Identification of English /r/ and /l/ in noise: The effects of baseline performance

Abstract

The effects of baseline performance on identification of English /r/ and /l/ in noise by Japanese listeners were examined. Japanese and American listeners’ perception of /r/ and /l/ was measured under various signal-to-noise ratios. Each Japanese listener’s baseline performance was also observed with an identification test with a large set of stimuli. Generally, the signal-to-noise ratio had a similar effect across Japanese listeners of different baseline performances, although the overall accuracy was dominated by the baseline. When fifteen-days of /r/–/l/ identification training in quiet was applied to a group of Japanese listeners, the training effect generalized to identification performance in noise. However, the performance of Japanese listeners did not reach the level that the native listeners exhibited.