Phonetic Coding & Sound Discrimination Flashcards

A student is taught that the symbol '☆' represents the sound /k/ and '◆' represents /g/. Later she must identify which symbol goes with a heard syllable. This task assesses:

Answer: Sound-symbol association learning

Linking an arbitrary visual symbol to a specific sound is a direct measure of sound-symbol association, a core component of phonetic coding ability.

Which of the following pairs of sounds share the same place of articulation?

Answer: /t/ and /d/

Both /t/ and /d/ are alveolar consonants — they are both produced with the tongue tip touching or near the alveolar ridge.

Which scenario best demonstrates poor phonetic memory, as measured by the MLAT?

Answer: Forgetting the sound of a new word by the end of a lesson

Phonetic memory involves retaining sound patterns of new words; forgetting a word's sound despite recent exposure directly reflects weak phonetic encoding.

The distinction between 'tense' and 'lax' vowels in English (e.g., /iː/ vs. /ɪ/) involves differences in:

Answer: Muscle tension, duration, and height

Tense vowels like /iː/ are produced with greater muscular tension, longer duration, and a higher, more peripheral tongue position than their lax counterparts like /ɪ/.

In the context of MLAT phonetic tasks, what does it mean when two sounds are said to be in 'complementary distribution'?

Answer: They never appear in the same phonetic environment

Sounds in complementary distribution never occur in the same phonetic environment, which is a hallmark of allophones rather than separate phonemes.

A test-taker hears the nonsense word 'velmak' and must write it phonetically. When she hears it again 10 minutes later, she recognizes it immediately. This success is best attributed to:

Answer: Effective phonetic coding and retention

Accurately encoding and later recognizing a meaningless sound sequence demonstrates strong phonetic coding — storing sounds independent of semantic content.

Research on MLAT scores consistently shows that phonetic coding ability is a better predictor of foreign language success than which of the following?

Answer: Prior foreign language experience

Studies show that prior foreign language exposure does not strongly predict new language acquisition, whereas phonetic coding ability does, because each language has a unique sound system.