Social and Statistical Mechanisms of Prelinguistic Vocal Learning

语言前声乐学习的社会和统计机制

• 批准号: 7897740
• 负责人: MICHAEL H GOLDSTEIN
• 金额: $ 7.87万
• 依托单位: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-20 至 2012-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7897740
• 关键词: Achievement; Age-Months; Attention; Birds; Caregivers; Characteristics; Child; Child Care; Communication; Communication impairment; Crying; Development; Down Syndrome; Environment; Feedback; Female; Fostering; Goals; Growth; Infant; Infant Behavior; Intervention; Knowledge; Language; Language Delays; Language Development Disorders; Learning; Life; Light; Link; Literature; Machine Learning; Measures; Mechanics; Motor; Movement; Nature; Outcome; Parents; Pathology processes; Pattern; Phonetics; Play; Preventive; Production; Provider; Reaction; Research; Research Personnel; Role; Shapes; Snow; Social Environment; Songbirds; Source; Speech; Speech Perception; Speech-Language Pathology; Structure; Time; Work; base; design; high risk; insight; male; phonology; programs; public health relevance; response; social; sound; vocal learning; vocalization

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): How do infants learn to produce the sounds of their language? The vocal abilities of infants change dramatically over the first year of life. Beginning with the earliest, immature vocalizations, infants make rapid progress, typically producing their first words by 12 months of age. Along the way, they begin to produce speech-like syllables and to structure sequences of syllables in accordance with the phonological rules of their language environment. While the vocal achievements of the first year are well-described, not nearly as much is known about the mechanisms of change that drive vocal development. Most work focuses on the maturation of the vocal tract, but studies of vocal development in songbirds found that there are also social sources of developmental change. For example, young male cowbirds (Molothrus ater) rely on the reactions of females to shape their immature sounds into functional song. Based on the avian work, the investigators' preliminary studies have shown that infants can learn new patterns of vocalizing from caregivers' reactions to their babbling. How do infants use social feedback to create new, more developmentally advanced, vocalizations? The goal of the proposed research is to understand the mechanisms by which infants incorporate the phonological patterns of their language into their vocal repertoires. Based on preliminary studies, the investigators hypothesize that the contingent responses of caregivers to babbling facilitate infants' statistical learning of the phonological patterns of their language. To investigate this hypothesis, the variability and temporal contingency of speech to 9-month-old infants will be manipulated to assess their effects on vocal learning. The proposed research has important implications for educating parents in providing optimal learning environments for their infants. An understanding of the role of socially guided learning in speech and language could be used to help parents to be more sensitive to their infants' behavior in ways that would facilitate development. Investigating social influences on phonological development can also contribute to the study of speech-language pathology and of processes underlying both successful and disordered communicative development. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: By illuminating mechanisms by which infants learn to produce the sounds of their language from caregivers' contingent speech, the findings could inform interventions for disordered language development. The results could also be used to help parents and child care providers create social environments that foster and support language growth. Eventually, this research could be used to design preventive programs for infants with a higher risk of language delay (e.g., children with Down Syndrome or SLI).

描述（由申请人提供）：婴儿如何学习发出他们语言的声音？婴儿的发声能力在生命的第一年发生了巨大的变化。从最早的、不成熟的发声开始，婴儿的进步很快，通常在12个月大的时候就能说出第一个单词。沿着这个过程，他们开始产生类似语音的音节，并按照他们所处语言环境的语音规则构建音节序列。虽然第一年的声乐成就被很好地描述，但对推动声乐发展的变化机制知之甚少。大多数工作集中在声道的成熟，但对鸣禽发声发展的研究发现，发展变化也有社会来源。例如，年轻的雄性燕八哥（Molothrus ater）依靠雌性的反应来将它们不成熟的声音塑造成功能性的歌曲。基于鸟类的工作，研究人员的初步研究表明，婴儿可以从照顾者对他们牙牙学语的反应中学习新的发声模式。婴儿如何利用社会反馈来创造新的，更先进的发展，发声？这项研究的目的是了解婴儿将其语言的语音模式纳入其声乐曲目的机制。基于初步的研究，研究者假设照顾者对牙牙学语的偶然反应促进了婴儿对其语言的语音模式的统计学习。为了研究这一假设，将操纵9个月大的婴儿语音的变异性和时间偶然性，以评估其对声乐学习的影响。这项研究对教育父母为婴儿提供最佳学习环境具有重要意义。对社会引导学习在言语和语言中的作用的理解可以用来帮助父母以促进发展的方式对婴儿的行为更加敏感。调查社会对语音发展的影响也有助于研究言语-语言病理学以及成功和障碍的交际发展过程。 公共卫生相关性：通过阐明婴儿从照顾者的偶然言语中学习产生语言声音的机制，这些发现可以为语言发育障碍的干预提供信息。研究结果也可以用来帮助父母和儿童保育提供者创造促进和支持语言发展的社会环境。最终，这项研究可以用来为语言发育迟缓风险较高的婴儿设计预防方案（例如，患有唐氏综合症或SLI的儿童）。