Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study investigates how observing gestures varying in congruence with pitch contours influences processing of lexical tones during second language (L2) word learning. Adult L1 English speakers with no tonal language experience completed pre- and post-learning tests in which they heard pairs of Mandarin words with correct (matching) or incorrect (mismatching) tones while N400 event-related potentials were recorded. During the learning phase, participants learned Mandarin words differing minimally in lexical tone while observing congruent, incongruent, or no pitch gestures. Participants completed two post-learning tests of lexical tone association and word meaning discrimination immediately after the learning phase and 24 hours later. Distinct N400 responses emerged for L2 words learned with congruent gestures in the lexical tone discrimination task, indicating that observing congruent pitch gestures facilitates neural sensitivity to lexical tones.