Impact of Speech Input on Speech Production Learning

该研究项目关注的是发现语言运动控制在发展的最早阶段出现的机制，特别关注对可变输入的适应。长期以来，人们一直认为，由于语言运动控制受到严重限制，所有婴儿都以同样的方式牙牙学语。在过去十年的NSERC资助的研究中，我们确定了学习英语，法语或阿拉伯语的婴儿在声学测量时会发展出具有独特元音特征的咿呀学语。在这个项目中，我的目的是阐明的机制，从成人的语音输入影响婴儿的声音输出。在一系列研究中，将在6、8、10、12和14个月时纵向记录母亲和婴儿之间的声音交流。母亲和婴儿的语音中的元音声音将被声学描述，声学特征的分布将被详细绘制，以揭示随着时间的推移出现的二元组内的收敛和跨语言组的发散模式。婴儿和母亲发声的时刻到时刻的时间模式的方面将被描述。在第二个系列的研究中，元音输入的时间模式将被操纵相对于婴儿的声音输出。这些研究将使我们能够测试替代假设的潜在机制，可能解释适应的语音输入在婴儿声乐发展的声学特性。这些研究将进一步加深我们对婴儿使其言语产生适应周围语言环境的正常过程的理解，也将对我们理解延迟言语习得产生影响。

This research program is concerned with discovering the mechanisms that underly the emergence of speech motor control in the earliest stages of development, with a particular focus on adaptation to variable inputs. It has long been thought that all infants babbled in the same way due to severe constraints on speech motor control. Over the past ten years of NSERC-funded research we established that infants learning English, French or Arabic develop babbling with distinct vowel characteristics when measured acoustically. In this project I aim to illuminate the mechanism by which the speech input from adults influences the infant's vocal output. In one series of studies, vocal exchanges between mothers and infants will be recorded longitudinally at 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 months. The vowel sounds in the mothers' and infants' speech will be described acoustically and the distributions of acoustic characteristics will be plotted in detail to reveal patterns of convergence within dyads and divergence across language groups as they emerge over time. Aspects of the moment-to-moment temporal patterning of infant and maternal vocalizations will be described. In a second series of studies the temporal pattern of vowel inputs will be manipulated relative to infant vocal outputs. These studies will allow us to test alternative hypotheses regarding potential mechanisms that might explain adaptation to acoustic characteristics of the speech input in infant vocal development. These studies will further our understanding of the normal processes by which the infant adapts their speech production to the ambient language environment and will also have implications for our understanding of delayed speech acquisition.