Eimas P D
Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 1999 Mar;105(3):1901-11. doi: 10.1121/1.426726.
In a series of four experiments, the ability of 3- to 4-month-old infants to form categorical representations to syllable-initial consonants in monosyllabic stimuli (experiments 1 and 2) and to initial and final syllables in bisyllabic stimuli (experiments 3 and 4, respectively) was investigated. Experiment 1 yielded no evidence of categorical representations for the initial consonant. However, the results indicated that the four or six stimuli presented during the initial phase of familiarization had been remembered. The results of experiment 2, which employed a less stringent familiarization criterion, replicated the findings of experiment 1, although there was some evidence for categorization for infants whose familiarization performance more closely matched the weaker criterion. In experiment 3, there was strong evidence for a categorical representation of the initial syllable of bisyllabic stimuli for infants experiencing six familiar stimuli. In experiment 4, there was less robust evidence of categorization of the final syllable of bisyllabic stimuli, but again only when six familiar stimuli were experienced. The results were discussed in terms of the earliest representation of speech being syllables that could be modified by the rhythmic nature of the infant's native language.
在一系列四项实验中，研究了3至4个月大的婴儿对单音节刺激中音节开头辅音（实验1和2）以及双音节刺激中开头和结尾音节（分别为实验3和4）形成类别表征的能力。实验1没有得出关于开头辅音类别表征的证据。然而，结果表明，在熟悉阶段初期呈现的四个或六个刺激被记住了。实验2采用了不太严格的熟悉标准，尽管对于熟悉表现更接近较弱标准的婴儿有一些分类证据，但复制了实验1的结果。在实验3中，有强有力的证据表明，经历六个熟悉刺激的婴儿对双音节刺激的开头音节有类别表征。在实验4中，双音节刺激结尾音节分类的证据不太有力，但同样仅在经历六个熟悉刺激时才出现。根据最早的语音表征是可以被婴儿母语的节奏性质修改的音节这一观点对结果进行了讨论。
