The Development of Phonetic Perception

我的研究项目是在音段（元音和辅音）的水平上研究语音感知的发展。广泛的目标是全面描绘婴儿对言语反应时表现出的感知偏见，解释这些感知偏见在发展过程中是如何以及何时形成的，并理解它们在口语习得中的作用。本文提出的研究重点是两个公认的感知偏差。在研究1和2中，我们研究了焦点元音偏差。这种偏见证明了我们人类对发音运动形成物理语音信号的方式的微妙敏感性，并且在成年人和6到12个月大的婴儿中得到了充分的证明。在研究1中，我们将测量4个年龄组（新生儿、2岁、4岁）的焦点元音偏倚（使用听觉元音），并通过自己的发声来形成这种偏倚。在研究4中，我们将检验听婴儿语音是否比听成人语音更有效地诱导婴儿的特定反应。当咿呀学语前的婴儿听元音时，我们将记录他们的发声和嘴部运动，并测量他们的心率（反映注意力）和面部肌肉（反映微笑）的变化。我们还将使用一种新的、对婴儿友好的超声波记录界面来记录婴儿的舌头运动。婴儿言语是激发婴儿特定行为的有力刺激的证据将具有重要的理论和实践意义。这一结果表明，获得婴儿语言具有非常广泛和有意义的影响-影响语言发展的接受，表达和动机方面。新的超声界面也将有显著的影响超出目前的工作，通过允许我们探索早期发音发展的未知方面。

My research program examines the development of speech perception on the level of phonetic segments (vowels and consonants). The broad objective is to fully portray perceptual biases that infants display in response to speech, explain how and when these perceptual biases form in development, and understand their role in the acquisition of spoken language. The research proposed here focuses on two well-established perceptual biases.In Studies 1 and 2, we investigate the focal vowel bias. This bias demonstrates our exquisite human sensitivity to the way that articulatory movements shape the physical speech signal, and is well documented in adults and 6- to 12-month-olds. In Study 1, we will measure the focal vowel bias (using auditory vowels) in 4 age groups (newborns, 2, 4 s own vocalizations in shaping this bias. In study 4, we will examine whether specific infant responses are induced more effectively by listening to infant speech than to adult speech sounds. While pre-babbling infants listen to vowels sounds, we will record their vocalizations and mouth movements and also measure changes in their heart rate (to index attention) and facial muscles (to index smiling). We will also record infant tongue movements using a new, infant-friendly ultrasound recording interface. Evidence that infant speech is a potent stimulus for provoking specific infant behaviors would have significant theoretical and practical implications. This outcome would indicate that access to infant speech has a very broad and meaningful impact - influencing receptive, expressive, and motivational aspects of speech development. The new ultrasound interface will also have a significant impact beyond the present work, by allowing us to explore uncharted aspects of early articulatory development.