Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tone by Speakers of Cantonese and English

Abstract

Current models of dichotic listening do not predict whether linguistic word tones would be perceived more accurately by the right or the left ear. In this experiment five Cantonese words, all having the segmental structure /ma/ but differing in tone, were presented dichotically to two groups of Ss. One group consisted of right-handed native speakers of Cantonese, the other of right-handed native speakers of English. Ss in both groups were first trained to identify the tones using iconic tone letter symbols, and were then tested dichotically. Overall, there was a slight but nonsignificant left ear effect for both groups. In the Cantonese group, four Ss showed a left ear effect, and three showed a right ear advantage. In the English group, three Ss showed a slight right ear effect, three Ss a left ear effect, and one S no ear differences at all. These results suggest that individual subjects are probably using somewhat different strategies in identifying lexical tones, and would not support claims that tonal stimuli are perceived in either a linguistic (speech) or a musical mode of processing.