CAREER: Statistical Learning as a Foundation for Lexical Development

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。在生命的最初几年里，婴儿对母语的结构有了相当多的了解。早期语言习得的早熟性质促使人们探索推动这些惊人学习成就的力量。统计学习是一种很有前途的机制，它通过跟踪输入中的模式来检测环境中的结构。最近的调查显示，婴儿具有强大的统计学习能力，使他们能够跟踪语言输入的声音和单词的模式。然而，婴儿使用统计学习来解决语言习得中的真正挑战的方式尚不清楚。本项目研究婴儿如何使用统计学习来完成早期语言发展的两项基本任务：在流利的言语中检测单词和将单词的声音与意义联系起来。实验结合了几种婴儿测试方法，包括分词、对象标签学习任务和单词学习和识别的在线测量。实验还整合了精心控制的人工语言和自然母语统计规律的使用，以探索统计学习对不一致和声学变化的鲁棒性，这是自然语音的两个特征，对统计规律的检测提出了重大挑战。这个项目的发现将揭示婴儿如何追踪他们母语的统计规律，以及这些规律如何影响早期的语言发展。更广泛地说，这项研究将有助于理解语言习得的基础。此外，揭示基本语言习得机制的本质对理解语言障碍的发展过程具有重要意义。描述典型发育婴儿早期语言习得的过程将为寻找语言缺陷的基础提供信息。此外，该项目将学生的教育机会与研究项目相结合，特别侧重于从有前途的高中生和本科生中招募研究助理，这些学生和本科生属于高等教育和研究中代表性不足的群体。学生将参与整个研究过程，从招募和测试参与者到向公众和科学界传播结果。参与研究小组为学生提供了发展牢固的学术联系和学术技能、参与指导关系和发展新的思维方式的独特机会。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).During the first years of life, infants learn a remarkable amount about the structure of their native language. The precocious nature of early language acquisition has motivated the exploration of the forces driving these amazing feats of learning. One promising mechanism is statistical learning, the process of detecting structure in the environment by tracking patterns present in the input. Recent investigations have revealed that infants possess powerful statistical learning capabilities that allow them to track patterns in the sounds and words of linguistic input. However, the manner in which infants use statistical learning to solve real challenges in language acquisition is not yet clear. This project investigates how infants use statistical learning to perform two fundamental tasks in early language development: detecting words in fluent speech and linking the sounds of words with meanings. The experiments incorporate several infant testing methodologies, including measures of word segmentation, object label learning tasks, and online measures of word learning and recognition. The experiments also integrate the use of carefully controlled artificial languages and natural native language statistical regularities to probe the robustness of statistical learning to inconsistency and acoustic variation, two hallmarks of natural speech that present significant challenges to the detection of statistical regularities. The findings from this project will shed light on how infants track the statistical regularities of their native language and how those regularities shape early language development. More broadly, this investigation will contribute to the understanding of the bases of language acquisition. Furthermore, revealing the nature of fundamental language acquisition mechanisms has significant implications for understanding the developmental course of language impairments. Characterizing the processes that drive early language acquisition in typically developing infants will inform the search for the bases of language deficits. In addition, this project integrates educational opportunities for students with the research program, specifically focusing on the recruitment of research assistants from promising high school students and undergraduates who belong to groups underrepresented in higher education and in research. Students will participate throughout the research process, from recruiting and testing participants to disseminating the results to the public and scientific communities. Involvement in a research group provides students with unique opportunities to develop strong academic ties and academic skills, to participate in mentoring relationships, and to develop new ways of thinking.