Effects of background noise on word learning in preschool-age children

项目摘要/摘要：儿童时期长期暴露在背景噪音中的负面影响 语言、识字和认知发展，对孩子的学业成绩和 未来的就业潜力。一种假设的机制，将噪音与语言和认知中的减量联系起来 发展是，噪音扰乱了幼儿建立词汇的能力。生机勃勃的文学作品 证明噪音主要通过能量掩蔽干扰对口语的感知，在 噪声限制了目标语音的高保真编码，以及信息掩蔽，其中噪声征税 认知过程，如注意力控制和工作记忆。背景噪音可能会干扰单词 通过类似的机制进行学习。尽管已经有研究测试了噪音对单词的影响 学习，这些研究在数量上很少，在方法上也是可变的。儿童自然主义中的喧嚣 环境类型不同(例如，环境噪音[空调]和背景语音)、强度 级别(即，声音有多大)、语义内容(即，孩子是否理解背景语音)，以及 空间位置：施加不同数量的能量和信息掩蔽的因素。另外， 学龄前儿童认知和语言能力的差异可能会影响他们的易感性 噪音的负面影响。因此，我们缺乏关于认知因素如何与变异相互作用的知识 噪音会影响幼儿的单词学习。这是一个关键的差距，因为口语输入是唯一的来源 这是阅读前儿童单词学习的一个重要方面，也是终生学习单词的重要来源。目前的研究 我将在不同类型、不同空间的背景噪音下测试新词学习的时间进程 位置、语义内容和强度水平，这些都是影响幼儿感知 目标演讲。具体地说，噪声将根据它是否包含语音内容而变化(目标1)，无论是 无论它是否包含熟悉的语义，它都与目标语言(目标2)处于同一位置或在空间上分离 以及语音内容与仅熟悉的语音内容的对比(目标3)及其强度水平(目标1、3)。至 为了实现这些目标，一大批4至6岁的儿童将接受新词培训- 随后三天的参照物对。这个年龄段是有针对性的，因为儿童的言语感知 在发育的这段时间内对噪音的影响非常敏感，这是建立的重要年龄 基础词汇技能。每个孩子将在一种噪音条件下接受测试，噪音将是 系统地改变了不同的条件。通过这种方法，我们将确定各种噪音是如何 条件既影响所学单词的数量，也影响儿童表征的语音精度 单词在整个学习过程中的重要性。这项工作符合儿童基金会的研究重点 NICHD的发展和行为处，因为我们将确定儿童环境的各个方面 影响单词学习，这是一个对长期语言、认知和学习结果至关重要的过程。

Project Summary/Abstract: Chronic exposure to background noise during childhood negatively impacts language, literacy, and cognitive development, with repercussions for children’s academic achievement and future employment potential. A putative mechanism linking noise to decrements in language and cognitive development is that noise disrupts young children’s ability to build a vocabulary. A robust literature demonstrates that noise disrupts the perception of spoken words primarily through energetic masking, in which noise limits high fidelity encoding of target speech, and informational masking, in which noise taxes cognitive processes such as attentional control and working memory. Background noise likely disrupts word learning through similar mechanisms. Although there have been studies testing the effects of noise on word learning, these studies are few in number and variable in methodology. The noises in children’s naturalistic environments vary in type (e.g., environmental noise [air conditioners] and background speech), intensity level (i.e., how loud it is), semantic content (i.e., whether the child understands the background speech), and spatial location: factors that exert different amounts of energetic and informational masking. Additionally, differences in cognitive and language abilities among preschool-age children likely affect their susceptibility to the negative effects of noise. Thus, we lack knowledge about how cognitive factors interact with variations in noise to affect word learning in young children. This is a critical gap because spoken input is the sole source of word learning in prereaders and an important source of word learning over the lifespan. The present study will test the time course of novel word learning in the presence of background noise that varies in type, spatial location, semantic content, and intensity level, which are factors that influence young children’s perception of target speech. Specifically, the noise will vary by whether it contains speech content or not (Aim 1), whether it is co-located or spatially separated from the target speech (Aim 2), whether it contains familiar semantic and phonetic content versus only familiar phonetic content (Aim 3), and its intensity level (Aims 1, 3). To accomplish these aims, a large cohort of children between 4 and 6 years of age will be trained on novel word- referent pairs across three subsequent days. This age range is targeted because children’s speech perception is highly susceptible to the effects of noise during this time in development, and it is an important age to build foundational vocabulary skills. Each child will be tested in one noise condition, and the noise will be systematically changed across conditions. Through this approach, we will determine how various noise conditions affect both the number of words learned and the phonological precision of children’s representation of the words throughout the learning process. This work aligns with the research priorities of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the NICHD as we will identify how aspects of children’s environments affect word learning, a critical process for long-term language, cognitive, and academic outcomes.