ONTOGENY OF SEGMENTAL SPEECH ORGANIZATION

这个项目的长期目标是提高我们对如何 儿童学习分段（即，音位）组织 语言，并开始开始调查在这种发展中出了什么问题， 孩子们明显的拖延。研究正常 发展中的孩子们都认同这样一个观点， 并不像我们想象的那样 这表明，学习说话的一个方面是， 在语音信号中发现这种结构。一个模型是关于 发展任务的完成是，分配给各种权重 语音信号的声学特性作为子增益被返回 他们的母语经验。这个“发展加权” 这种模式被称为“移位”，最终导致语音处理 优化声学特性权重的策略， 强烈地传达关于孩子母语中语音对比的信息， 语言本项目的四个具体目标是测试假设推导 从这个理论上讲。 对正常受试者的实验将 调查不同年龄听众的加权方案， 具有不同音节结构和音素组成的刺激，以及 评估发展权重变化的两个可能原因： 心理声学能力的发展变化和发展 声学特性集成方式的变化。感知 涉及标记和/或区分任务的实验将用于 实现这些目标。实验比较了正常儿童和 与正常儿童相比， 同龄人，将探索他们的困难与一个 发展权重转移的延迟。三种实验 将用于实现这一目标：语音的声学分析 样本，三个语音感知测试，和五个相关的心理声学 试验.结果应该对有语言障碍的儿童有意义 包括阅读障碍在内的各种障碍。这项工作应该导致一个更好的 了解正常儿童如何获得对分段的敏感性 结构的讲话，提高我们的认识所面临的问题， 孩子们有困难这样做，并提供一个起点， 探索具有几种语言类型的儿童所面临的问题 损伤

The long-term goal of this project is to improve our understanding of how children learn about the segmental (i.e., phonemic) organization of language, and to begin investigating what goes wrong in this developmental process for children with apparent delays. Studies with normally developing children are converging on the notion that these young subjects do not have as solid or as precise representations of segmental speech structure as adults do, suggesting that one aspect of learning to talk is discovering this structure in the speech signal. One model of how this developmental task is accomplished is that the weights assigned to various acoustic properties of the speech signal are returned as children gain experience with their native language. This 'developmental weighting shift,' as the model is termed, eventually leads to speech processing strategies that optimize the weightings of acoustic properties that most strongly convey information about phonetic contrasts in the child's native language. The four specific aims of this project test hypotheses derived from this theoretical account. Experiments with normal subjects will investigate the weighting schemes of listeners of different ages for stimuli with different syllable structures and phonemic compositions, and evaluate two possible causes of the developmental weighting shift: developmental changes in psychoacoustic capacities and developmental changes in the way acoustic properties are integrated. Perception experiments involving labeling and/or discrimination tasks will be used to accomplish these aims. Experiments comparing data from normal children and from children who are phonologically unaware, compared to their normal peers, will explore the possibility that their difficulty is related to a delay in the developmental weighting shift. Three kinds of experiments will be used to accomplish this aim: one acoustic analysis of speech samples, three speech perception tests, and five related psychoacoustic tests. Results should have implications for children with language impairments, including dyslexia. This work should lead to a better understanding of how normal children acquire sensitivity to the segmental structure of speech, improve our understanding of the problem faced by children having difficulty doing so, and provide a starting point for exploring the problems faced by children with several types of language impairments.