All Words Are Not Created Equal: Expectations about Word Length Guide Infant Statistical Learning

Autor/inn/en	Lew-Williams, Casey; Saffran, Jenny R.
Titel	All Words Are Not Created Equal: Expectations about Word Length Guide Infant Statistical Learning
Quelle	In: Cognition, 122 (2012) 2, S.241-246 (6 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0277
DOI	10.1016/j.cognition.2011.10.007
Schlagwörter	Infants; Language Acquisition; Linguistic Input; Prior Learning; Morphology (Languages); Context Effect; Sequential Learning; Pattern Recognition; Probability; Simulation; Language Laboratories; Time Perspective + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Sprachbildung; Vorkenntnisse; Morphology; Morphologie; Didaktische Sequenzierung; Lernsequenz; Mustererkennung; Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung; Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie; Simulation program; Simulationsprogramm; Language laboratory; Sprachlabor; Zeitbezug
Abstract	Infants have been described as "statistical learners" capable of extracting structure (such as words) from patterned input (such as language). Here, we investigated whether prior knowledge influences how infants track transitional probabilities in word segmentation tasks. Are infants biased by prior experience when engaging in sequential statistical learning? In a laboratory simulation of learning across time, we exposed 9- and 10-month-old infants to a list of either disyllabic or trisyllabic nonsense words, followed by a pause-free speech stream composed of a different set of disyllabic or trisyllabic nonsense words. Listening times revealed successful segmentation of words from fluent speech only when words were uniformly disyllabic or trisyllabic throughout both phases of the experiment. Hearing trisyllabic words during the pre-exposure phase derailed infants' abilities to segment speech into disyllabic words, and vice versa. We conclude that prior knowledge about word length equips infants with perceptual expectations that facilitate efficient processing of subsequent language input. (Contains 2 figures.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10