Developmental Changes in Infants' Ability to Cope with Dialect Variation in Word Recognition

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
Rachel SchmaleElizabeth K Johnson

Abstract

Toward the end of their first year of life, infants' overly specified word representations are thought to give way to more abstract ones, which helps them to better cope with variation not relevant to word identity (e.g., voice and affect). This developmental change may help infants process the ambient language more efficiently, thus enabling rapid gains in vocabulary growth. One particular kind of variability that infants must accommodate is that of dialectal accent, because most children will encounter speakers from different regions and backgrounds. In this study, we explored developmental changes in infants' ability to recognize words in continuous speech by familiarizing them with words spoken by a speaker of their own region (North Midland-American English) or a different region (Southern Ontario Canadian English), and testing them with passages spoken by a speaker of the opposite dialectal accent. Our results demonstrate that 12- but not 9-month-olds readily recognize words in the face of dialectal variation.

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Citations

Mar 25, 2014·Journal of Child Language·Samantha DurrantCaroline Floccia
Jun 24, 2017·Child Development·Elika Bergelson, Daniel Swingley
Jul 23, 2020·Journal of Child Language·Melissa Paquette-SmithElizabeth K Johnson
Dec 31, 2011·Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR·Marieke van Heugten, Elizabeth K Johnson
Jan 16, 2020·Brain Sciences·Tineke M SnijdersPaula Fikkert
Jul 9, 2020·Language and Speech·Chieh-Fang Hu
Sep 3, 2011·Developmental Science·Elizabeth K JohnsonAnne Cutler
Feb 12, 2011·Journal of Child Language·Rachel SchmaleAmanda Seidl
Jan 16, 2014·Journal of Child Language·Tessa Bent
Feb 26, 2013·Child Development·Christine KitamuraCatherine T Best
Jan 3, 2016·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Tessa Bent, Eriko Atagi
May 4, 2017·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Yuanyuan WangAmanda Seidl
Feb 19, 2019·Language Learning and Development : the Official Journal of the Society for Language Development·Margarethe McDonaldMargarita Kaushanskaya
Oct 31, 2012·Developmental Science·Rachel SchmaleAmanda Seidl
Mar 5, 2021·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Cognitive Science·Carolyn Quam, Sarah C Creel
Mar 8, 2016·Journal of Experimental Child Psychology·Sarah C CreelAngelica Nicolle Paullada

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