Journal article
The development of voicing categories: A quantitative review of over 40 years of infant speech perception research
Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.21(4), pp.884-906
2014
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-013-0569-y
PMID: 24550074
Abstract
Most research on infant speech categories has relied on measures of discrimination. Such work often employs categorical perception as a linking hypothesis to enable inferences about categorization on the basis of discrimination measures. However, a large number of studies with adults challenge the utility of categorical perception in describing adult speech perception, and this in turn calls into question how to interpret measures of infant speech discrimination. We propose here a parallel channels model of discrimination (built on Pisoni and Tash Perception & Psychophysics, 15(2), 285–290, 1974), which posits that both a noncategorical or veridical encoding of speech cues and category representations can simultaneously contribute to discrimination. This can thus produce categorical perception effects without positing any warping of the acoustic signal, but it also reframes how we think about infant discrimination and development. We test this model by conducting a quantitative review of 20 studies examining infants’ discrimination of voice onset time contrasts. This review suggests that within-category discrimination is surprisingly prevalent even in classic studies and that, averaging across studies, discrimination is related to continuous acoustic distance. It also identifies several methodological factors that may mask our ability to see this. Finally, it suggests that infant discrimination may improve over development, contrary to commonly held notion of perceptual narrowing. These results are discussed in terms of theories of speech development that may require such continuous sensitivity.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The development of voicing categories: A quantitative review of over 40 years of infant speech perception research
- Creators
- Marcus E GALLE - Department of Psychology & Delta Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United StatesBob MCMURRAY - Department of Psychology, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Linguistics & Delta Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.21(4), pp.884-906
- Publisher
- Springer; New York, NY
- DOI
- 10.3758/s13423-013-0569-y
- PMID
- 24550074
- ISSN
- 1069-9384
- eISSN
- 1531-5320
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2014
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9984070002902771
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