Finding the signal by adding noise: The role of noncontrastive phonetic variability in early word learning

Gwyneth C Rost; Bob McMurray

doi:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00033.x

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Finding the signal by adding noise: The role of noncontrastive phonetic variability in early word learning

Journal article

Open access

Finding the signal by adding noise: The role of noncontrastive phonetic variability in early word learning

Gwyneth C Rost and Bob McMurray

Infancy, Vol.15(6), pp.608-635

11/01/2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00033.x

PMCID: PMC3865991

PMID: 24358016

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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00033.xView

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Abstract

It is well attested that 14-month olds have difficulty learning similar sounding words (e.g. bih/dih), despite their excellent phonetic discrimination abilities. In contrast, Rost and McMurray (2009) recently demonstrated that 14-month olds’ minimal pair learning can be improved by the presentation of words by multiple talkers. This study investigates which components of the variability found in multi-talker input improved infants’ processing, assessing both the phonologically contrastive aspects of the speech stream and phonologically irrelevant indexical and suprasegmental aspects. In the first two experiments, speaker was held constant while cues to word-initial voicing were systematically manipulated. Infants failed in both cases. The third experiment introduced variability in speaker, but voicing cues were invariant within each category. Infants in this condition learned the words. We conclude that aspects of the speech signal that have been typically thought of as noise are in fact valuable information – signal – for the young word learner.

infant

word learning, switch task, variability

speech perception

Details

Title: Subtitle: Finding the signal by adding noise: The role of noncontrastive phonetic variability in early word learning
Creators: Gwyneth C Rost - Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa
Bob McMurray - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Infancy, Vol.15(6), pp.608-635
DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00033.x
PMID: 24358016
PMCID: PMC3865991
ISSN: 1525-0008
eISSN: 1532-7078
Grant note: R01 DC008089-01A1 || DC / National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders : NIDCD
Language: English
Date published: 11/01/2010
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984070661202771

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