Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T05:16:14.228Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Canonical and non-canonical syllable discrimination by two-day-old infants*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Christine Moon ,
Thomas G. Bever  and
William P. Fifer
Christine Moon*
Affiliation:
Pacific Lutheran University
Thomas G. Bever
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
William P. Fifer
Affiliation:
Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute
*
Department of Psychology, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Canonical syllables may be important units in early speech perception as well as production. Twenty infants (mean age 51 hours) (and twenty controls) were tested for their ability to discriminate between members of syllable pairs which were either canonical (pæt and tæp) or non-canonical (pst and tsp). A discrimination learning method was used in which syllables signalled the availability of either a recording of the mother's voice or silence – one of which was presented if the infant began a sucking burst. Infants in the canonical condition changed sucking patterns during signals over an 18-minute experimental session and activated their mother's voice more than silence, consistent with previous experiments using mother's voice as a reinforcer. In the non-canonical condition, infants also changed sucking patterns but sucked more during the signal for quiet than mother's voice, contrary to previous findings. Differential sucking during the syllables indicated discrimination in both conditions, but infants responded differently depending upon whether the syllables were canonical or non-canonical. The activation of silence in the non-canonical condition may be the result of a preference for quiet, but it is better explained as a failure to progress to a level of differential responding that was reached by the canonical group.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by NICHD grant RO1 HD22817 to the first author and RO1 HD20102 to the third. Stimuli were prepared at Haskins Laboratory with support of NICHD contract NO1 HD52910. We would like to thank the Departments of Neonatology and newborn nursery personnel at North Central Bronx Hospital and Babies Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, for their co-operation and support .

References

REFERENCES

Aslin, R. N., Pisoni, D. B. & Jusczyk, P. W. (1983). Auditory development and speech perception in infancy. In Haith, M. M. & Campos, J. J. (eds), Infancy and developmental psychobiology. Vol. 2. Carmichael's handbook of child psychology (4th edition). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Berg, W. K. & Berg, K. M. (1979). Psychophysiological development in infancy: state, sensory function, and attention. In Osofsky, J. (ed.) Handbook of infant development. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bertoncini, J., Bijeljac-Babic, R. V., Blumstein, S. E. & Mehler, J. (1987). Discrimination in neonates of very short CVs. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 82, 31–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bertoncini, J., Bijeljac-Babic, R., Jusczyk, P. W., Kennedy, L. J., & Mehler, J. (1988). An investigation of young infant's perceptual representations of speech sounds. Journal of Experimental Psychology 117, 21–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bertoncini, J. & Mehler, J. (1979). Syllables as units in infant speech perception. Infant Behavior and Development 4, 247–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cairns, G. F. & Butterfield, E. C. (1975). Assessing infants' auditory functioning. In Friedlander, B. Z., Sterriti, G. M., & Kirk, J. (eds) The exceptional infant: assessment and intervention, vol. 3. New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Clarkson, M. G. & Berg, W. K. (1983). Cardiac orienting and vowel discrimination in newborns: crucial stimulus parameters. Child Development 54, 162–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, F. A. & DeCasper, A. J. (1989). Intrauterine heartbeat sounds are reinforcing for newborns because of active right-lateralized processes. Paper presented at Society for Research in Child Development, Kansas City, MO.Google Scholar
DeCasper, A. J. & Carstens, A. A. (1981). Contingencies of stimulation: effects on learning and emotion in neonates. Infant Behavior and Development 4, 19–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeCasper, A. J. & Fifer, W. P. (1980). Of human bonding: newborns prefer their mother's voices. Science 208, 174–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeCasper, A. J. & Sigafoos, A. D. (1983). The intrauterine heartbeat: a potent reinforcer for newborns. Infant Behavior and Development 6, 19–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fifer, W. P. (1981). Early attachment: maternal voice preference in 1- and 3-day-old infants. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, Greensboro.Google Scholar
Gibbon, J. & Balsam, P. (1981). Spreading association in time. In Locurto, C. M., Terranee, H. S. & Gibbon, J. (eds), Autoshaping and conditioning theory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Graham, F. K. & Clifton, R. K. (1966). Heart-rate change as a component of the orienting response. Psychological Bulletin 65, 305–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, F. K. & Jackson, J. C. (1970). Arousal systems and infant heart rate responses. In Reese, H. W. & Lipsitt, L. P. (eds), Advances in child development and behavior. Vol. 5. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P. W. (1985). The high-amplitude sucking technique as a methodological tool in speech perception research. In Gottlieb, G. & Krasnegor, N. A. (eds), Measurement of audition and vision in the first year of postnatal life: a methodological overview. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Lynch, M. P., Oller, D. K. & Stiffens, M. (1989). Development of speech-like vocalizations in a child with congenital absence of cochleas: the case of total deafness. Applied Psycholinguistics 10, 315–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehler, J., Bertoncini, J., Barrière, M. & Jassik-Gerschenfeld, D. (1978). Infant recognition of mother's voice. Perception 7, 491–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mills, M. & Melhuish, E. (1974). Recognition of mother's voice in early infancy. Nature 252, 123–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Molfese, D. L. & Molfese, V. J. (1979). Hemisphere and stimulus differences as reflected in the cortical responses of newborn infants to speech stimuli. Developmental Psychology 15, 505–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molfese, D. L. & Molfese, V. J. (1980). Cortical responses of preterm infants to phonetic and nonphonetic speech stimuli. Developmental Psychology 16, 574–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, C. & Fifer, W. P. (1990 a). Syllables as signals for 2-day-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development 13, 377–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, C. & Fifer, W. P. (1990 b). Newborns prefer a prenatal version of mother's voice. Poster presented at biannual meeting of International Society of Infant Studies, Montreal.Google Scholar
Murray, L. & Trevarthen, C. (1985). Emotional regulation of interactions between 2-month- olds and their mothers. In Field, T. M. & Fox, N. A. (eds), Social perception in infants. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Oller, R. K. (1980). The emergence of the sounds of speech in infancy. In Yeni-Komshian, G. H., Kavanagh, J. F. & Ferguson, C. A. (eds), Child phonology: Vol 1, Production. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Oller, R. K. (1986). Metaphonology and infant vocalizations. In Lindblom, B. & Zetterstrom, R. (eds), Precursors of early speech. New York: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Oller, R. K. & Eilers, R. E. (1988). The role of audition in infant babbling. Child Development 59, 441–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olsho, L. W., Koch, E. G. & Carter, E. A. (1988). Nonsensory factors in infant frequency discrimination. Infant Behavior and Development 11, 205–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prescott, P. A. (1985). Differential reinforcing value of speech and heartbeats: a measure of functional lateralization in the neonate. Dissertation Abstracts International 48, 286–8.Google Scholar
Segalowitz, S. J. (1983). Cerebral asymmetries for speech in infancy. In Segalowitz, S. J. (ed.), Language functions and brain organization: perspectives in neurolinguistics, neuropsychology and psycholinguistics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Segalowitz, S. J. & Chapman, J. S. (1980). Cerebral asymmetry for speech in neonates: a behavioral measure. Brain and Language 9, 281–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spence, M. J. & DeCasper, A. J. (1987). Prenatal experience with low-frequency maternal voice-sounds influence neonatal perception of maternal voice samples. Infant Behavior and Development 10, 133–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, D. (1977). The first relationship, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Turkewitz, G., Birch, H. G. & Cooper, K. K. (1971). Responsiveness to simple and complex auditory stimuli in the human newborn. Developmental Psychobiology 5, 7–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, L. A. & Gillenwater, J. M. (1990). Pure-tone sensitivity of 2- to s-week-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development 13, 355–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar