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Published on: July 1, 2015
Learning artificial phonotactic constraints: time course, durability, and relationship to natural constraints
Conrad F Taylor1, George Houghton
1Department of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, UK. ctaylor6@bradford.ac.uk
Summary
This study investigated phoneme errors and constraint continua. Results suggest experiment-wide constraints involve local biasing, not a continuum, likely for rapid learning.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Speech Production
Background:
- Dell et al. (2000) proposed a "breadth-of-constraint" continuum for phoneme errors.
- This continuum explored a middle ground between local and language-wide constraints.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the "breadth-of-constraint" continuum hypothesis.
- To determine the placement of experiment-wide constraints within this continuum.
Main Methods:
- Five experiments were conducted to examine phoneme error constraints.
- Artificial experiment-wide constraints were manipulated to test their effects.
Main Results:
- Experiments 1 and 2 replicated findings on experiment-wide constraints but showed chance adherence to local constraints.
- Local constraints were uniquely affected by practice type (Experiment 3).
- Reversing constraints between blocks caused no issue, but within-block reversals caused brief disruption (Experiments 4 & 5).
Conclusions:
- The findings do not support a "breadth-of-constraint" continuum.
- Experiment-wide constraints likely represent a local biasing of language-wide constraints.
- This biasing may facilitate rapid learning in speech production.
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