ERIC Number: EJ1050338
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Feb
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
The Flexibility of 12-Month-Olds' Preferences for Phonologically Appropriate Object Labels
MacKenzie, Heather K.; Graham, Susan A.; Curtin, Suzanne; Archer, Stephanie L.
Developmental Psychology, v50 n2 p422-430 Feb 2014
We explored 12-month-olds' flexibility in accepting phonotactically illegal or ill-formed word forms in a modified associative-learning task. Sixty-four English-learning infants were presented with a training phase that either clarified the purpose of a sound--object association task or left the task ambiguous. Infants were then habituated to sets of Czech words with onsets that are illegal in English (e.g., ptak), consonantal sounds (e.g., /l/), or novel functionlike words (e.g., iv). When infants were provided with a training phase that highlighted the purpose of the task, they associated the phonotactically illegal Czech words, but not the consonantal sounds or novel functionlike words, with objects. Thus, English-learning 12-month-old infants' flexibility in associating various sound forms with novel objects is limited to labels that share the structural shape of well-formed nounlike words.
Descriptors: Infants, Language Acquisition, English, Slavic Languages, Associative Learning, Language Processing, Cues, Form Classes (Languages), Phonology, Experiments, Preferences, Auditory Stimuli, Visual Stimuli, Habituation, Native Language, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A