WordLearningintheSwitchTask:TheCaseofPhonologicallyUnassimilableNon‐Na?veWords
LillianMay&JanetF.WerkerUniversity of Bri.sh Columbia
Introduc?on• Anarrowingoccursby20mofor“whatmaybeaword.”• Givensufficientsocial/referenFal/perceptualcues,infants12‐18mo,butnot20‐26mo,learnnon‐linguisFcsFmuliasobjectlabels1‐4.
• Digitalnoises,gestures,pictograms.• Themechanismbehindthisnarrowingisnotknown.
• Isitlanguagevs.non‐languagesounds?• Or,aretherenaFvelanguageconstraints?
PhonologicalCategoryAssimila?onHypothesis
• Weproposethat“whatmaybeaword”narrowsaccordingtoaPhonologicalCategoryAssimilaFon5,6word‐learningconstraint.
• Forolderword‐learninginfants(20mo+),thesoundswithin“possiblewords”mustallassimilateintonaFvelanguagephonologicalcategories.
“PossibleWords”?
MethodsPar?cipants• 14mo(n=13,Agerange=13.75‐14.5mo).• 20mo(n=20,Agerange=19.5‐20.5mo).• InfantswereallmonolingualEnglish‐learning(>80%).
S?muli• CVwordscontainingclickconsonants,fromthelanguageNǀuu7.
• Clickconsonantshavebeenfoundtobenon‐assimilableforEnglishlanguagelisteners(Best,McRoberts,&Sithole,1988).
• [!a]and[ǁu]
Procedure• ReferenFal8SwitchWord‐LearningTask9.• ParentsfilledoutMacArthur‐BatesVocabularyShort‐FormVocabularyChecklist(14mo:LevelI,20mo:LevelII‐FormA).
Results
• Overall,“Switch”>“Same”,F=8.72,p<.01.• At20mo,aninteracFonwasfoundbetweentesttrialandvocabulary,F=9.506,p<.01.
Discussion• 14moinfantstreatwordscontainingnon‐assimilablesoundsaspotenFalobjectlabels.• By20mo,onlyinfantswithsmallervocabulariesacceptnon‐assimilablesoundsinlabels.• VocabularydatasupportaPhonologicalCategoryAssimilaFonword‐learningconstraintthatemergesonceinfantshaveacquiredasufficientlysizedlexicon.
References:1.Woodward&Hoyne,1999;2.Namy&Waxman,1998;3.Namy,2001;4.Hollichetal.,2000;5.Best,McRoberts,&Sithole,1988;6.Best&McRoberts,2001;7.Miller,2009;8.Fennell&Waxman,inpress;9.Werker,Cohen,etal.,1998.
Contact:[email protected]
/t//p/
[t][p] [!] [ǁ]Training(x4):
Habitua?on:
Pair1:
Pair2:
Test:
Same:
Switch:
[!a]
[‖u]
[!a]
[‖u]
[kiqy]
8.598 8.72911.325 10.709
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
14Months 20MonthsMeanLook
ingTime(sec)
Age(Months)
InfantLookingTime
Same
Switch
p=.04 p=.07
8.255 9.203
12.876
8.542
02468
10121416
Low HighMeanLook
ingTime(sec)
VocabularyGroup(MdSplit)
20month‐olds:EffectofProduc?veVocabulary
Same
Switch
p=.004 ns
✓ ✗
WhatmaybeaWord:DevelopmentalNarrowing
Assimilablesounds Non‐languagesounds
Whatmaybeaword?
20+mo
Non‐assimilablesounds
Whatmaybeaword?
Whatmaybeaword?
12‐18mo
?
(click consonants)
©JuliaLeibowich
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