1
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Crespo K, Vlach H, Kaushanskaya M. The effects of bilingualism on children's cross-situational word learning under different variability conditions. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 229:105621. [PMID: 36689904 PMCID: PMC10088528 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
In the current study, we examined the separate and combined effects of exemplar and speaker variability on monolingual and bilingual children's cross-situational word learning performance. Results revealed that children's word learning performance did not differ when the input varied in a single dimension (i.e., exemplars or speakers) compared with a condition with no variability independent of their linguistic background. However, when performance in conditions that varied in a single dimension (i.e., exemplars or speakers) was compared with a condition that varied in multiple dimensions (i.e., exemplars and speakers), bilingual word learning advantages were observed; bilinguals were more likely to learn word-referent associations than monolinguals. Together, results suggest that children can learn and generalize word-referent associations from input that varies in exemplars and speakers and that bilingualism may bolster learning under conditions of increased input variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly Crespo
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
| | - Haley Vlach
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Margarita Kaushanskaya
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
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2
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Singh L, Göksun T, Hirsh-Pasek K, Golinkoff RM. Sensitivity to visual cues within motion events in monolingual and bilingual infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 227:105582. [PMID: 36375314 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
It is well known that infants undergo developmental change in how they respond to language-relevant visual contrasts. For example, when viewing motion events, infants' sensitivities to background information ("ground-path cues," e.g., whether a background is flat and continuous or bounded) change with age. Prior studies with English and Japanese monolingual infants have demonstrated that 14-month-old infants discriminate between motion events that take place against different ground-paths (e.g., an unbounded field vs a bounded street). By 19 months of age, this sensitivity becomes more selective in monolingual infants; only learners of languages that lexically contrast these categories, such as Japanese, discriminate between such events. In this study, we investigated this progression in bilingual infants. We first replicated past reports of an age-related decline in ground-path sensitivity from 14 to 19 months in English monolingual infants living in a multilingual society. English-Mandarin bilingual infants living in that same society were then tested on discrimination of ground-path cues at 14, 19, and 24 months. Although neither the English nor Mandarin language differentiates motion events based on ground-path cues, bilingual infants demonstrated protracted sensitivity to these cues. Infants exhibited a lack of discrimination at 14 months, followed by discrimination at 19 months and a subsequent decline in discrimination at 24 months. In addition, bilingual infants demonstrated more fine-grained sensitivities to subtle ground cues not observed in monolingual infants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore.
| | - Tilbe Göksun
- Department of Psychology, Koç University, 34450 Sarıyer/Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
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3
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Shaw HL, Scheel MH. Prescriptions from history: A case for replications that control for leading. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2353] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Heidi L. Shaw
- Social Sciences Department Yakima Valley College Yakima Washington USA
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4
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Singh L, Phneah KT, Wijayaratne DC, Lee K, Quinn PC. Effects of interracial experience on the race preferences of infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2022; 216:105352. [PMID: 35033787 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Revised: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 12/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Over their first year of life, infants express visual preferences for own- versus other-race faces. This developmental transition has primarily been investigated in monoracial societies where infants have limited personal or societal contact with other races. We investigated whether previously reported visual preferences for race generalize to a multiracial society (i.e., Singapore). In addition, we investigated effects of caregiver race on visual preferences for race. In Experiment 1, race preferences were measured at 3, 6, and 9 months of age for own-race (Chinese) versus other-race (Indian) faces in infants with no regular interaction with Indian-race individuals. Singaporean infants displayed a significant visual preference for Indian-race faces at each age group. Furthermore, infants raised with other-race caregivers demonstrated an age-related increase in other-race visual preferences. The visual preferences of infants for other-race faces were predicted by the extent of other-race contact. In Experiment 2, we confirmed that an other-race visual preference was not exclusive to Indian faces in a sample of 6-month-old Singaporean Chinese infants who demonstrated a similar other-race visual preference for Caucasian faces over Chinese faces. Findings are discussed in terms of the influence of other-race contact on visual preferences for race in infants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore.
