The Ability to Use Contextual Cues to Achieve Phonological Constancy Emerges by 14 Months

Autor/inn/en	Feng, Ye; Kager, René; Lai, Regine; Wong, Patrick C. M.
Titel	The Ability to Use Contextual Cues to Achieve Phonological Constancy Emerges by 14 Months
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 58 (2022) 11, S.2064-2080 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Feng, Ye) ORCID (Kager, René) ORCID (Lai, Regine) ORCID (Wong, Patrick C. M.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0001418
Schlagwörter	Infants; Developmental Stages; Phonology; Intonation; Sino Tibetan Languages; Associative Learning; Language Acquisition; Cues; Vocabulary Development; Speech Communication; Language Processing; Word Recognition; Acoustics; Language Variation; Tone Languages; Phonetics; Language Skills; Measures (Individuals); Foreign Countries; Socioeconomic Status; Hong Kong; MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Fonologie; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Stichwort; Wortschatzarbeit; Sprachverarbeitung; Worterkennung; Akustik; Sprachenvielfalt; Tonsprache; Phonetik; Fonetik; Language skill; Sprachkompetenz; Messdaten; Ausland; Socio-economic status; Sozioökonomischer Status; Hongkong
Abstract	The ability to map similar sounding words to different meanings alone is far from enough for successful speech processing. To overcome variability in the speech signal, young learners must also recognize words across surface variations. Previous studies have shown that infants at 14 months are able to use variations in word-internal cues (i.e., acoustic cues within the target word) to form phonological categories and to learn words. The present study takes into consideration the fact that talker variability can easily lead to acoustic overlap between phonological categories, in which case reliance on word-external cues (i.e., acoustic cues in the context preceding and/or following the target word, also referred to as contextual cues) as a frame of reference is obligatory for successful talker adaptation. In a series of experiments, the present study examines when infants are able to use word-external cues to tune to different talkers for the benefit of word learning. Cantonese-learning 14-month-old, 18-month-old, and 24-month-old infants (N = 258) were tested on the associative learning of Cantonese Tone 1-Tone 3 contrast. Results showed that talker variability that yielded acoustic overlap between the two tonal categories compromised infants' ability to map the contrast onto word meanings. However, when given speaker-matched contextual cues, infants as young as 14 months of age demonstrated a certain degree of talker adaptation which may have subserved their use of phonetic details in novel word learning. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01