心理语言学线上论坛 | 2022年10月5日14:00 Quentin Zhen QIN (秦震) 教授讲座

A tone language, for instance, Cantonese, uses lexical tones (i.e., pitch variations) to contrast word meanings. This feature could pose word recognition difficulties for adult second-language learners.  Since lexical tones are characterized by high variability across talkers, training with inter-talker variability may facilitate learning lexical tones through memory consolidation, especially among good learners. This talk will report two studies exploring the effect of training variability on learning and sleep-mediated memory consolidation of Cantonese tones among Mandarin-speaking participants. While the first study used a brain-imaging method (i.e., mismatch negativity in EEG) to examine the neural plasticity of tone learning, the second study, including large samples, used behavioral methods (i.e., tone identification) to examine individual differences in tone consolidation among learners with different pitch aptitudes. The talk will conclude by discussing the implications of learning and memory as well as the human plasticity of tone learning.

About the speaker

Dr. Quentin Zhen QIN is currently Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Division of Humanities, and Associate Director of the Center for Chinese Linguistics, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining HKUST, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Research Center for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He graduated from the University of Kansas, United States, with a Ph.D. in linguistics. His research focuses on how lexical tones in Chinese languages are perceptually learned and consolidated by second-language learners by adopting phonetic and psycholinguistic approaches. His interdisciplinary work aims to explain learners’ (in) ability to process non-native prosody across the lifespan. Website: https://sites.google.com/site/qinzhenquentin/.

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