| | - Kai Ting Phneah
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Devni C Wijayaratne
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Kang Lee
- Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
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5
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Kalashnikova M, Carreiras M. Input quality and speech perception development in bilingual infants' first year of life. Child Dev 2021; 93:e32-e46. [PMID: 34668192 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Individual differences in infants' native phonological development have been linked to the quantity and quality of infant-directed speech (IDS). The effects of parental and infant bilingualism on this relation in 131 five- and nine-month-old monolingual and bilingual Spanish and Basque infants (72 male; 59 female; from white middle-class background) were investigated. Bilingualism did not affect the developmental trajectory of infants' native and non-native speech perception and the quality of maternal speech. In both language groups, vowel exaggeration in IDS was significantly related to speech perception skills for 9-month-olds (r = -.30), but not for 5-month-olds. This demonstrates that bilingual and monolingual caregivers provide their infants with speech input that assists their task of learning the phonological inventory of one or two languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Kalashnikova
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.,IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation of Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Manuel Carreiras
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.,IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation of Science, Bilbao, Spain.,University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Leioa, Spain
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6
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Fecher N, Johnson EK. Revisiting the talker recognition advantage in bilingual infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 214:105276. [PMID: 34507181 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2020] [Revised: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Recent work has shown that exposure to multiple languages affects nonlinguistic processing of speech during infancy. Specifically, Fecher and Johnson found that bilingual 9-month-olds outperformed their monolingual peers in a face-voice matching task in an unfamiliar language [Developmental Science (2019a), 22(4), e12778]. What factors were driving this effect? That is, was this finding truly reflective of a bilingual advantage specific to talker processing, or did the study demonstrate a general cognitive advantage in bilingual infants? Here, we revisited this question by testing bilingual and monolingual 9-month-olds (N = 48) on their ability to associate previously unknown voices with animated cartoon characters. In comparison with earlier work, where infants were presented with characters speaking an unfamiliar language (Spanish), the characters in this study spoke a language familiar to both groups of infants (English). Critically, we found that the monolingual and bilingual infants learned the face-voice pairings equally well when they were tested on the familiar language. We conclude that whereas bilingual infants are skilled at recognizing talkers regardless of the language spoken by the talkers, monolingual infants succeed at talker recognition in a familiar language only. These results begin to clarify the underlying nature of the talker recognition benefit previously reported for bilingual infants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Fecher
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6, Canada
| | - Elizabeth K Johnson
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1C6, Canada.
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7
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D'Souza D, D'Souza H. Bilingual adaptations in early development. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:727-729. [PMID: 34380045 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Revised: 06/06/2021] [Accepted: 06/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Infants raised in bilingual homes redirect attention faster than infants raised in monolingual homes. How can mere exposure to a bilingual environment affect an infant's cognitive development? The more complex language environment may drive infants to explore (gather more information from) their visual environment to facilitate learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dean D'Souza
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK.
| | - Hana D'Souza
- Department of Psychology & Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
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8
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Graf Estes K, Antovich DM, Verde EL. Selectivity in bilingual nonspeech label learning. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2021; 48:634-644. [PMID: 32967741 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000920000550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
This research investigates selectivity in word learning for bilingual infants. Previous work demonstrated that bilingual infants show greater openness to non-native language sounds in object labels than monolinguals (Hay et al., 2015; Singh, 2018). It remains unclear whether bilingual openness extends to nonspeech sounds. We presented 14- and 19-month-old bilinguals with object labels consisting of nonspeech tones. Monolinguals recently displayed learning of the same labels at 14 months, but not 19 months (Graf Estes et al., 2018). In contrast, bilinguals failed to learn the labels. We propose that hearing phonological variation across two languages helps bilinguals reject nonspeech word forms.
