Mandarin listeners can learn non-native lexical tones through distributional learning

In a previous study we have found that non-tone language speakers are able to form lexical tone categories through extracting frequency distribution in training, but only when attention is directed towards the distribution [12]. This study extends the distributional learning literature by investigating how tone language speakers’ linguistic experience with tones affects their distributional learning of non-native lexical tones. Native Mandarin listeners were presented with a Thai lexical tone minimal pair distributed either unimodally (promoting formation of a single category), or bimodally (promoting two category formation). Assessment of performance in a discrimination task before and after exposure showed that the Bimodal Distribution group improved significantly from Pretest to Posttest whereas the Unimodal group did not. These results suggest that tone language speakers capitalise on their experience in using pitch phonemically to form the appropriate number of lexical tone categories based on the distribution that they hear.