Perceptual flexibility at an advanced age

Training seniors to perceive a nonnative voicing contrast

Abstract

This paper presents data from a perception study in which the effects of nonnative phonetic training in listener groups of juniors and seniors are compared. Specifically, the study includes L1 Danish participants (aged 20-30 and 60-76) and two age-matched control groups who were tested on their ability to identify the L2 English sibilants /s/ and /z/ in 2AFC tasks. The junior (n=14) and senior (n=15) experimental groups were asked to complete 10 online sessions which trained, with immediate feedback, their perception of the contrast syllable-initially. Unlike the control group, both training groups had significantly improved identification scores on the trained identification task at post-test, and further analyses suggested little performance difference between the trained juniors and seniors over time. Furthermore, their learning gains appeared to be partially retained as neither age group showed significant decline in identification accuracy eight weeks after training had finished. In conclusion, we find that participants above the age of 60 demonstrate largely the same capabilities for phonetic learning as do the younger participants, and we suggest that an advanced age does not necessarily compromise speech learning ability.