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9
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Singh L. Evidence for an Early Novelty Orientation in Bilingual Learners. CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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10
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Chen H, LabertoniÈre D, Cheung H, Nazzi T. Infant learning of words in a typologically distant nonnative language. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2020; 47:1276-1287. [PMID: 32370813 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000920000161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Infants attune to their native language during the first two years of life, as attested by decreases in the processing of nonnative phonological sounds and reductions in the range of possible sounds accepted as labels for native words. The present study shows that French-learning infants aged 1;8 can learn new words in an unfamiliar language, Cantonese, after just 6 repetitions of each word. This shows that word learning in a nonnative language remains possible during the second year of life even in a nonnative language that is typologically distinct from the native language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Chen
- CNRS, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, Paris, France
- Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
| | - Dahliane LabertoniÈre
- CNRS, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, Paris, France
- Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
| | | | - Thierry Nazzi
- CNRS, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, Paris, France
- Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
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11
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Singh L, Tan ARY, Lee K, Quinn PC. Sensitivity to race in language comprehension in monolingual and bilingual infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 199:104933. [PMID: 32731045 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2020] [Revised: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 06/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Past studies suggest that monolingual and bilingual infants respond differently to race information in face discrimination and social learning tasks. In particular, bilingual infants have been shown to respond more similarly to own- and other-race individuals, in contrast to monolingual infants, who respond preferentially to own-race individuals. In the current study, we investigated monolingual and bilingual sensitivity to speaker race in spoken word recognition. Two-year-old infants were presented with spoken words in association with visual targets. Words were presented in association with own- or other-race actors and were either correctly pronounced or mispronounced. Measuring speech-responsive eye movements to visual targets, we analyzed fixation to visual targets for correct and mispronounced words in relation to speaker race for each group. When presented with own-race speakers, both monolingual and bilingual infants associated correctly pronounced labels, but not mispronounced labels, with visual targets. When presented with other-race speakers, bilingual infants responded similarly. In contrast, monolingual infants did not fixate visual targets regardless of whether words were correctly pronounced or mispronounced by an other-race speaker. Results are discussed in terms of the sensitivities of bilingual and monolingual infants to novelty, learned associations between race and language, and prior social experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore.
| | - Annabel R Y Tan
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Kang Lee
- Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
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12
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Morett LM. The Influence of Tonal and Atonal Bilingualism on Children's Lexical and Non-Lexical Tone Perception. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2020; 63:221-241. [PMID: 30859898 DOI: 10.1177/0023830919834679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
This study examined how bilingualism in an atonal language, in addition to a tonal language, influences lexical and non-lexical tone perception and word learning during childhood. Forty children aged 5;3-7;2, bilingual either in English and Mandarin or English and another atonal language, were tested on Mandarin lexical tone discrimination, level-pitch sine-wave tone discrimination, and learning of novel words differing minimally in Mandarin lexical tone. Mandarin-English bilingual children discriminated between and learned novel words differing minimally in Mandarin lexical tone more accurately than their atonal-English bilingual peers. However, Mandarin-English and atonal-English bilingual children discriminated between level-pitch sine-wave tones with similar accuracy. Moreover, atonal-English bilingual children showed a tendency to perceive differing Mandarin lexical and level-pitch sine-wave tones as identical, whereas their Mandarin-English peers showed no such tendency. These results indicate that bilingualism in a tonal language in addition to an atonal language-but not bilingualism in two atonal languages-allows for continued sensitivity to lexical tone beyond infancy. Moreover, they suggest that although tonal-atonal bilingualism does not enhance sensitivity to differences in pitch between sine-wave tones beyond infancy any more effectively than atonal-atonal bilingualism, it protects against the development of biases to perceive differing lexical and non-lexical tones as identical. Together, the results indicate that, beyond infancy, tonal-atonal bilinguals process lexical tones using different cognitive mechanisms than atonal-atonal bilinguals, but that both groups process level-pitch non-lexical tone using the same cognitive mechanisms.
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13
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Barr R, Rusnak SN, Brito NH, Nugent C. Actions speak louder than words: Differences in memory flexibility between monolingual and bilingual 18-month-olds. Dev Sci 2019; 23:e12881. [PMID: 31206995 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2018] [Revised: 05/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Bilingual infants from 6- to 24-months of age are more likely to generalize, flexibly reproducing actions on novel objects significantly more often than age-matched monolingual infants are. In the current study, we examine whether the addition of novel verbal labels enhances memory generalization in a perceptually complex imitation task. We hypothesized that labels would provide an additional retrieval cue and aid memory generalization for bilingual infants. Specifically, we hypothesized that bilinguals might be more likely than monolinguals to map multiple perceptual features onto a novel label and therefore show enhanced generalization. Eighty-seven 18-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions or a baseline control condition. In the experimental conditions, either no label or a novel label was added during demonstration and again at the beginning of the test session. After a 24-hr delay, infants were tested with the same stimulus set to test cued recall and with a perceptually different but functionally equivalent stimulus set to test memory generalization. Bilinguals performed significantly above baseline on both cued recall and memory generalization in both experimental conditions, whereas monolinguals performed significantly above baseline only on cued recall in both experimental conditions. These findings show a difference between monolinguals and bilinguals in memory generalization and suggest that generalization differences between groups may arise from visual perceptual processing rather than linguistic processing. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/yXB4pM3fF2k.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel Barr
- Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia
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14
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Mugitani R, Kobayashi T, Hayashi A, Fais L. The Use of Pitch Accent in Word-Object Association by Monolingual Japanese Infants. INFANCY 2019; 24:318-337. [PMID: 32677192 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2017] [Revised: 10/26/2018] [Accepted: 12/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated the lexical use of Japanese pitch accent in Japanese-learning infants. A word-object association task revealed that 18-month-old infants succeeded in learning the associations between two nonsense objects paired with two nonsense words minimally distinguished by pitch pattern (Experiment 1). In contrast, 14-month-old infants failed (Experiment 2). Eighteen-month-old infants succeeded even for sounds that contained only the prosodic information (Experiment 3). However, a subsequent experiment revealed that 14-month-old infants succeeded in an easier single word-object task using pitch contrast (Experiment 4). These findings indicate that pitch pattern information is robustly available to 18-month-old Japanese monolingual infants in a minimal pair word-learning situation, but only partially accessible in the same context for 14-month-old infants.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Akiko Hayashi
- Center for the Research and Support of Educational Practice, Tokyo Gakugei University
| | - Laurel Fais
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
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15
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Sibling experience prevents neural tuning to adult faces in 10-month-old infants. Neuropsychologia 2019; 129:72-82. [PMID: 30922829 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 03/07/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Early facial experience provided by the infant's social environment is known to shape face processing abilities, which narrow during the first year of life towards adult human faces of the most frequently encountered ethnic groups. Here we explored the hypothesis that natural variability in facial input may delay neural commitment to face processing by testing the impact of early natural experience with siblings on infants' brain responses. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) evoked by upright and inverted adult and child faces were compared in two groups of 10-month-old infants with (N = 21) and without (N = 22) a child sibling. In first-born infants, P1 ERP component showed specificity to upright adult faces that carried over to the subsequent N290 and P400 components. In infants with siblings no inversion effects were observed. Results are discussed in the context of evidence from the language domain, showing that neural commitment to phonetic contrasts emerges later in bilinguals than in monolinguals, and that this delay facilitates subsequent learning of previously unencountered sounds of new languages.
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16
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Hayakawa S, Marian V. Consequences of multilingualism for neural architecture. Behav Brain Funct 2019; 15:6. [PMID: 30909931 PMCID: PMC6432751 DOI: 10.1186/s12993-019-0157-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2019] [Accepted: 03/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Language has the power to shape cognition, behavior, and even the form and function of the brain. Technological and scientific developments have recently yielded an increasingly diverse set of tools with which to study the way language changes neural structures and processes. Here, we review research investigating the consequences of multilingualism as revealed by brain imaging. A key feature of multilingual cognition is that two or more languages can become activated at the same time, requiring mechanisms to control interference. Consequently, extensive experience managing multiple languages can influence cognitive processes as well as their neural correlates. We begin with a brief discussion of how bilinguals activate language, and of the brain regions implicated in resolving language conflict. We then review evidence for the pervasive impact of bilingual experience on the function and structure of neural networks that support linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive control, speech processing and production, and language learning. We conclude that even seemingly distinct effects of language on cognitive operations likely arise from interdependent functions, and that future work directly exploring the interactions between multiple levels of processing could offer a more comprehensive view of how language molds the mind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sayuri Hayakawa
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Viorica Marian
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
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17
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Singh L, Quinn PC, Xiao NG, Lee K. Monolingual but not bilingual infants demonstrate racial bias in social cue use. Dev Sci 2019; 22:e12809. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2018] [Revised: 02/01/2019] [Accepted: 02/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology National University of Singapore Singapore
| | - Paul C. Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences University of Delaware Newark Delaware
| | - Naiqi G. Xiao
- Department of Psychology Princeton University Princeton New Jersey
| | - Kang Lee
- Department of Psychology University of Toronto Toronto ON Canada
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18
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Estes KG, Antovich DM, Hay JF. Intersecting Constraints on Label Learning: Effects of Age, Label Properties, and Referential Context. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2018; 19:532-551. [PMID: 31244555 PMCID: PMC6594696 DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1523172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
This research investigates the development of constraints in word learning. Previous experiments have shown that as infants gain more knowledge of native language structure, they become more selective about the forms that they accept as labels. However, the developmental pattern exhibited depends greatly on the way that infants are introduced to the labels and tested. In a series of experiments, we examined how providing referential context in the form of familiar objects and familiar object names affects how infants learn labels that they would otherwise reject, nonspeech sounds. We found evidence of the development of intersecting constraints: Younger infants (14-month-olds) were more open to learning nonspeech tone labels than older infants (19-month-olds), and younger infants were more open to the influence of referential context. These findings suggest that infants form expectations about labels and labeling contexts as they become more sophisticated learners.
