Chapter 5 Flashcards
Speech perception ability
The ability to devote attention to the prosodic and phonetic regularities of speech
Prosodic regularities
The frequency/pitch, duration/length, and intensity/loudness of sounds
Word stress
The prominence placed on certain syllables of multisyllabic words
Intonation
The prominence placed on certain syllables as they apply to phrases and sentences
Infants vs. Older children in phonetic regularities
Infants not yet learning words focus more on the phonetic details of speech, whereas older children focus more on learning words at the expense of fine phonetic detail
What does categorical perception allow?
It allows listeners to distinguish between phonemes so they can quickly and efficiently process incoming speech by ignoring those variations that are nonessential or nonmeaningful in their language
Detection of non-native phonetic differences happens until what age?
About 6 months of age
Perceptual narrowing
The process by which infants start to focus more on perceptual differences that are relevant to them and focus less on perceptual differences that are not relevant to them, or that they encounter less often
Phonotactic regularities
Permissible combinations of phonemes in their language
What does an infant’s ability to detect phonotactic regularities in their native language help with?
It helps them segment words from continuous speech
Our perception of speech is:
Categorical: we categorize input in ways that highlight differences in meaning
Voice onset time
The interval between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of vocal cord vibrations
By what age can infants distinguish between purposeful and accidental actions?
By 4 months of age - they learn to focus more on the goal and intention rather than the physical action itself
What is crucial for language development?
The ability to form categories
Three levels in the hierarchical structure of categories
Superordinate, Subordinate, and Basic
Superordinate level
The uppermost level; preschool age; describes the most general concept in a particular category (furniture)
Subordinate level
The lowest level; describes specific concepts in a category (coffee table)
Basic level
The middle level; describes general concepts in a category (table)
Perceptual categories
Forming categories based on similar-appearing features (color, shape, size, texture); by 3 mo they can distinguish between cats and dogs, and by 4 mo between animals and furniture
Conceptual categories
Forming categories based on what an object does
By what age do infants learn that their non-cry vocalizations elicit reactions from social partners?
By 5 months of age
What does the stage model (SAEVD-R) do?
It describes/classifies an infant’s vocalizations
What are the stages in the stage model?
Reflexive, control of phonation, expansion, basic canonical syllables, advanced forms
Stage model reflexive stage
(0-2 mo): reflexive sounds (fussing, crying, sneezing, coughing, burping)
Stage model control of phonation stage
(1-4 mo): vowel sounds, vowel-like segments with a consonant-like segment, nasalized sounds
- Cooing and gooing
- Combining vowel-like segments with consonant-like segments
- Isolated consonant sounds and raspberries, trills, and clicks
Stage model expansion stage
(3-8 mo): isolated vowel sounds and vowel glides; infants also experiment with loudness and pitch; may also use marginal babbling (an early type of babbling containing consonant-like and vowel-like sounds with prolonged transitions between the consonant and vowel sounds)
Stage model basic canonical syllables stage
(5-10 mo): begin to produce single consonant-vowel syllables (ba, goo); canonical babbling emerges; whispered vocalizations; CV combinations followed by an isolated consonant (ba—g), and disyllables (deaf babies babble too in sign language)
