Infant Speech Segmentation

Podcast

Play an AI-generated podcast conversation about this lesson

Questions and Answers

What is necessary for infants to segment speech effectively according to the findings on prosody?

Variability in speech rate

Increased volume of speech

Use of infant-directed speech (IDS) (correct)

Use of adult-directed speech (ADS)

Which combination of letter pairs is NOT mentioned as a rule for word formation?

P-R-E followed by T-T-Y

B--A followed by B-Y

P-P-Y followed by B--

D-O followed by T-T-Y (correct)

How do familiar words assist infants in word segmentation?

They are disregarded by infants in analysis.

They act as anchor points in the speech stream. (correct)

They decrease infants' overall attention.

They confuse infants, leading to errors.

Which factor contributes to infants showing longer listening times in studies of language segmentation?

Part-words in a continuous stream Signup and view all the answers

Which characteristic of infant-directed speech (IDS) helps infants segment speech more effectively?

Exaggerated intonation of important words Signup and view all the answers

According to the experiments, infants were more attentive to which type of speech?

Infant-directed speech (IDS) Signup and view all the answers

What is one potential outcome for 6-month-olds when they hear their own name in speech?

They can segment surrounding words more effectively. Signup and view all the answers

What does the presence of higher frequency words in speech streams facilitate for infants?

Identifying boundaries of adjacent words Signup and view all the answers

What distinguishes phonemes in different languages?

They include sound contrasts that vary by language Signup and view all the answers

What happens to an infant's ability to discriminate sounds from non-target languages between the ages of 7-11 months?

It significantly decreases Signup and view all the answers

At what age do infants typically start segmenting words from their language?

7.5 months Signup and view all the answers

What skill is essential for infants to begin the process of language acquisition?

Identifying the sounds of their language Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary factor influencing infants' ability to recognize and use sounds from their target language by their first year?

Gradual restriction to only target language sounds Signup and view all the answers

Which process involves breaking down spoken language into smaller units for infants?

Speech segmentation Signup and view all the answers

What role do statistics play in how infants find words in their language?

They track the co-occurrence of syllables Signup and view all the answers

What do controlled experiments, such as those conducted by Saffran et al. (1999), demonstrate about infants?

Infants can effectively segment and identify sounds Signup and view all the answers

Which language combination is most likely to confuse adults in sound discrimination?

English and Dutch Signup and view all the answers

What is suggested about infants' early babbling behavior?

It exhibits a wide variety of sounds before focusing on the target language Signup and view all the answers

What is a crucial aspect of how smaller units of language convey specific meanings?

Figuring out the organization of those units Signup and view all the answers

Which phoneme feature is common across the world's languages?

Languages use about 600 consonants and 200 vowels Signup and view all the answers

What might be necessary alongside sound identification and segmentation for effective language learning?

Additional cognitive approach to language processing Signup and view all the answers

Why are highly controlled experiments important in studying infant language acquisition?

They limit the variables that can confuse results Signup and view all the answers

What is one of the main challenges identified in applying findings from controlled experiments to real-world language acquisition?

Real-world language use is often chaotic and unpredictable Signup and view all the answers

Infants showing a preference for their mother's voice indicates which of the following?

They recognize familiar sounds and patterns Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of PSYC 21021?

The development of unique human skills. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following topics is covered in Part I of the PSYC 21021 course?

Combining words. Signup and view all the answers

What aspect of language development is evaluated in the course aims?

The role of early speech processing. Signup and view all the answers

In which week is the topic of 'Early word learning' discussed?

Week 3. Signup and view all the answers

Who teaches the topic 'The development of self-awareness'?

Bahar Koymen. Signup and view all the answers

What role do social skills play according to the course aims?

They enhance language acquisition. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is considered a component of early pre-linguistic skills?

Intention reading. Signup and view all the answers

What does the course suggest about language as a human characteristic?

Language is generative. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key finding related to the babbling of infants learning different languages?

Babbling rhythms are influenced by the native language the infant is exposed to. Signup and view all the answers

At what age do infants begin to show a preference for their native language?

Two days old Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following studies suggests that newborns' cry melodies are influenced by their native language?

Mampe et al. (2009) Signup and view all the answers

What ability have seven-month-old infants been shown to develop regarding language?

They can learn and apply linguistic rules. Signup and view all the answers

Which factor is essential for the segmentation of words in preverbal infants according to the studies mentioned?

The use of functional morphemes Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following researchers focused on statistical learning in infants and young children?

Saffran et al. Signup and view all the answers

What aspect of language learning does infant-directed speech particularly facilitate?

Word segmentation Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following studies indicates that discrimination between specific sounds like [r] and [l] can be affected by linguistic experience?

Miyawaki et al. (1975) Signup and view all the answers

At what age do infants start showing a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception?

6 to 12 months Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of Bortfeld et al.'s (2005) study?

The role of familiar names in speech-stream segmentation Signup and view all the answers

Saffran et al. (1996) examined how infants use which strategy to segment words from spoken language?

Statistical cues Signup and view all the answers

Which aspect of infant-directed speech is explored in the study by Thiessen et al. (2005)?

Exaggerated prosodic contours Signup and view all the answers

Which research finding is associated with Jusczyk and Aslin (1995)?

Infants' ability to detect sound patterns of words Signup and view all the answers

What is one significant outcome of the study by Fló et al. (2019)?

Newborns are aware of multiple cues for word segmentation Signup and view all the answers

What is the main goal of the change detection paradigm used in Kuhl et al. (2006)?

To understand perceptual narrowing processes in infants Signup and view all the answers

Which component is NOT a focus of the studies mentioned in the context of infant language acquisition?

Cultural influences on language Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Course Information

Course title: Topics and Issues in Developmental Psychology
Course code: PSYC 21021
Lecturer: Dr. Alissa Ferry
University: University of Manchester

Lectures and Lecturers

Part 1: How children learn language
- Early cognitive and social precursors to language development (Weeks 1 & 2, Alissa Ferry)
- Early word learning (Week 3, Alissa Ferry)
- Combining words (Weeks 4 & 5, Anna Theakston)
Part 2: How children learn to interact with others
- The development of self-awareness (Week 7)
- The importance of play (Week 8)
- Moral development (Week 9)
- Understanding others and theory of mind (Week 10)
- All taught by Bahar Koymen

Early Language Development: Overview

Early pre-linguistic skills (Lecture 1)
- How do infants process speech?
Intention reading/social skills (Lecture 2)
- How do infants communicate with others before language?
Early word learning (Lecture 3)
- How do infants start to link sounds and meaning (i.e. word learning)?

Early Language Development: Aims

Document the early stages of language development
Consider the role of early speech processing in the child's development of language
Evaluate how social skills play a role in language acquisition
Evaluate how children begin to learn word meanings

Language Basics (1)

Language is generative
Language is comprised of small units that are combined (phonology)
Language conveys meaning (semantics)

Language Basics (2)

Languages have rules about how words go together (syntax)
Examples of syntax: "A bites the dog man", "The dog bites a man", "The man bites a dog"
Subject-verb-object in English
Language is social

Languages Across The World

List of greetings in various languages

Outline

What sounds are in my language?
- Prosody
- Phonemes
How do I find the words?
- Statistics
- Prosody
- Frequency
- Pattern finding
How are the words organized?
- Frequency
- Pattern finding

Infant Designs

Preference studies
Habituation/familiarisation studies
Change detection studies

What Sounds Are In My Language?

Prosody
- The pattern of stress and intonation in a language
- Languages have different prosodic patterns
Phonemes
- The perceptually distinct units of sound in a language
- Distinguish one word from another (e.g., p, b, d, t)
- Examples: Pat, bat, bad, pad
- Languages differ in the sounds that they use as phonemes
Intonation
- Variation in pitch used to indicate a speaker's attitude and emotions

Early Phonological Development: Prosody (1)

No specific content

Early Phonological Development: Prosody (2)

The foetal auditory system is fully functioning during the last trimester
Newborns:
- Prefer their own mother's voice (De Caspar & Fifer, 1980)
- Discriminate languages with different prosody (German/Spanish) but not languages of similar prosody (English/Dutch) (Nazzi et al., 1998)
- Prefer their native language compared to a foreign language (Moon et al., 1993)
- Cry with an "accent" (Mampe et al., 2009)

Early Phonological Development: Phonemes (1)

Phonemes are the sounds that distinguish words (e.g., pat/bat, sip/zip)
Other languages have phoneme contrasts that are not in English
Across the world’s, there are about 600 consonants and 200 vowels, but any language uses about 40
Children's babble - initially wide range of sounds. In first year move towards producing only sounds of target language (Levitt and Wang, 1991)

Early Phonological Development: Phonemes (3)

At 1-2 months, infants can discriminate between all sounds, even foreign ones
Adults only discriminate those in their language (Eimas et al, 1979; Miyawaki et al., 1975)
Between 7-11 months, systematic decline in ability to distinguish sounds from non-target language and increase for target language. (Kuhl et al, 2006)

Early Phonological Development: Phonemes (2)

No specific content

Outline (2)

What sounds are in my language?
- Prosody
- Phonemes, or how words are distinguished audibly
How do I find the words?
- Statistics
- Prosody
- Frequency
- Pattern finding
How are the words organized?
- Frequency
- Pattern finding

Finding The Words (1)

There are no changes in speech

Finding the words (2)

Infants segment words from their language at approximately 7.5 months, but not at 6 months (Jusczyk & Aslin, 1995)
Infants can recognize words within speech by 7/ 2 months.

Finding the words: Statistics (1)

Infants are surprisingly sophisticated statisticians.
Track the co-occurrence of syllables.
Syllables that co-occur often are likely part of the same word.

Finding the words: Statistics (2)

Experiment with 8-month-olds using highly controlled made-up language (Saffran et al., 1996).
List of words and syllables

Finding the words: Prosody (1)

Infant directed speech (IDS), Christia, 2013
Higher pitched
Slower speaking rate
Important words are generally at the end and are exaggerated more
The boundaries between phrases are enhanced, making it easier to segment speech.
Infants prefer to listen to IDS and interact with people who use IDS.
More attentive around IDS

Infant-directed speech example

No specific content.

Finding the words: Prosody (2)

Infants segment speech better with IDS than adult-directed speech (ADS) (Theissen, Hill & Saffran, 2005)
Graph showing frequency

Finding the words: Frequency (1)

Highly frequent salient words (e.g., Mummy, child's name)
Highly frequent linguistic words (e.g., the, he/she)
These words act as an "anchor"
If you can identify a word in the speech stream, you can identify one boundary of the adjacent words

Finding the words: Frequency (2)

Highly familiar words (own name, "Mommy") help 6-month-olds segment words (Bortfeld et al., 2005)
Baby Maggie recognized words next to the name "Maggie" and baby Hanna recognized words next to the name "Hanna"
Recall that 6-month-olds fail in the Jusczyk & Aslin (1995) study.
List of words

Finding the words: Frequency (3)

Some linguistic categories of words (e.g., articles the, a, his, hers, conjunctions and, or) are highly frequent
Infants can use "the" to segment nouns at 8 months (Shi & Lepage, 2008)
At test, infants listened longer to an isolated word that was taught with a real function word
List of words and function words

Finding the patterns: Frequency (4)

Italian 8-month-olds listen longer to frequent-first
Japanese 8-month-olds listen longer to frequent-final
By 8 months, infants have started to learn some of the ordering rules for their language.
Graph showing times when listening to words

Finding the patterns: Rule-learning (1)

Syntax requires learning the abstract rules of a language
Can infants learn abstract rules?
Examples of grammatically correct and incorrect sentences

Finding the patterns: Rule-learning (2)

6-month-olds could learn an abstract rule with linguistic stimuli (Marcus et al., 1999)
Examples of sentences

Conclusions and Issues

Infants make rapid strides in language acquisition over the first year.
Identifying sounds, statistics, patterns, word boundaries
Early preferences and skills for starting to crack language complexities.
Infants tune the specifics of their language (sounds, order) well before they begin to speak.

Conclusions and Issues (Critical Analyses)

How much of language acquisition can these skills explain?
What else might be needed to learn language (Hint: other lectures!)
How is language acquisition different in the real world from the highly controlled experiments?

Conclusions and Issues (To Learn Language)

To learn language, infants must be able to
- Identify the sounds that make up their language
- Segment speech into smaller units (words)
- Figure out how those smaller units are organized to convey specific meanings

Supplementary Reading (1)

List of recommended reading material

Supplementary Reading (2)

List of recommended reading material

Supplementary Videos

TED talk by Patricia Kuhl about how infants tune to their language
Information about speech segmentation and infant-directed speech.

References (1)

List of references

References (2)

List of references

Studying That Suits You

Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.

Description

Explore the essential factors that help infants segment speech effectively and understand language development. This quiz covers key concepts such as prosody, familiar words, and infant-directed speech that contribute to early language skills. Test your knowledge on how infants interact with their linguistic environment!