Within- and between- talker variability and word learning

项目总结 为了学习单词，婴儿必须确定语音序列的范围--这些声音被算作 一个给定单词的产物。几十年的研究表明，在婴儿出生的第一年里，他们学会了 识别他们语言中存在的声音，并随后开始学习单词的含义， 在这些词的制作开始之前。当婴儿学习区分母语发音时 在生命的前6-12个月，外语发音，它们对已知单词的发音的表示 往往不够详细，或者说是“模糊的”。与此同时，早期的陈述在某些方面过于具体，例如 当婴儿听不出新说话者说的同一个词时。因此，语言面临着严峻的挑战 学习者正在形成对单词的适当的具体表示，这些表示足够狭窄，以至于可以忽略 发音不正确，但宽泛到足以识别新的实例。有哪些因素会影响这些因素的形成？ 适当的特定单词表示法？先前的单词学习研究表明，声学可变性 来自多个说话者，或来自婴儿定向言语，可以帮助学习者获得新词 实验室研究。将之前的工作扩展到实验室和生态有效的环境，目前的提案 具体目标是： 1.量化自然环境中的声学可变性，并测试其与单词学习的联系 2.在实验室中测试声学变异性在词汇表征形成中的作用 使用语料库方法和实验方法，当前的提案试图理解如何 婴儿语言输入固有的声学可变性会影响适当的- 特定的单词表示法。这种结合的方法使得对这个问题的调查既可以在 野生的和实验室中的，允许补充和更彻底地理解声学的作用 可变性超过了以前的研究。 这项工作的结果将有助于理解输入的属性如何影响单词 学习。更好地了解影响词汇学习的因素有助于发展 心理学，特别是当它考虑支持早期学习者的最佳方式时，无论是典型的还是非典型的 轨迹。这一发现将对教育和临床环境产生影响，因为声学 可以操纵输入中的可变性来优化单词学习。

Project summary In order to learn words, infants must determine the range of sequences of speech-sounds that get to “count” as a production of a given word. Decades of research have shown that over the first year of life infants learn to identify the sounds that are present in their language, and subsequently begin to learn the meanings of words, before production of these words begins. While infants learn to distinguish native language sounds from foreign language sounds over the first 6-12 months of life, their representations of the sounds of known words are often underspecified, or ‘fuzzy’. At the same time, early representations are in some ways too specific, e.g. when infants fail to recognize the same word said by a new talker. Thus, a critical challenge for language learners is forming appropriately specific representations of words, ones that are narrow enough to disregard incorrect pronunciations but broad enough to recognize new instances. What factors influence the formation of appropriately-specific word representations? Previous word-learning research suggests that acoustic variability stemming from multiple talkers, or from infant directed speech, can help learners acquire novel words in short lab studies. Extending previous work to both lab and ecologically-valid environments, the current proposal’s specific aims are to: 1. Quantify acoustic variability in naturalistic settings and test its links to word-learning 2. Test the role of acoustic variability in the formation of word representations in the lab Using both corpus methods and experimental approaches, the current proposal seeks to understand how acoustic variability that is inherent to an infants’ linguistic input influences the formation of appropriately- specific word representations. This combined approach permits an investigation of this question both ‘in the wild’ and ‘in the lab’, allowing for a complementary and more thorough understanding of the role of acoustic variability than previous research has attained. The results of this work will contribute to an understanding of how properties of the input can impact word learning. A better understanding of factors that influence word learning is beneficial for developmental psychology, particularly as it considers the best ways to support early learners, both with typical and atypical trajectories. The findings will have implications for educational and clinical settings, as the amount of acoustic variability in the input can be manipulated to optimize word learning.