White Katherine S, Yee Eiling, Blumstein Sheila E, Morgan James L
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada.
J Mem Lang. 2013 May 1;68(4):362-378. doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2013.01.003.
Young word learners fail to discriminate phonetic contrasts in certain situations, an observation that has been used to support arguments that the nature of lexical representation and lexical processing changes over development. An alternative possibility, however, is that these failures arise naturally as a result of how word familiarity affects lexical processing. In the present work, we explored the effects of word familiarity on adults' use of phonetic detail. Participants' eye movements were monitored as they heard single-segment onset mispronunciations of words drawn from a newly learned artificial lexicon. In Experiment 1, single-feature onset mispronunciations were presented; in Experiment 2, participants heard two-feature onset mispronunciations. Word familiarity was manipulated in both experiments by presenting words with various frequencies during training. Both word familiarity and degree of mismatch affected adults' use of phonetic detail: in their looking behavior, participants did not reliably differentiate single-feature mispronunciations and correct pronunciations of low frequency words. For higher frequency words, participants differentiated both 1- and 2-feature mispronunciations from correct pronunciations. However, responses were graded such that 2-feature mispronunciations had a greater effect on looking behavior. These experiments demonstrate that the use of phonetic detail in adults, as in young children, is affected by word familiarity. Parallels between the two populations suggest continuity in the architecture underlying lexical representation and processing throughout development.
年幼的词汇学习者在某些情况下无法区分语音对比，这一观察结果被用来支持有关词汇表征和词汇加工的性质随发展而变化的观点。然而，另一种可能性是，这些失败是由于单词熟悉度对词汇加工的影响而自然产生的。在本研究中，我们探讨了单词熟悉度对成年人语音细节运用的影响。当参与者听到从新学的人工词汇表中选取的单词的单音节起始发音错误时，我们监测了他们的眼动情况。在实验1中，呈现单特征起始发音错误；在实验2中，参与者听到双特征起始发音错误。在两个实验中，通过在训练期间呈现不同频率的单词来操纵单词熟悉度。单词熟悉度和不匹配程度都影响成年人对语音细节的运用：在他们的注视行为中，参与者不能可靠地区分低频单词的单特征发音错误和正确发音。对于高频单词，参与者能够区分单特征和双特征发音错误与正确发音。然而，反应是分级的，使得双特征发音错误对注视行为有更大的影响。这些实验表明，成年人对语音细节的运用，如同幼儿一样，受到单词熟悉度的影响。这两个人群之间的相似之处表明，在整个发展过程中，词汇表征和加工的底层结构具有连续性。
