Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada M3J 1P3.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2014 Jan;7:1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2013.10.005. Epub 2013 Nov 2.
Event-related potential (ERP) evidence demonstrates that preschool-aged children selectively attend to informative moments such as word onsets during speech perception. Although this observation indicates a role for attention in language processing, it is unclear whether this type of attention is part of basic speech perception mechanisms, higher-level language skills, or general cognitive abilities. The current study examined these possibilities by measuring ERPs from 5-year-old children listening to a narrative containing attention probes presented before, during, and after word onsets as well as at random control times. Children also completed behavioral tests assessing verbal and nonverbal skills. Probes presented after word onsets elicited a more negative ERP response beginning around 100 ms after probe onset than control probes, indicating increased attention to word-initial segments. Crucially, the magnitude of this difference was correlated with performance on verbal tasks, but showed no relationship to nonverbal measures. More specifically, ERP attention effects were most strongly correlated with performance on a complex metalinguistic task involving grammaticality judgments. These results demonstrate that effective allocation of attention during speech perception supports higher-level, controlled language processing in children by allowing them to focus on relevant information at individual word and complex sentence levels.
事件相关电位（ERP）证据表明，学龄前儿童在言语感知过程中会选择性地关注信息丰富的时刻，如语音起始。尽管这一观察表明注意在语言处理中起作用，但尚不清楚这种注意是基本言语感知机制的一部分，还是高级语言技能或一般认知能力的一部分。本研究通过测量 5 岁儿童在听故事时的 ERP，来检验这些可能性，故事中包含在词起始之前、期间和之后以及随机控制时间点呈现的注意探针。儿童还完成了评估言语和非言语技能的行为测试。与控制探针相比，在词起始后呈现的探针在探针起始后约 100 毫秒时引发了更负的 ERP 反应，表明对词起始部分的注意力增加。至关重要的是，这种差异的大小与言语任务的表现相关，但与非言语测量无关。更具体地说，ERP 注意效应与涉及语法判断的复杂元语言任务的表现最密切相关。这些结果表明，在言语感知过程中有效分配注意力可以支持儿童更高层次的、受控制的语言处理，使他们能够在单个词和复杂句子层面上专注于相关信息。
