Inter-language differences in auditory-visual speech perception: A developmental examination
Poster Presentation

Kaoru Sekiyama
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Letters, Kumamoto University

Denis Burnham
MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney

     Abstract ID Number: 91
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: May 30, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/07/2007 10:00 AM in Quad Maclauren Hall
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
The McGurk effect, perceptual integration of discrepant auditory and visual speech information, is well-documented as a mulitisensory phenomenon. Although this phenomenon might appear to be universal, inter-language differences have been found. We tested Japanese and English language children and adults to examine the developmental onset of these differences. Participants were asked to identify syllables in audiovisual (with congruent or discrepant auditory and visual components), audio-only, and video-only presentations at various signal-to-noise levels. In Experiment 1 with two groups of adults, native speakers of Japanese and native speakers of English, results for both percent visually-influenced responses and reaction time supported previous reports of a weaker visual influence for Japanese participants. In Experiment 2, an additional three age groups (6, 8, and 11 years) in each language group were tested. Results showed that the degree of visual influence was low and equivalent for Japanese and English language 6-year-olds, and increased over age for English language participants, especially between 6 and 8 years, but remained the same for Japanese participants. This may be related to the fact that English language adults and older children processed visual speech information relatively faster than auditory information whereas no such inter-modal differences were found for Japanese participants.