Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T22:55:47.100Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Selectivity in bilingual nonspeech label learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Katharine GRAF ESTES ,
Dylan M. ANTOVICH  and
Erica L. VERDE
Katharine GRAF ESTES*
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, USA
Dylan M. ANTOVICH
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, USA
Erica L. VERDE
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Katharine Graf Estes 1 Shields Ave. Davis, CA95618USA, 530-297-4498. E-mail: kgrafestes@ucdavis.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Keywords

language acquisitioninfancybilingualismword learningphonological developmentperceptual narrowing
Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 634 - 644
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akhtar, N., & Menjivar, J. A. (2012). Cognitive and linguistic correlates of early exposure to more than one language. In Benson, J. B. (Ed.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior (Vol. 42, pp. 41–78). Oxford: Elsevier Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ash, R., Crook, J., Dannenberg, R., Drung, B., Johnson, V., Lucius, L., . . . Zuraw, K. (2014). Audacity: Free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds (Version 2.0.6). Available from https://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/.Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2010). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 5.1.25). Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Byers-Heinlein, K., Chen, K. H., & Xu, F. (2014). Surmounting the Tower of Babel: Monolingual and bilingual 2-year-olds’ understanding of the nature of foreign language words. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 119, 87–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, A. L., & Namy, L. L. (2003). The role of social-referential context in verbal and nonverbal symbol learning. Child Development, 74(2), 549–563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curtin, S., Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2011). Bilingual beginnings as a lens for theory development: PRIMIR in focus. Journal of Phonetics, 39(4), 492–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graf Estes, K., Antovich, D. M., & Hay, J. F. (2018). Intersecting constraints on label learning: Effects of age, label properties, and referential context. Journal of Cognition and Development, 19(5), 532–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graf Estes, K., Evans, J. L., Alibali, M. W., & Saffran, J. R. (2007). Can infants map meaning to newly segmented words?: Statistical segmentation and word learning. Psychological Science, 18(3), 254–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graf Estes, K., & Hay, J. F. (2015). Flexibility in bilingual infants' word learning. Child Development, 86(5), 1371–1385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, J. F., Graf Estes, K., Wang, T., & Saffran, J. R. (2015). From flexibility to constraint: The contrastive use of lexical tone in early word learning. Child Development, 86(1), 10–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hay, J. F., Pelucchi, B., Graf Estes, K., & Saffran, J. R. (2011). Linking sounds to meanings: Infant statistical learning in a natural language. Cognitive Psychology, 63, 93–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liberman, Z., Woodward, A. L., Keysar, B., & Kinzler, K. D. (2017). Exposure to multiple languages enhances communication skills in infancy. Developmental Science, 20(1), e12420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKenzie, H. K., Curtin, S., & Graham, S. A. (2012a). 12-month-olds' phonotactic knowledge guides their word–object mappings. Child Development, 83(4), 1129–1136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, H. K., Curtin, S., & Graham, S. A. (2012b). Class matters: 12-month-olds’ word-object associations privilege content over function words. Developmental Science, 15(6), 753–761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, H. K., Graham, S. A., & Curtin, S. (2011). Twelve-month-olds privilege words over other linguistic sounds in an associative learning task. Developmental Science, 14(2), 249–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, H. K., Graham, S. A., Curtin, S., & Archer, S. L. (2014). The flexibility of 12-month-olds' preferences for phonologically appropriate object labels. Developmental Psychology, 50(2), 422–430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maurer, D. M., & Werker, J. F. (2014). Perceptual narrowing during infancy: A comparison of language and faces. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(2), 154–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
May, L., & Werker, J. F. (2014). Can a click be a word?: Infants' learning of non-native words. Infancy, 19(3), 281–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Namy, L. L., & Waxman, S. R. (1998). Words and gestures: Infants' interpretations of different forms of symbolic reference. Child Development, 69(2), 295–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oakes, L. M., Sperka, D. J., & Cantrell, L. (2019). Habit2: A stand-alone software solution for presenting stimuli and recording infant looking times in order to study infant development. Behavior Research Methods, 51(5), 1943–1952.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rouder, J. N., Speckman, P. L., Sun, D., Morey, R. D., & Iverson, G. (2009). Bayesian t tests for accepting and rejecting the null hypothesis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(2), 225–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, L. (2018). Bilingual infants demonstrate advantages in learning words in a third language. Child Development, 89(4), e397–e413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, L., Hui, T. J., Chan, C., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2014). Influences of vowel and tone variation on emergent word knowledge: a cross-linguistic investigation. Developmental Science, 17(1), 94–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thiessen, E. D. (2007). The effect of distributional information on children's use of phonemic contrasts. Journal of Memory and Language, 56(1), 16–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thom, E. E., & Sandhofer, C. M. (2014). How symbolic experience shapes children's symbolic flexibility. Child development, 85(2), 738–754.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vukatana, E., Curtin, S., & Graham, S. A. (2016). Infants' acceptance of phonotactically illegal word forms as object labels. Journal of Child Language, 43(6), 1400–1411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wagenmakers, E.-J., Marsman, M., Jamil, T., Ly, A., Verhagen, J., Love, J., Selker, R., Gronau, Q. F., Šmíra, M., Epskamp, S., Matzke, D., Rouder, J. N., & Morey, R. D. (2018). Bayesian inference for psychology. Part I: Theoretical advantages and practical ramifications. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(1), 35–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, J. F., Cohen, L. B., Lloyd, V. L., Casasola, M., & Stager, C. L. (1998). Acquisition of word-object associations by 14-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 34(6), 1289–1309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werker, J. F., & Curtin, S. (2005). PRIMIR: A developmental framework of infant speech processing. Language Learning and Development, 1(2), 197–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar