to one ear or the other was related to measures of reading accuracy and comprehension, indicating that reading skill is associated with top-down control of bottom-up perceptual processes.

KW - VOT

KW - DL

KW - Attention

KW - Lateralisation

KW - Speech perception

KW - Reading ability

KW - CONSONANT-VOWEL SYLLABLES

KW - EARLY IDENTIFICATION

KW - STIMULUS DOMINANCE

KW - EAR ADVANTAGE

KW - CHILDREN

KW - ATTENTION

KW - LATERALIZATION

KW - COMPREHENSION

KW - DISABILITIES

KW - ASYMMETRIES

U2 - 10.1080/13576500902799671

DO - 10.1080/13576500902799671

M3 - Journal article

VL - 15

SP - 343

EP - 360

JO - Laterality

JF - Laterality

SN - 1357-650X

IS - 3

ER -