Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-c8zdz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T01:04:43.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Development of categorical identification of native and non-native bilabial stops: infants, children and adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Denis K. Burnham ,
Lynda J. Earnshaw  and
John E. Clark
Denis K. Burnham*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
Lynda J. Earnshaw
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
John E. Clark
Affiliation:
Macquarie University
*
Infant Research Centre, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, 2033, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using an infant speech identification (ISI) procedure, English language environment infants, two- and six-year-old children, and adults were tested for their identification of sounds on a native (voiced/voiceless bilabial stop) and a non-native (prevoiced/voiced bilabial stop) speech continuum. Categorical perception of the two contrasts diverged as a function of age, increasing for the native contrast and decreasing for the non-native between two and six years. In Experiment 2, subjects of the same four ages were tested for their identification of a continuum of harmonic tones varying in pitch. Comparison of the results of Experiment i with the essentially continuous perception of this pitch continuum supports the view that the perception of the native contrast becomes more categorical with age, while perception of the non-native contrast becomes less categorical, especially at six years. Experiment 3, in which adults were tested on the three continua with a multi-trial open set procedure, demonstrated that results with the ISI procedure in Experiments 1 and 2 are comparable to results with more traditional methods. The results of the three experiments are discussed in terms of the role of specific linguistic experience in the development of categorical speech perception.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 231 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Aslin, R. N., Pisoni, D. B., Hennessy, B. & Perey, A. J. (1981). Discrimination of VOT by human infants: new findings and implications for the effects of early experience. Child Development 52, 1135–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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 the biology of development. Vol. 2 of Carmichael's manual of child psychology (4th edn). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H., Kessen, W. & Weiskopf, S. (1976). Color vision and hue categorization in young human infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 2, 115–29.Google ScholarPubMed
Burnham, D. K. (1986). Developmental loss of speech perception: exposure to and experience with a first language. Applied Psycholinguistics 7, 207–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, D. K., Earnshaw, L. J. & Quinn, M. C. (1987). The development of the categorical identification of speech. In McKenzie, B. E. & Day, R. H. (eds), Perceptual development in early infancy: problems and issues. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Eilers, R. E., Wilson, W. R. & Moore, J. M. (1977). Developmental changes in speech discrimination in infants. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 20, 766–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eimas, P. D. (1975). Speech perception in early infancy. In Cohen, L. B. & Salapatek, P. (eds), Infant perception: from sensation to cognition (Vol. 2). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Eimas, P. D., Siqueland, E. R., Jusczyk, P. & Vigorito, J. (1971). Speech perception in infants. Science 171, 303–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elliot, L. L., Busse, L. A., Partridge, R., Rupert, J. & De Graaff, R. (1986). Adult and child discrimination of CV syllables differing in voicing onset time. Child Development 57, 628–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jusczyk, P. W. (1981 a). Infant speech perception: a critical appraisal. In Eimas, P. D. & Miller, J. L. (eds), Perspectives on the study of speech. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P. W. (1981 b). The processing of speech and nonspeech sounds by infants: some implications. In Aslin, R. N., Alberts, J. R. & Petersen, M. R. (eds), Development of perception: psychobiological perspectives (Vol. 1). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P. W. (1984). On characterizing the development of speech perception. In Mehler, J. & Fox, R. (eds), Neonate cognition: beyond the blooming, buzzing confusion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P. W., Pisoni, D. B., Walley, A. & Murray, J. (1980). Discrimination of relative onset time of two-component tones by infants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 67, 262–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K. (1978). Predispositions for the perception of speech-sound categories: a species-specific phenomenon? In Minifie, F. D. & Lloyd, L. L. (eds), Communicative and cognitive abilities: early behavioural assessment. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K. & Miller, J. D. (1975). Speech perception by the chinchilla: voiced-voiceless distinction in alveolar plosive consonants. Science 190, 69–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K. & Miller, J. D. (1978). Speech perception by the chinchilla: identification functions for synthetic VOT stimuli. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 63, 905–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K. & Padden, D. M. (1982). Enhanced discriminability at the phonetic boundaries for the voicing feature in macaques. Perception and Psychophysics 32, 542–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K. & Padden, D. M. (1983). Enhanced discriminability at the phonetic boundaries for the place feature in macaques. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 73, 1003–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lasky, R. E., Syrdal-Lasky, A. & Klein, R. E. (1975). VOT discrimination by 4- to 6-month- old infants from Spanish environments. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 20, 215–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S., Hoffman, H. S. & Griffith, B. C. (1957). The discrimination of speech sounds within and across phoneme boundaries. Journal of Experimental Psychology 54, 358–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S., Kinney, J. A. & Lane, H. (1961). The discrimination of relative onset-time of the components of certain speech and nonspeech patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology 61, 379–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKain, K. S. (1982). Assessing the role of experience on infants' speech discrimination. Journal of Child Language 9, 527–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macken, M. A. & Barton, D. (1979). The acquisition of the voicing contrast in English: a study of voice onset time in word-initial stop consonants. Journal of Child Language 7, 433–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddieson, I. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pisoni, D. B. (1977). Identification and discrimination of the relative onset time of two-component tones: implications for voicing perception in stops. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 61, 1352–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevens, K. N. & Keyser, S. J. (1989). Primary features and their enhancement in consonants. Language 65, 81–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Studdert-Kennedy, M., Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S. & Cooper, F. S. (1970). Theoretical notes: motor theory of speech perception; a reply to Lane's critical review. Psychological Review 77, 234–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walley, A. C., Pisoni, D. B. & Aslin, R. N. (1981). The role of early experience in the development of speech perception. In Aslin, R. N. & Petersen, M. J. (eds), The development of perception: psychobiological perspectives. New York: Academic press.Google Scholar
Werker, J. F., Gilbert, J. H. V., Humphrey, K. & Tees, R. C. (1981). Developmental aspects of cross-language speech perception. Child Development 52, 349–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (1983). Developmental changes across childhood in the perception of non-native speech sounds. Canadian Journal of Psychology 37, 278–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: evidence for perceptual reorganisation during the first year of life. Infant Behaviour and Development 27, 49–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar