Perception of talker cues and linguistic processing in SLI

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目的是探讨为什么语音类别处理受损的儿童与SLI通过检查的作用，类别形成的贡献者和测试说话者熟悉的方法，使语音类别更强大。第一个目的是确定SLI儿童是否可以创建新的谈话者类别（即，who said that utterance话语）as a way to explore探讨category类formation形成more generally一般.工作的假设是，儿童与SLI有困难，创造新的类别和概括不同的输入，这种困难是一个来源，穷人的语音处理表现在SLI。为了验证这一假设，患有SLI的儿童和9-10岁的具有典型语言发展（STD）的儿童将通过听三个不同说话者的讲话来学习新的说话者类别。第二个目的是确定是否可以通过熟悉一组说话者使SLI儿童的语音类别更加强大。工作的假设是，尽管有形成说话者类别不如talker儿童（目标1），儿童与SLI将显示改善语音处理与他们熟悉的说话者。为了验证这一假设，SLI和BSCI儿童将完成一个单词识别任务，包括熟悉和不熟悉的谈话者的谈话者训练前后（目标1），以评估他们是否表现出对熟悉谈话者的增强处理（熟悉谈话者优势）。在这个项目的结论，我们希望证明，语音类别表征是弱的SLI儿童的部分原因是无法形成强大的类别，可以概括为新的刺激。我们还希望证明，与说话者的熟悉程度提高语音处理，已经在成年人的经验表明。这项研究具有临床和理论意义，因为它将为SLI儿童的弱语音类别提供解释，并提供证据表明，这些类别可以变得更加强大，语音处理可以通过说话者熟悉来改善。这些发现将对SLI中的语言处理产生更广泛的影响;促进和自动化言语感知释放了可用于语言理解的认知资源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this proposal is to explore why phonological category processing is impaired in children with SLI by examining the role of category formation as a contributor and to test talker familiarization as a method of making phonological categories more robust. The first aim is to determine whether children with SLI can create novel talker categories (i.e., who said that utterance) as a way to explore category formation more generally. The working hypothesis is that children with SLI have difficulty creating novel categories and generalizing across diverse inputs and that this difficulty is one source of the poor phonological processing exhibited in SLI. To test this hypothesis, both children with SLI and children with typical language development (TLD) aged 9-10 will be trained to learn novel talker categories by listening to the speech of three different talkers. The second aim is to determine whether the phonological categories of children with SLI can be made more robust through familiarity with a set of talkers. The working hypothesis is that despite having formed talker categories less well than TLD children (Aim 1), children with SLI will show improved phonological processing for talkers with whom they are familiar. To test this hypothesis, both SLI and TLD children will complete a word recognition task both pre- and post-talker training (Aim 1) for both familiar and unfamiliar talkers to assess whether they show enhanced processing for familiar talkers (familiar talker advantage). At the conclusion of this project, we expect to demonstrate that phonological category representations are weak in children with SLI in part due to an inability to form robust categories that can be generalized to novel stimuli. We also expect to demonstrate that familiarity with a talker improves phonological processing, as has been shown empirically in adult populations. This research is both clinically and theoretically significant because it will provide an explanation for weak phonological categories in children with SLI and also provide evidence that these categories can be made more robust and that phonological processing can be improved through talker familiarization. These findings will have broader implications for language processing in SLI; facilitating and automating speech perception frees up cognitive resources that can be used for language comprehension.