Development of Phonotactic Knowledge in Infancy

尽管许多研究试图更好地理解语言习得的过程，但关于婴儿如何在短短几年内完成学习一门语言的巨大任务的许多基本问题仍然没有明确的答案。到目前为止，研究人员已经编制了获得语言知识的基本时间表，并提出了两种学习机制：一种是偏见，导致婴儿更多地关注更容易产生的语音；另一种是一般的统计归纳技能，用于处理各种感觉输入。从理论和实验的角度来看，哪种机制是有效的仍然是一个持续的和根本的争论。最近的一项初步研究的令人惊讶的结果表明，婴儿最早在4.5月就利用了关于声音测序的某些信息，比之前确定的年龄早了4个月。修改后的发现似乎是通过实验将单词呈现给婴儿进行语音控制比较，而不是随机选择的结果。这篇论文不仅试图证实实验结果，而且还试图发现进一步的证据，证明两种拟议的学习机制中的哪一种主要促进了早期知识的获得。研究将采用公认的转头偏好范式，即在扬声器上向婴儿播放单词，并伴随着闪光。婴儿对单词的注意通过转向光线来表示。该实验监测了婴儿对不同类型刺激的注意时间，展示了在特定年龄对他们明显的区别。这项研究的创新之处在于婴儿听到的刺激：形式呈现出对比特定的声音模式，特别是摩擦音(如f、S和sh与v、z和zh)之间的发声区别。这一新方法允许进一步探索有关婴儿如何学习语言的基本问题，这是人类互动的一个关键方面。

Though much research has sought to better understand the process of language acquisition, many fundamental questions regarding how infants complete the enormous task of learning a language within just a few years remain without a definitive answer. So far, researchers have compiled a basic timeline for the acquisition of linguistic knowledge, and proposed two learning mechanisms: a bias leading infants to pay more attention to speech sounds that are easier to produce, and general statistical induction skills that are used to process various kinds of sensory input. Which mechanism is operative remains a continuing and fundamental debate from both theoretical and experimental perspectives.Surprising results from a recent pilot study indicate that infants make use of certain information regarding sound sequencing as early as 4.5 months, 4 months earlier than the previously established age. The revised findings appear to be the result of using experiments that present words to infants in phonetically controlled comparisons, rather than as a random selection. The dissertation seeks not only to confirm the pilot findings, but also to uncover further evidence regarding which of the two proposed learning mechanisms primarily facilitates acquisition of this early knowledge.The research will employ the well-established Head-turn Preference paradigm, in which words are played to an infant on a speaker, accompanied by a blinking light. The infant's attention to the words is indicated by turning toward the light. The experiment monitors the amount of time that infants attend to different kinds of stimuli, demonstrating the distinctions that are evident to them at that particular age. The innovation in this study lies in the stimuli the infants hear: the forms presented contrast specific sound patterns, in particular the distinction of voicing between fricative sounds (such as f, s, and sh versus v, z, and zh). This new approach allows for further exploration of fundamental questions regarding how infants learn language, a crucial aspect of human interaction.