In order to be a competent perceiver of a language a listener must have full command of the relevant phonetic contrasts in that language. There are many aspects of the acoustic signal, or phonetic cues, that differentiate these contrasts and the use of these cues differs by linguistic background (Wagner et al. 2006) and development (e.g.
Nittrouer 1992). However, the ways in which listeners come to know which cues are most relevant and how this affects perception is understudied.
This talk reports data from three studies on cue use and learning, both in adults and infants, which focus on how experience affects cue use. In the first study, data is presented demonstrating that knowledge of cues and their integrality is localized and based in specific linguistic experience with the relevant contrast. A second study demonstrates that learning to rely on specific cues heightens sensitivity to the relevant dimensions of contrast, changing the perceptual space. A final study examines how changing the distribution of tokens can influence which cues infants rely on to differentiate categories. Together, all three studies provide strong evidence that cue use is a localized phenomenon that develops with specific experience in the relevant contrast.

McGuire's webpage
McGuire's PhD dissertation Phonetic Category Learning.