Processing spoken Chinese: The role of tone information

Vowel and tone monitoring tasks were used to investigate the role of tone i nformation in processing Mandarin. In Experiment 1, participants monitored for a tone-plus-vowel combination (tone 2-/a/). Both existent (known) and n on-existent syllables contained targets and monitoring reaction times showe d faster monitoring times for existent syllable carriers. Non-target bearin g existent syllables mismatched on either the vowel or the tone and showed faster responses for vowel mismatch stimuli. This finding supports a percep tual advantage for vowel information. In Experiment 2, separate vowel and t one monitoring tasks were used for target syllables that occurred phrase-fi nally in idiomatic (highly constraining) phrases or neutral semantic contex t. In the neutral context, vowel monitoring was faster than tone monitoring . In contrast, highly predictive contexts showed a tone advantage. Experime nt 3 used idiomatic contexts that did or did not contain a mismatching tone in the penultimate syllable. Mismatching tones were very similar to or hig hly distinct from the intended tone and both tone and vowel monitoring reac tion times showed graded effects based on similarity of the mismatch. A mod ified version of the TRACE model for tone languages that includes a separat e level or representation for tones that permit graded activation and highl y interconnected syllable representations is discussed.