Frequency and form as determinants of functor sensitivity in English-acquiring infants
Shi, Rushen (Creator), Université du Québec à Montréal (University of Quebec at Montreal) (Creator), Cutler, Anne (Creator), University of Western Sydney (Creator), Werker, Janet Feldman, 1951- (Creator), University of British Columbia (Creator), Cruickshank, Marisa (Creator), College of Arts (Creator), MARCS Auditory Laboratories (Creator)
High-frequency functors are arguably among the earliest perceived word forms and may assist extraction of initial vocabulary items. Canadian 11- and 8-month-olds were familiarized to pseudo-nouns following either a high-frequency functor the or a low-frequency functor her versus phonetically similar mispronunciations of each, kuh and ler, and then tested for recognition of the pseudo-nouns. A preceding the (but not kuh, her, ler) facilitated extraction of the pseudo-nouns for 11-month-olds; the is thus well-specified in form for these infants. However, both the and kuh (but not her-ler) facilitated segmentation for 8-month-olds, suggesting an initial underspecified representation of high-frequency functors
Downloadable Archival Material, English, 2006
U.S.A. Acoustical Society of America, 2006