Lecture 5 - Early Language Development Flashcards
Who investigated speech processing before birth
De Casper and Spence 1986
Outline the method of De Casper and Spencer 1986
12 pregnant women read passage from the Cat in the Hat. Chosen because regular rhyme
2/3 days after birth babies tested recognition sucking response
Played either recording cat in the hat or another unfamiliar passage
Outline the results of De Casper and Spencer 1986
Babies altered sucking pattern to hear familiar passage but not unfamiliar
Occurred irrespective whether mother or unfamiliar person reading
Recognising prosody - intonation, rhythm, stress
Babies are actively processing speech before birth
Who investigated speech recognition in Utero
De Casper, Lecanuet and Busnel 1994
Outline De Casper, Lecanuet and Busnel 1994 study on speech recognition in Utero
Changes in foetal heart rate.
35th week pregnancy recited one of two nursery rhymes.
Tested end 4 weeks by playing recording both rhythms using speakers close mothers abdomen.
Foetal HR decreased significantly to familiar rhyme only = due rhythm
Who investigated preference for familiar language
Mehler, Jusczyk, Dehaene-Lambertz et al 1988
Outline Mehler, Jusczyk, Dehaene-Lambertz et al 1988 study on preference for familiar language
4-day-old French babies presented samples French and Russian
Preferred French.
Sensitive to prosodic info - rhythm and intonation
Who investigated telling languages apart
Christophe and Morton 1998
Outline Christophe and Morton 1998 study on Telling Languages apart
Presented 2-month-old babies with 2 different language comparisons
English vs Japenese - different prosody
English vs Dutch
Sucking decreased = habituation. Only change sucking went from English to Japenese.
Tell difference between English and Japenese.
Prosody to distinguish
Why is it useful for infants in bilingual environments to distinguish languages
Ability understand different rules, stress patterns for different languages, work out patterns in language
What are Phonemes
Smallest sound unit distinguish between 1 meaning and another
e.g. b and p
Why is it crucial to tell apart different phonemes
Understand different meanings and differentiate different words and be able to relate them to things in world
Why is it crucial to perceive different variations of same phoneme
Allows flexibility and not be confused between irrelevant differences
Outline categorical perceptions of phonemes
Phoneme boundaries - where physical parameter changes perception one phoneme to another
20 ms difference across phoneme boundary easy distinguish.
20 ms difference within phoneme category hard distinguish
Outline High Amplitude Sucking (HAS) Paradigm
Test infants discrimination speech sounds.
Habituation/bored decline in sucking rate.
Introduce novel sound and notice difference sucking increase.
Outline Eimas et al 1971 study using High Amplitude Sucking Paradigm to look at infants categorical perception of speech
Phase 1: 1-4 months presented single sound /pa/. Increased sucking, then reduces to baseline
Phase 2: habituated. New similar sound played. Half heard different phoneme. Half heard variant same phoneme
Outline results of Eimas et al 1971 results
Heard different phoneme e.g. ba increased sucking rate
Like adults perceiving different categories of sound.
Cannot distinguish within categories
Is early discrimination speech sounds unique to humans?
NO!
Kuhl and Miller 1975 -
Macaques, Chinchillas and Quail do it
Phonetic Discrimination in Native and Foreign Languages
Newborns potential make phonetic discrimination
Adults do not.
Often unable hear phonetic distinctions occur other languages but not their own
e.g. Japenese do not use ‘L’ or ‘R’ = difficulty name Lara
Outline Conditioned Headturn Paradigm
Trained whenever change stimulus electric toy lit up and activated
Infants trained look toy when hear change
Target items played, observer (cannot hear) judge whether infant heard stimulus change by infants actions