Linguistic experience affects phonetic perception. However, the critical period during which experience affects perception and the mechanism responsible for these effects are unknown. This study of 6-month-old infants from two countries, the United States and Sweden, shows that exposure to a specific language in the first half year of life alters infants' phonetic perception.

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Measurements of formant frequencies and duration are reported for 8 Swedish vowels uttered by a male talker in three consonantal environments under varying timing conditions. An exponential function is used to describe the extent to which formant frequencies in the vowels reach their target values as a function of vowel-segment duration. A target is specified by the asymptotic values of the first two formant frequencies of the vowel and is independent of consonantal context and duration. It is thus an invariant attribute of the vowel. The results suggest an interpretation in terms of a simple dynamic model of vowel articulation.