Vision and Audition in Language Learning

Abstract

The primary purpose was to present data for the transfer of learning from one sensory modality to another, specifically the relationship between vision and audition. The parameter was a range of natural languages including Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, and Persian. The secondary purpose was to suggest some theoretical constructs which may account for the data, and the third purpose was to explore certain side issues such as pronunciation shock and the validity of predictors for paired-associate learning. There was positive transfer of large magnitude from vision to audition for Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, or Persian, but a small, negative transfer for Russian. There was positive transfer from audition to vision for Spanish, Japanese, and Russian, but transfer was neutral for Turkish and negative for Persian. The magnitude of the positive transfer was usually higher from vision to audition than audition to vision. Much of the transfer data seemed to be accounted for with a phonetic fit hypothesis and a central mediation hypothesis of sensory process. The first concept, that of phonetic fit, postulates that positive transfer will be a function of the congruent match between the spoken and written language. The greater the congruency, the higher the probability of positive transfer between sensory channels. The second concept, the central mediation hypothesis, suggests that the direction and amount of transfer is a function of data processing not at the sensory receptor level, but at some centralized location in the brain.