EFFECTS OF PHONEME REPERTOIRE ON PHONEME DECISION

In three experiments, listeners detected vowel or consonant targets in lists of CV syllables constructed from five vowels and five consonant s. Responses were faster in a predictable context (e.g., listening for a vowel target in a list of syllables all beginning with the same con sonant) than in an unpredictable context (e.g., listening for a vowel target in a list of syllables beginning with different consonants). In Experiment 1, the listeners' native language was Dutch, in which vowe l and consonant repertoires are similar in size. The difference betwee n predictable and unpredictable contexts was comparable for vowel and consonant targets. In Experiments 2 and 3, the listeners' native langu age was Spanish, which has four times as many consonants as vowels; he re effects of an unpredictable consonant context on vowel detection we re significantly greater than effects of an unpredictable vowel contex t on consonant detection. This finding suggests that listeners' proces sing of phonemes takes into account the constitution of their language 's phonemic repertoire and the implications that this has for contextu al variability.