The roles of tonal and segmental information in Mandarin spoken word recognition: An eyetracking study

We used eyetracking to examine how tonal versus segmental information influence spoken word recognition in Mandarin Chinese. Participants heard an auditory word and were required to identify its corresponding picture from an array that included the target item (chuang2 ‘bed’), a phonological competitor (segmental: chuang1 ‘window’; cohort: chuan2 ‘ship’; rhyme: huang2 ‘yellow’; tonal: niu2 ‘cow’), and two phonologically unrelated distractors. Growth curve analysis was used to characterize the trajectory of looks to target and competitor items during word processing. We found similar model fits for the segmental and cohort conditions characterized by slower eye movements to correct targets compared to baseline, suggesting that tonal and segmental information are accessed concurrently and play comparable roles in constraining activation. These findings are discussed with respect to current models of spoken word recognition that have not previously accounted for the role of tone.