Changes in voicing perception by adult French speakers after identification training

The aim of the present study was to investigate changes in voicing identification, discrimination, and categorical perception induced by identification training centered on three different training values. One group of French-speaking adults was trained across a universal auditory boundary (-30 ms voice onset time), and two other groups were trained across arbitrary boundaries (-45 or -60 ms voice onset time). A control group did not receive any training. The results showed that both the -30 and the -45 training groups exhibited a 10 ms shift in the identification boundary. Moreover, for the -30 training group, discrimination and categorical perception changed around the French phonological boundary. These results illustrate the possibility of modifying the French phonological perception after short-time training, particularly when centered on a universal boundary. However, training only had limited effects and even strengthened the phonological boundary, congruent with the hypothesis that this boundary is acquired by a perceptual "coupling" between universal boundaries.