Learning in Complex Environments: The Effects of Background Speech on Early Word Learning

McMillan, Brianna T. M.; Saffran, Jenny R.

doi:10.1111/cdev.12559

Cited by 66 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…Baseline‐adjusting children's accuracy during the critical window would potentially correct for these initial differences. However, in contrast to prior research that has used baseline‐adjusted accuracy (e.g., McMillan & Saffran, ), our baseline differences in accuracy were intentional and therefore much larger. A baseline adjustment of this magnitude would be inappropriate for a bounded measure like accuracy (e.g., for a condition with 30% baseline accuracy, children have the potential to increase their accuracy by 70% during the critical window; for a condition with 50% baseline accuracy, however, children only have the potential to increase their accuracy by 50%).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Familiar Object Salience Affects Novel Word Learning

Pomper

Saffran

2018

Child Development

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Children use the presence of familiar objects with known names to identify the correct referents of novel words. In natural environments, objects vary widely in salience. The presence of familiar objects may sometimes hinder rather than help word learning. To test this hypothesis, 3-year-olds (N = 36) were shown novel objects paired with familiar objects that varied in their visual salience. When the novel objects were labeled, children were slower and less accurate at fixating them in the presence of highly salient familiar objects than in the presence of less salient familiar objects. They were also less successful in retaining these word-referent pairings. While familiar objects may facilitate novel word learning in ambiguous situations, the properties of familiar objects matter.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Familiar Object Salience Affects Novel Word Learning

Pomper

Saffran

2018

Child Development

Self Cite

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“…There has been growing interest in understanding the scalability of segmentation tasks to natural learning conditions (e.g. Frank, Tenenbaum, Gibson, & Snyder, 2013; Graf Estes & Lew-Williams, 2015; Lew-Williams & Saffran, 2012; Pelucchi, Hay, & Saffran, 2009), including investigations of how learners process speech with the presence of background noise (Fu & Nogaki, 2005; Mattys, 2004; McMillan & Saffran, 2016). While listeners in quiet conditions can exploit transition statistics and many of the cues listed above, listeners in noisy conditions and listeners with limited access to acoustic hearing are less able to recruit this suite of cues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Word segmentation from noise-band vocoded speech

Grieco-Calub

Simeon

Snyder

et al. 2017

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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Spectral degradation reduces access to the acoustics of spoken language and compromises how learners break into its structure. We hypothesised that spectral degradation disrupts word segmentation, but that listeners can exploit other cues to restore detection of words. Normal-hearing adults were familiarised to artificial speech that was unprocessed or spectrally degraded by noise-band vocoding into 16 or 8 spectral channels. The monotonic speech stream was pause-free (Experiment 1), interspersed with isolated words (Experiment 2), or slowed by 33% (Experiment 3). Participants were tested on segmentation of familiar vs. novel syllable sequences and on recognition of individual syllables. As expected, vocoding hindered both word segmentation and syllable recognition. The addition of isolated words, but not slowed speech, improved segmentation. We conclude that syllable recognition is necessary but not sufficient for successful word segmentation, and that isolated words can facilitate listeners’ access to the structure of acoustically degraded speech.

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“…Learning costs related to more pleasant background noise have also been shown, as instrumental music can impair learning from television among infants (Barr et al, 2010). Similarly, background speech can disrupt the acquisition of new labels: McMillan and Saffran (2016) found that toddlers struggled to learn new labels unless they were substantially louder than background speech. Although the cause of such difficulties in listening and learning when noise is present is uncertain, early maturation of the auditory system may implicate attentional difficulties (Erickson & Newman, 2017).…”

Section: Implications For Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights From Crossing Research Silos on Visual and Auditory Attention

Godwin

Erickson

Newman

2018

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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Many learning tasks that children encounter necessitate the ability to direct and sustain attention to key aspects of the environment while simultaneously tuning out irrelevant features. This is challenging for at least two reasons: (a) The ability to regulate and sustain attention follows a protracted developmental time course, and (b) children spend much of their time in environments not optimized for learning—homes and schools are often chaotic, cluttered, and noisy. Research on these issues is often siloed; that is, researchers tend to examine the relationship among attention, distraction, and learning in only the auditory or the visual domain, but not both together. We provide examples in which auditory and visual aspects of learning each have strong implications for the other. Research examining how visual information and auditory information are distracting can benefit from cross-fertilization. Integrating across research silos informs our understanding of attention and learning, yielding more efficacious guidance for caregivers, educators, developers, and policymakers.

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Learning in Complex Environments: The Effects of Background Speech on Early Word Learning

Cited by 66 publications

References 79 publications

Familiar Object Salience Affects Novel Word Learning

Familiar Object Salience Affects Novel Word Learning

Word segmentation from noise-band vocoded speech

Insights From Crossing Research Silos on Visual and Auditory Attention

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