Pericàs Herrero, Begoña Antonia; (2025) Tracking Phonetic-Learning Abilities across the Lifespan: Electrophysiological and Behavioural Perspectives. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis presents three experiments aimed at developing time-effective techniques for studying phonetic/phonological learning across the lifespan, using both behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. The first experiment investigates phonetic learning of the standard Southern British English (SSBE) vowel set in Spanish-Catalan children (6-12 years) using a computerised version of the Memory/Concentration card game. The first study was conducted in Majorcan schools and included three training sessions, with pre- and post-training tests of vowel discrimination using a three-alternative forced-choice oddity task. Results revealed significant improvements in SSBE vowel discrimination, with older children from bilingual home environments benefiting the most from the training program. This demonstrates that the Memory card game was an effective tool for child phonetic training, highlighting the influence of age and linguistic background on phonetic learning. The second experiment explores a novel EEG technique to map listeners’ perceptual vowel spaces. Participants completed an EEG recording with an oddball paradigm designed to elicit Mismatch Negativity (MMN) responses, alongside behavioural vowel identification and category goodness tasks. Machine learning analysis of MMN responses showed potential for reducing testing time, since they gathered sufficient statistical power to demonstrate reliable MMNs after a single deviant per deviant type. However, the MMNs did not show clear phonological contributions. As a result, the oddball paradigm was modified and the third experiment uses this revised MMN approach to compare vowel perception amongst native British English speakers and native Spanish speakers who acquired English as a second language in adolescence or adulthood. The results demonstrated clear phonological contributions to the generated MMNs, however the observed MMN amplitudes did not mirror the native vowel repertoires of either speaker group. Together, these experiments advance methodologies for testing phonetic training and cross-language vowel perception, facilitating the acquisition of larger datasets to enhance our knowledge on phonetic learning across the lifespan.

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