Perception of talker cues and linguistic processing in SLI

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目的是通过检查类别形成作为一个贡献者的作用来探索为什么语音类别加工在特殊语言障碍儿童中受到损害，并测试说话人熟悉作为一种使语音类别更加稳健的方法。第一个目的是确定患有特殊语言障碍的儿童是否能够创造新的说话者类别（即，谁说了那句话），作为一种更普遍地探索类别形成的方式。工作假设是，患有特殊语言障碍的儿童在创造新类别和概括不同输入方面存在困难，这种困难是特殊语言障碍中表现出的语音加工不良的一个来源。为了验证这一假设，9-10岁的特殊语言障碍儿童和典型语言发展儿童（TLD）将接受训练，通过听三个不同的说话者的讲话来学习新的说话者类别。第二个目的是确定特殊语言障碍儿童的语音分类是否可以通过熟悉一组说话者而变得更加健全。工作假设是，尽管与TLD儿童相比，SLI儿童形成说话人类别的能力较差（目的1），但他们对熟悉的说话人的语音加工能力有所提高。为了验证这一假设，我们将对SLI儿童和TLD儿童分别对熟悉的和不熟悉的说话者进行单词识别训练（目标1），以评估他们是否对熟悉的说话者表现出增强的加工（熟悉的说话者优势）。在这个项目的结论中，我们期望证明语音类别表征在特殊语言障碍儿童中很弱，部分原因是无法形成可以推广到新刺激的强大类别。我们还希望证明熟悉说话人可以改善语音处理，正如在成年人身上的经验证明的那样。这项研究在临床上和理论上都具有重要意义，因为它将为特殊语言障碍儿童的弱语音分类提供解释，并提供证据，证明这些类别可以更加健全，语音加工可以通过说话者熟悉来改善。这些发现将对特殊语言障碍的语言处理产生更广泛的影响；促进和自动化语音感知可以释放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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: We expect the findings from this research project to demonstrate the significance of the talker dimension for phonological category processing in children with SLI and to demonstrate that phonological processing can be improved for talkers who are more familiar. The proposed research has relevance to public health because understanding the reason for poor phonological category processing in children with SLI has broader implications for language processing, which relies on the ability to map acoustic signals onto linguistic messages.