Perception of a phonetic contrast in multisyllabic utterances by 2-month-old infants

Jusczyk, Peter W.; Thompson, Elizabeth J.

doi:10.3758/bf03208289

Cited by 134 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Nor was it true that contrasts between unstressed syllables were less discriminable than those between stressed syllables. These results directly parallel those we observed for stop consonants in multisyllabic utterances (Jusczyk & Thompson, 1978).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…In neither instance was there any indication that stressed syllables were any more discriminable than unstressed ones. This finding parallels the one observed in our previous study with stop consonants in mul!isyllabic utterances (Jusczyk & Thompson, 1978).…”

Section: Apparatussupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Our results suggest the following: (1) 2-month-olds are sensitive to place-of-articulation differences between glides in both the initial and medial positions of multisyllabic utterances; (2) positioning stress on the syllables to be discriminated had little or no effect on the infants' ability to perceive the contrast; (3) there was no indication that infants were any more sensitive to the contrast in the initial position than in the medial position. Our findings were in complete agreement with those observed previously for infant's perception of stop consonant differences in multisyllabic utterances (Jusczyk & Thompson, 1978).…”

supporting

confidence: 93%

“…Nevertheless, the role which stress may play in infant speech perception is still largely unexplored. While a number of investigators have shown that infants can detect differences in stress placements (e.g., Jusczyk & Thompson, 1978;Spring & Dale, 1977), Jusczyk and Thompson (1978) did not find an interaction between stress placement and the discrimination of stop consonants. However, it is possible that the rather abrupt onsets of stops are sufficient in themselves to mark these sounds quite prominently in the speech stream.…”

mentioning

confidence: 76%

“…There is evidence with respect to single-syllable utterances that infants can discriminate syllable-final contrasts between stops Jusczyk, 1977) and between certain fricatives . Similarly, investigations with multisyllabic stimuli generally have shown infants to be capable of detecting certain stop consonant contrasts occurring in the medial as well as initial position of the utterance (Jusczyk & Thompson, 1978;Trehub, Note 5;Williams, Note 6).1 For instance, Jusczyk and Thompson (1978) found that place-of-articulation contrasts were distinguished as readily in medial position as they were in initial position. Moreover, contrasts between unstressed syllables were no more difficult tor infants than those between stressed syllables.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Perception by 2-month-old infants of glide contrasts in multisyllabic utterances

Jusczyk

Copan

Thompson

1978

Perception & Psychophysics

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Apparatussupporting

confidence: 92%

supporting

confidence: 93%

mentioning

confidence: 76%

mentioning

confidence: 98%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Perception by 2-month-old infants of glide contrasts in multisyllabic utterances

Jusczyk

Copan

Thompson

1978

Perception & Psychophysics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neonatal perception of the rhythmical structure of speech: the role of stress patterns

Sansavini

1997

Early Dev. Parent.

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This paper approaches the problem of newborns' segmentation of speech into units, taking into account the language-specificity of phonological units and prosodic elements. Current hypotheses are discussed and a rhythmical hypothesis is proposed according to which newborns have a predisposition to pay attention to the rhythm of speech. At the words' level, they would perceive the rhythm of words, as characterized by the binary and ternary alternations of stressed±unstressed syllables/vowels (stress patterns) and, in some languages, by the alternation of rising± falling pitches (pitch patterns). Empirical evidence in favour of this hypothesis is provided. The methodology used to study infants' speech perception is also considered. Furthermore, a discussion is opened about the processing of stress patterns and vowels in words and about the development in the use of the mother tongue's stress patterns for speech segmentation, phonetic discrimination and foreign language discrimination. '1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: newborns; rhythm; stress; vowels; speech perception and segmentation; high amplitude sucking procedure A central question in the study of language acquisition is how infants start to retrieve units from continuous speech. To acquire the lexicon and the syntax of the language it is necessary first to identify units in speech, i.e., clauses, phrases, words. Pauses often separate clauses, but less regularly phrases and words. Therefore, speech segmentation is not a trivial task particularly for very young infants who, at least until the end of the first year of life, cannot use semantic and syntactic cues to retrieve speech units . This paper discusses first the state of the art about theories on infant segmentation of speech. Then, it presents evidence in favour of a hypothesis according to which speech segmentation starts by processing the prosody of speech and discusses also the methodology inherent to studies on infants' speech perception. Finally, it makes some proposals for further research on the use and development of mother-tongue stress patterns.

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Speech Perception

Jusczyk

Luce

2002

Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology

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The scientific study of the perception of spoken language has been a productive area of research for over fifty years. During this period, we have learned much about infants' and adults' remarkable capacities for perceiving and understanding the sounds of their language. We present a selective review of the past half century of research on speech perception, focusing on three principle topics: early work on the discrimination and categorization of speech sounds, more recent efforts to understand the processes and representations responsible for spoken word recognition, and research on how infants acquire the capacity to perceive their native language. Our intent is to provide the reader with a sense of the progress our field has made over the last half century in understanding the human's extraordinary capacity for the perception of spoken language.

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Perception of a phonetic contrast in multisyllabic utterances by 2-month-old infants

Cited by 134 publications

References 12 publications

Perception by 2-month-old infants of glide contrasts in multisyllabic utterances

Perception by 2-month-old infants of glide contrasts in multisyllabic utterances

Neonatal perception of the rhythmical structure of speech: the role of stress patterns

Speech Perception

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