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19
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Singh L, Fu CSL, Seet XH, Tong APY, Wang JL, Best CT. Developmental change in tone perception in Mandarin monolingual, English monolingual, and Mandarin-English bilingual infants: Divergences between monolingual and bilingual learners. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 173:59-77. [PMID: 29677553 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2017] [Revised: 03/20/2018] [Accepted: 03/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Most languages use lexical tone to discriminate the meanings of words. There has been recent interest in tracking the development of tone categories during infancy. These studies have focused largely on monolingual infants learning either a tone language or a non-tone language. It remains to be seen how bilingual infants learning one tone language (e.g., Mandarin) and one non-tone language (e.g., English) discriminate tones. Here, we examined infants' discrimination of two Mandarin tones pairs: one salient and one subtle. Discrimination was investigated in three groups: Mandarin-English bilinguals, English monolinguals, and Mandarin monolinguals at 6 months and 9 months of age in a cross-sectional design. Results demonstrated relatively strong Mandarin tone discrimination in Mandarin monolinguals, with salient tone discrimination at 6 months and both salient and subtle tone discrimination at 9 months. English monolinguals discriminated neither contrast at 6 months but discriminated the salient contrast at 9 months. Surprisingly, there was no evidence for tone discrimination in Mandarin-English bilingual infants. In a second experiment, 12- and 13-month-old Mandarin-English bilingual and English monolingual infants were tested to determine whether bilinguals would demonstrate tone sensitivity at a later age. Results revealed a lack of tone sensitivity at 12 or 13 months in bilingual infants, yet English monolingual infants were sensitive to both salient and subtle Mandarin tone contrasts at 12 or 13 months. Our findings provide evidence for age-related convergence in Mandarin tone discrimination in English and Mandarin monolingual infants and for a distinct pattern of tone discrimination in bilingual infants. Theoretical implications for phonetic category acquisition are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore.
| | - Charlene S L Fu
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Xian Hui Seet
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Ashley P Y Tong
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Joelle L Wang
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570, Singapore
| | - Catherine T Best
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
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20
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Liu L, Ong JH, Tuninetti A, Escudero P. One Way or Another: Evidence for Perceptual Asymmetry in Pre-attentive Learning of Non-native Contrasts. Front Psychol 2018; 9:162. [PMID: 29615941 PMCID: PMC5869940 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2017] [Accepted: 01/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Research investigating listeners' neural sensitivity to speech sounds has largely focused on segmental features. We examined Australian English listeners' perception and learning of a supra-segmental feature, pitch direction in a non-native tonal contrast, using a passive oddball paradigm and electroencephalography. The stimuli were two contours generated from naturally produced high-level and high-falling tones in Mandarin Chinese, differing only in pitch direction (Liu and Kager, 2014). While both contours had similar pitch onsets, the pitch offset of the falling contour was lower than that of the level one. The contrast was presented in two orientations (standard and deviant reversed) and tested in two blocks with the order of block presentation counterbalanced. Mismatch negativity (MMN) responses showed that listeners discriminated the non-native tonal contrast only in the second block, reflecting indications of learning through exposure during the first block. In addition, listeners showed a later MMN peak for their second block of test relative to listeners who did the same block first, suggesting linguistic (as opposed to acoustic) processing or a misapplication of perceptual strategies from the first to the second block. The results also showed a perceptual asymmetry for change in pitch direction: listeners who encountered a falling tone deviant in the first block had larger frontal MMN amplitudes than listeners who encountered a level tone deviant in the first block. The implications of our findings for second language speech and the developmental trajectory for tone perception are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liquan Liu
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Jia Hoong Ong
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Alba Tuninetti
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Paola Escudero
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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21
