The Role of Acoustic Similarity and Non-Native Categorisation in Predicting Non-Native Discrimination: Brazilian Portuguese Vowels by English vs. Spanish Listeners

This study tests whether Australian English (AusE) and European Spanish (ES) listeners differ in their categorisation discrimination of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) vowels. In particular, we investigate two theoretically relevant measures vowel category overlap (acoustic vs. perceptual categorisation) as predictors non-native difficulty. We also the individual listener’s own native productions predict perception better than group averages. The results showed comparable performance for AusE ES participants BP patterns were largely dependent on contrast-specific learning scenarios, which similar across ES. found that acoustic similarity between individuals’ stimuli consistent with participants’ categorisation. Furthermore, indicated both successfully performance. However, accuracy was explained by listeners. Interestingly, listeners, averages predictions based production data, but no difference.