{"pk":26646,"title":"Mandarin-English Bilinguals Match Lexical-Tone Processing to the Language Context","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. We consid-ered context-based processing of pitch information by Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctionsin one language but not the other. In an eye-tracked word-learning experiment, 58 bilinguals and 28 English monolinguals eachlearned English-like and Mandarin-like wordsets, words referring to images. Wordsets differed primarily in that English-likewords contained final consonants. We explained that some words might differ only in their pitch patterns, and included train-ing on minimal tone pairs. In test, two pictures appeared on the screen with referents differing in either tone or vowel. Onepicture was labeled. Bilinguals processed tones more efficiently (t(78) = 3.54, p = .001) and more accurately (t(84) = 3.78, p <.001) than monolinguals only in the Mandarin context. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus appear to tailor tone processing to thewithin-word language context.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Member Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4wj5z8t8","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Carolyn","middle_name":"","last_name":"Quam","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Arizona","department":""},{"first_name":"Sarah","middle_name":"","last_name":"Creel","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California, San Diego","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2016-01-01T12:00:00-06:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/26646/galley/16282/download/"}]}