Prosodic information bootstraps language learning in infancy

语言习得是人类发展的标志性成就之一。要成功地习得语言，孩子必须学习词义(语义)和单词如何组合成句子(句法)。在此之前，婴儿正在学习声音和声音组合，识别一些频繁出现的单词形式，在语音流中寻找单词，并建立表征。值得注意的是，婴儿在出生后的头两年就学会了大量的语言。随着语言学习系统开始存储和组织信息，这项复杂的任务得到了丰富的输入和统计机制的支持。*我们的PRIMIR框架(处理来自多维交互表征的丰富信息：Curtin等人，2011；Werker&Curtin，2005)包括用于存储信息的表征空间，用于改变现有表征和建立新表征的学习机制，以及指导信息处理的动态过滤器(感知偏差、任务要求和发展水平)。在这个框架的基础上，我的NSERC研究测试了是否需要将韵律自举机制与一般学习机制结合起来，以促进单词学习。具体地说，让婴儿“自学”的一种方法是注意语言中高度突出的信息。韵律信息，如单词重音和节奏，可以突出语言结构，如单词、它们的语法类别和句子边界。我的研究的主要目标是测试韵律信息--特别是单词重音--如何促进语音输入和自举语言学习中的语言结构检测。*全面探索单词学习的基本过程涉及到多种影响来源，从基本的语音感知到使用复杂的结构来建立单词-指称关系，例如婴儿使用句子收集语法功能来确定单词的意义。所提出的实验反映了这些对早期语言学习的多重影响。认知心理学家、发展心理学家和心理语言学家将会对这个研究项目的发现感兴趣。NSE的科学家将对此特别感兴趣，因为了解语音发育对于发现行为的神经和生理基础以及语音识别系统等语音技术的进步是必要的。

Language acquisition is one of the hallmark accomplishments of human development. To successfully acquire language, a child must learn about word meaning (semantics) and how words combine to create sentences (syntax). Prior to this, infants are learning about sounds and sound combinations, recognizing some highly frequent word forms, finding words in speech stream, and building representations. Remarkably, infants acquire a great deal of their language within the first 2 years of life. This complex task is supported by the rich input and statistical mechanisms as the language learning system begins to store and organize information.***Our PRIMIR framework (Processing Rich Information from Multidimensional Interactive Representations: Curtin et al., 2011; Werker & Curtin, 2005) includes representational spaces for storing information, learning mechanisms for altering extant representations and building new ones, and dynamic filters (perceptual biases, task demands, and developmental level) that direct information processing. Building on this framework, my NSERC research tests the need to incorporate a prosodic bootstrapping mechanism working in conjunction with general learning mechanisms to facilitate word learning. Specifically, one way for the infant to 'bootstrap' acquisition is by attending to highly salient information in speech. Prosodic information, such as word stress and rhythm, can highlight linguistic structure such as words, their grammatical categories, and sentence boundaries. The overarching goal of my research is to test how prosodic information - specifically word stress - facilitates the detection of linguistic structure in the speech input and bootstraps language learning.***A comprehensive exploration of the processes underlying word learning involves consideration of multiple sources of influence, from basic perception of speech, to the use of complex structures to establish word-referent relationships, such as infants' use of sentences to glean grammatical function to determine word meaning. The proposed experiments reflect these multiple levels of influence on early language learning. The findings from this research program will be of interest to cognitive psychologists, developmental psychologists, and psycholinguists. It will be of particular interest to NSE scientists because understanding speech development is necessary for discovering the neurological and physiological underpinnings of the behaviour and for the advancement speech technologies, such as speech recognition systems.