汉语自闭症谱系障碍儿童对塞音送气和声调的范畴感知

Categorical Perception of Aspirated/Unaspirated Stops and High Level/Rising Tones in Mandarin-Speaking Children with ASD

前人研究发现,自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)人群具有优于常人的非言语音高感知能力,而在音长与言语音高的感知上并没有一致结论。在汉语中,浊音起始时间(VOT)和基频分别是感知塞音送气/不送气和声调的关键音征。因此,考察ASD患者对汉语塞音送气和声调的感知,具有特别的意义。本研究以6—8岁与10—12岁汉语ASD儿童为研究对象,以月龄、智商(仅限6—8岁)及注意力水平匹配的汉语典型发展(TD)儿童为对照组,通过经典的语音范畴感知行为实验(含辨认实验与区分实验),考察他们对送气/不送气塞音和阴平/阳平调的感知特性。实验发现,ASD儿童对送气/不送气塞音的感知范畴性强于TD儿童;对于声调的感知,6—8岁ASD儿童的范畴性与TD儿童相当,而10—12岁ASD儿童的范畴性特征减弱,但是两组ASD儿童的范畴边界都比TD儿童更接近成人典型值。总之,ASD儿童的低阶信息感知优势可能是导致其语音感知特性有别于TD儿童的主要原因。

Previous studies showed that people with Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD)had better perception of non-speech pitch than people without ASD,while there was no consensus on differences in the perception of duration and pitch of speech between these two groups.In Mandarin,Voice Onset Time(VOT)and fundamental frequency(F0)are primary acoustic cues to(un)aspiration of stops and tones,respectively.This study examined the perception of(un)aspirated stop and tones in Mandarin-speaking children with ASD,using the paradigm of categorical perception experiment.Children with ASD in the age groups of 6-8 and 10-12 were assigned to the experimental groups,and children without ASD to the control groups,with matching on age,IQ and attention level.Results suggested that categorical perception of(un)aspirated stops was stronger for children with ASD than those without ASD For perception of tones,children with and without ASD in the age group of 6-8 showed comparable categorical characteristics,and children with ASD in the age group of 10-12 Lacked categorical characteristics,whereas children with ASD inboth age groups showed a more typical(adult-like)position of categorical boundary than children without ASD.Low-level perceptual advantage in children with ASD is the main reason for their atypical characteristics of speech perception.