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Segmental and syllabic representations in the perception of speech by young infants.

P D Eimas1

  • 1Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA. Peter_Eimas@brown.edu

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|March 25, 1999
PubMed
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Infants as young as 3-4 months can categorize speech sounds, particularly initial syllables in words, especially when exposed to more stimuli. This suggests early speech perception abilities are syllable-based.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Speech Perception

Background:

  • Infant speech perception research explores the development of auditory processing in early life.
  • Categorical perception is a key aspect of how humans process speech sounds, distinguishing between phonemes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the ability of 3- to 4-month-old infants to form categorical representations of speech sounds.
  • To examine categorization of syllable-initial consonants and syllables in monosyllabic and bisyllabic stimuli.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments using habituation paradigms with 3- to 4-month-old infants.
  • Stimuli included monosyllabic and bisyllabic words varying in initial consonants and syllables.
  • Familiarization and testing phases assessed infants' ability to discriminate between speech sound categories.

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Main Results:

  • No evidence for categorical perception of syllable-initial consonants in monosyllabic stimuli (Experiments 1 & 2).
  • Strong evidence for categorical perception of initial syllables in bisyllabic stimuli when six familiar stimuli were used (Experiment 3).
  • Less robust evidence for categorization of final syllables in bisyllabic stimuli, also dependent on six familiar stimuli (Experiment 4).

Conclusions:

  • Infants' earliest speech representations may be syllable-based.
  • The rhythmic nature of language may influence the development of categorical speech perception.
  • Categorical perception abilities in infants are influenced by the amount of familiarization stimuli and stimulus complexity.