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Liu L, Kager R. Monolingual and Bilingual Infants' Ability to Use Non-native Tone for Word Learning Deteriorates by the Second Year After Birth. Front Psychol 2018; 9:117. [PMID: 29599730 PMCID: PMC5862817 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2017] [Accepted: 01/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies reported a non-native word learning advantage for bilingual infants at around 18 months. We investigated developmental changes in infant interpretation of sounds that aid in object mapping. Dutch monolingual and bilingual (exposed to Dutch and a second non-tone-language) infants' word learning ability was examined on two novel label-object pairings using syllables differing in Mandarin tones as labels (flat vs. falling). Infants aged 14-15 months, regardless of language backgrounds, were sensitive to violations in the label-objects pairings when lexical tones were switched compared to when they were the same as habituated. Conversely at 17-18 months, neither monolingual nor bilingual infants demonstrated learning. Linking with existing literature, infants' ability to associate non-native tones with meanings may be related to tonal acoustic properties and/or perceptual assimilation to native prosodic categories. These findings provide new insights into the relation between infant tone perception, learning, and interpretative narrowing from a developmental perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liquan Liu
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Utrecht Institute of Linguistics-OTS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - René Kager
- Utrecht Institute of Linguistics-OTS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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22
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Burnham D, Singh L, Mattock K, Woo PJ, Kalashnikova M. Constraints on Tone Sensitivity in Novel Word Learning by Monolingual and Bilingual Infants: Tone Properties Are More Influential than Tone Familiarity. Front Psychol 2018; 8:2190. [PMID: 29354077 PMCID: PMC5759195 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2017] [Accepted: 12/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This study compared tone sensitivity in monolingual and bilingual infants in a novel word learning task. Tone language learning infants (Experiment 1, Mandarin monolingual; Experiment 2, Mandarin-English bilingual) were tested with Mandarin (native) or Thai (non-native) lexical tone pairs which contrasted static vs. dynamic (high vs. rising) tones or dynamic vs. dynamic (rising vs. falling) tones. Non-tone language, English-learning infants (Experiment 3) were tested on English intonational contrasts or the Mandarin or Thai tone contrasts. Monolingual Mandarin language infants were able to bind tones to novel words for the Mandarin High-Rising contrast, but not for the Mandarin Rising-Falling contrast; and they were insensitive to both the High-Rising and the Rising-Falling tone contrasts in Thai. Bilingual English-Mandarin infants were similar to the Mandarin monolinguals in that they were sensitive to the Mandarin High-Rising contrast and not to the Mandarin Rising-Falling contrast. However, unlike the Mandarin monolinguals, they were also sensitive to the High Rising contrast in Thai. Monolingual English learning infants were insensitive to all three types of contrasts (Mandarin, Thai, English), although they did respond differentially to tone-bearing vs. intonation-marked words. Findings suggest that infants' sensitivity to tones in word learning contexts depends heavily on tone properties, and that this influence is, in some cases, stronger than effects of language familiarity. Moreover, bilingual infants demonstrated greater phonological flexibility in tone interpretation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denis Burnham
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Karen Mattock
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Pei J Woo
- Department of Psychology, Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Marina Kalashnikova
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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23
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Singh L, Loh D, Xiao NG. Bilingual Infants Demonstrate Perceptual Flexibility in Phoneme Discrimination but Perceptual Constraint in Face Discrimination. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1563. [PMID: 28955278 PMCID: PMC5601050 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2017] [Accepted: 08/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceptual narrowing is a highly significant development associated with the first year of life. It conventionally refers to an orientation toward nativeness whereby infant's perceptual sensitivities begin to align with the phonetic properties of their native environment. Nativeness effects, such as perceptual narrowing, have been observed in several domains, most notably, in face discrimination within other-race faces and speech discrimination of non-native phonemes. Thus, far, nativeness effects in the face and speech perception have been theoretically linked, but have mostly been investigated independently. An important caveat to nativeness effects is that diversifying experiences, such as bilingualism or multiracial exposure, can lead to a reduction or postponement in attunement to the native environment. The present study was designed to investigate whether bilingualism influences nativeness effects in phonetic and face perception. Eleven-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants were tested on their abilities to discriminate native and non-native speech contrasts as well as own-race and other-race face contrasts. While monolingual infants demonstrated nativeness effects in face and speech perception, bilingual infants demonstrated nativeness effects in the face perception but demonstrated flexibility in speech perception. Results support domain-specific effects of bilingual experience on nativeness effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of SingaporeSingapore, Singapore
| | - Darrell Loh
- Department of Psychology, National University of SingaporeSingapore, Singapore
| | - Naiqi G. Xiao
- Department of Psychology, Princeton UniversityPrinceton, NJ, United States
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