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Accommodating variability in voice and foreign accent: flexibility of early word representations
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, USA. rschmale@northpark.edu
Developmental Science
|July 29, 2009
Summary
Nine-month-old infants recognize words spoken by different native English voices. However, they struggle with foreign-accented speech variations, unlike 13-month-olds, indicating limited phonological flexibility.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Speech Perception
Background:
- Infants' ability to recognize words is crucial for language acquisition.
- Understanding how infants process variations in speech, such as different voices and accents, is key to early language development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how voice variability and foreign accents affect word recognition in English-learning infants.
- To determine the age at which infants can accommodate phonetic variability in speech.
Main Methods:
- Six experiments were conducted with English-learning infants.
- Infants were exposed to familiarization and test items produced by talkers with varying voices and accents.
- Word recognition was assessed based on infants' ability to recognize words across different speakers and accent conditions.
Main Results:
- Nine-month-olds recognized words produced by different native English voices but struggled with foreign-accented speech.
- Thirteen-month-olds, but not nine-month-olds, recognized words produced by talkers with a Spanish accent.
- Nine-month-olds could accommodate accent variability from a single talker, but not from two distinct accented talkers.
Conclusions:
- Nine-month-old infants possess abstract phonological representations but lack the flexibility to process foreign-accented speech.
- The ability to generalize word recognition across diverse phonetic inputs, including accents, develops between 9 and 13 months of age.
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