AN EMPIRICAL AND METAANALYTIC EVALUATION OF THE PHONEME IDENTIFICATION TASK

Recent studies that used Ganong's (1980) identification task have prod uced discrepant results. The present study sought to resolve these dis crepancies by examining the influence of methodological factors on pho neme identification and differences in data analysis techniques. Three factors were examined across 2 experiments: position of target phonem e, phonetic contrast, and 2 task conditions in which stimulus quality (S/N ratio) or cognitive load varied. A meta-analysis was then perform ed on the results from all identification studies, including the prese nt one, in an effort to obtain additional insight on factors that infl uence the task. The experiments and meta-analysis identified the impor tance of several methodological factors in affecting identification, m ost notably position of the target phoneme.