Dal Ben, R. 1 , Souza, D. 1 & Hay, J. 2
1 Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos
2 University of Tennessee
Research suggests that large differences in transitional probability (TP) or phonotactic probability (PP) can function as cues to word boundaries for English listeners. Here, we focus on Brazilian-Portuguese-speaking adults? (N=81) sensitivity to subtle differences in phonotactics during a speech segmentation task. Participants were familiarized to one of three frequency-balanced artificial languages made up of six words and were tested on (low frequency) words vs. part-words (made from high frequency words). Across the 3 languages PPs of words and part-words were always high, but varied subtly. In Language 1 PPs of high and low frequency words were unbalanced during familiarization, but words and part-words had balanced PPs during test. Participants showed above chance word selection. In Languages 2 and 3, we test the possibility that subtle differences in PPs during familiarization may have combined with TPs to facilitate segmentation. Thus, PPs were balanced during familiarization, but were unbalanced during test. In Language 2 test words had a slightly lower PPs than part-words. The reverse was true for Language 3. Language 2 participants failed to select words above chance, but Language 3 participants succeeded. The overall results suggest that subtle differences in phonotactics likely affect segmentation and perceptual preferences in adults.