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，研究人员已经为语言知识的获得编制了一个基本的时间轴，并提出了两种学习机制：一种是导致婴儿更关注更容易产生的语音的偏见，另一种是用于处理各种感官输入的一般统计归纳技能。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基本的争论。最近的一项初步研究的令人惊讶的结果表明，婴儿早在4.5个月时就利用了有关声音排序的某些信息，比以前确定的年龄早了4个月。修正后的发现似乎是使用语音控制比较的实验向婴儿呈现单词的结果，而不是随机选择。本论文的目的不仅是为了证实试验结果，但也揭示了进一步的证据，这两个提出的学习机制主要是促进收购这一早期knows.The研究将采用成熟的头转向Preference范式，其中的话播放给一个婴儿的扬声器，伴随着闪烁的灯光。婴儿对单词的注意力通过转向灯光来表示。该实验监测了婴儿注意不同类型刺激的时间，展示了他们在特定年龄的明显区别。这项研究的创新之处在于婴儿听到的刺激：呈现的形式对比特定的声音模式，特别是摩擦音之间的发音区别（如f，s和sh与v，z和zh）。这种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重要方面。

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.