Title | Can infants map meaning to newly segmented words? Statistical segmentation and word learning. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2007 |
Authors | Estes KGraf, Evans JL, Alibali MW, Saffran JR |
Journal | Psychol Sci |
Volume | 18 |
Issue | 3 |
Pagination | 254-60 |
Date Published | 2007 Mar |
ISSN | 0956-7976 |
Keywords | Analysis of Variance, Auditory Perception, Child Language, Comprehension, Discrimination Learning, Humans, Infant, Language, Language Development, Learning, Recognition (Psychology), Speech, Speech Discrimination Tests, Speech Perception, Time Factors, Verbal Learning, Vocabulary |
Abstract | The present experiments investigated how the process of statistically segmenting words from fluent speech is linked to the process of mapping meanings to words. Seventeen-month-old infants first participated in a statistical word segmentation task, which was immediately followed by an object-label-learning task. Infants presented with labels that were words in the fluent speech used in the segmentation task were able to learn the object labels. However, infants presented with labels consisting of novel syllable sequences (nonwords; Experiment 1) or familiar sequences with low internal probabilities (part-words; Experiment 2) did not learn the labels. Thus, prior segmentation opportunities, but not mere frequency of exposure, facilitated infants' learning of object labels. This work provides the first demonstration that exposure to word forms in a statistical word segmentation task facilitates subsequent word learning. |
DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01885.x |
Alternate Journal | Psychol Sci |
PubMed ID | 17444923 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC3864753 |
Grant List | P30 HD003352 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States R01 DC005650-07 / DC / NIDCD NIH HHS / United States R01 HD037466 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States P30HD03352 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States R01HD37466 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States F31 DC007277 / DC / NIDCD NIH HHS / United States R01 DC005650 / DC / NIDCD NIH HHS / United States F31-DC07277 / DC / NIDCD NIH HHS / United States |