TY - JOUR
T1 - Overriding the Metrical Bias with Lexical Information
T2 - English-Learning 7.5-Month-Olds Use Mommy to Segment Iambic Words
AU - Sandoval, Michelle
AU - Gómez, Rebecca L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by NSF BCS-9910203 to RLG.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Previous research shows that English-learning 7.5-month-olds are biased to segment speech at strong syllables consistent with the predominant trochaic (strong-weak) pattern of words in their language (Jusczyk, Houston, & Newsome, 1999). The present study asked whether 7.5-month-olds can use a familiar name to override their metrical bias and segment iambic (weak-strong) words from natural speech. Infants were familiarized to passages containing weak-strong-weak sequences (guiTAR is) preceded by Mama/Mommy or an unfamiliar name. Infants were tested on iambic words (guiTAR in Experiments 1–2) or trochaic nonwords (TARis in Experiment 3). Segmentation occurred only for iambic words that were preceded by Mama/Mommy during familiarization. The presence of Mama/Mommy attenuated infants’ bias to treat strong-syllables as word onsets. We suggest that young infants weight highly familiar words more strongly than metrical information and discuss the implications of this finding for a hierarchical model of segmentation that connects infant and adult segmentation systems.
AB - Previous research shows that English-learning 7.5-month-olds are biased to segment speech at strong syllables consistent with the predominant trochaic (strong-weak) pattern of words in their language (Jusczyk, Houston, & Newsome, 1999). The present study asked whether 7.5-month-olds can use a familiar name to override their metrical bias and segment iambic (weak-strong) words from natural speech. Infants were familiarized to passages containing weak-strong-weak sequences (guiTAR is) preceded by Mama/Mommy or an unfamiliar name. Infants were tested on iambic words (guiTAR in Experiments 1–2) or trochaic nonwords (TARis in Experiment 3). Segmentation occurred only for iambic words that were preceded by Mama/Mommy during familiarization. The presence of Mama/Mommy attenuated infants’ bias to treat strong-syllables as word onsets. We suggest that young infants weight highly familiar words more strongly than metrical information and discuss the implications of this finding for a hierarchical model of segmentation that connects infant and adult segmentation systems.
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U2 - 10.1080/15475441.2016.1162722
DO - 10.1080/15475441.2016.1162722
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84985992178
SN - 1547-5441
VL - 12
SP - 398
EP - 412
JO - Language Learning and Development
JF - Language Learning and Development
IS - 4
ER -