Can Infants Map Meaning to Newly Segmented Words?: Statistical Segmentation and Word Learning
TLDR
This work provides the first demonstration that exposure to word forms in a statistical word segmentation task facilitates subsequent word learning, and prior segmentation opportunities, but not mere frequency of exposure, facilitated infants learning of object labels.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.read more
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References
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Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants
TL;DR: The present study shows that a fundamental task of language acquisition, segmentation of words from fluent speech, can be accomplished by 8-month-old infants based solely on the statistical relationships between neighboring speech sounds.
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Computation of Conditional Probability Statistics by 8-Month-Old Infants
TL;DR: In this article, an artificial language corpus, consisting of a continuous stream of trisyllabic nonsense words, was presented to 8-month-olds for 3 min and a post-familiarization test compared the infants' responses to words versus part-words (tri- syllabic sequences spanning word boundaries).
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The Beginnings of Word Segmentation in English-Learning Infants.
TL;DR: The findings suggest that English learners may rely heavily on stress cues when they begin to segment words from fluent speech, however, within a few months time, infants learn to integrate multiple sources of information about the likely boundaries of words in fluent speech.
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Infants listen for more phonetic detail in speech perception than in word-learning tasks
TL;DR: A recently developed technique is used to show that when they are required to pair words with objects, infants of 14 months fail to use the fine phonetic detail they detect in syllable discrimination tasks, and suggests a second reorganization in infants's use of phoneticdetail as they move from listening to syllables to learning words.