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--- abstract: 'It is well attested that we perceive speech through the filter of our native language: a classic example is that of Japanese listeners who cannot discriminate between the American /l/ and /r/ and identify both as their own /r/ phoneme (Goto, 1971). Studies in the laboratory have shown, however, that perception of non-native speech sounds can be learned through training (Lively, Pisoni, Yamada, & Tohkura, 1994). This is consistent with neurophysiological evidence showing considerable experience-dependent plasticity in the brain at the first levels of sensory processing (Edeline & Weinberger, 1993; Kraus, et al., 1995; Merzenich & Sameshima, 1993; Weinberger, 1993). Outside of the laboratory, however, the situation seems to differ: we here report a study involving Spanish-Catalan bilingual subjects who have had the best opportunities to learn a new contrast but did not do it. Our study demonstrates a striking lack of behavioral plasticity: early and extensive exposure to a second language is not sufficient to attain the ultimate phonological competence of native speakers.' altloc: - http://www.ehess.fr/centres/lscp/persons/pallier/articles.htm chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Pallier given: C. honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Bosch given: L. honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Sebastian-Gall�s given: N. honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 1997-09 date_type: published datestamp: 1998-10-15 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/07/43 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: [] eprint_status: archive eprintid: 743 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_postscript.png;/743/1/plast.ps|/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/743/5/plast.pdf full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'psycholinguistics, speech perception, bilingualism, critical period, phonetics, phonology, learnability, plasticity, phonemes, Catalan, Spanish, perception.' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:15 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: 3 pagerange: 9-17 pubdom: FALSE publication: Cognition publisher: ~ refereed: TRUE referencetext: ~ relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 14 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:33:49 subjects: - ling-phono - neuro-ling - percep-cog-psy - psy-ling - psy-phys succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: A limit on behavioral plasticity in speech perception. type: journalp userid: 406 volume: 64