Infants are sensitive to within-category variation in speech perception

Bob MCMURRAY; Richard N ASLIN

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2004.07.005

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Infants are sensitive to within-category variation in speech perception

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Infants are sensitive to within-category variation in speech perception

Bob MCMURRAY and Richard N ASLIN

Cognition, Vol.95(2), pp.B15-B26

2005

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2004.07.005

PMID: 15694642

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Abstract

Previous research on speech perception in both adults and infants has supported the view that consonants are perceived categorically; that is, listeners are relatively insensitive to variation below the level of the phoneme. More recent work, on the other hand, has shown adults to be systematically sensitive to within category variation [McMurray, B., Tanenhaus, M., & Aslin, R. (2002). Gradient effects of within-category phonetic variation on lexical access, Cognition, 86 (2), B33-B42.]. Additionally, recent evidence suggests that infants are capable of using within-category variation to segment speech and to learn phonetic categories. Here we report two studies of 8-month-old infants, using the head-turn preference procedure, that examine more directly infants' sensitivity to within-category variation. Infants were exposed to 80 repetitions of words beginning with either /b/ or /p/. After exposure, listening times to tokens of the same category with small variations in VOT were significantly different than to both the originally exposed tokens and to the cross-category-boundary competitors. Thus infants, like adults, show systematic sensitivity to fine-grained, within-category detail in speech perception.

Child Development

Developmental Psychology

Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology

Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry

Newborn. Infant

Psychology. Psychophysiology

Biological and medical sciences

Details

Title: Subtitle: Infants are sensitive to within-category variation in speech perception
Creators: Bob MCMURRAY - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States
Richard N ASLIN - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Cognition, Vol.95(2), pp.B15-B26
Publisher: Elsevier Science; Amsterdam
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2004.07.005
PMID: 15694642
ISSN: 0010-0277
eISSN: 1873-7838
Language: English
Date published: 2005
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984070515702771

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