Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Dev Sci. 2019 Jan;22(1):e12700. doi: 10.1111/desc.12700. Epub 2018 Jun 27.
Infants' ability to learn complex linguistic regularities from early on has been revealed by electrophysiological studies indicating that 3-month-olds, but not adults, can automatically detect non-adjacent dependencies between syllables. While different ERP responses in adults and infants suggest that both linguistic rule learning and its link to basic auditory processing undergo developmental changes, systematic investigations of the developmental trajectories are scarce. In the present study, we assessed 2- and 4-year-olds' ERP indicators of pitch discrimination and linguistic rule learning in a syllable-based oddball design. To test for the relation between auditory discrimination and rule learning, ERP responses to pitch changes were used as predictor for potential linguistic rule-learning effects. Results revealed that 2-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, showed ERP markers of rule learning. Although, 2-year-olds' rule learning was not dependent on differences in pitch perception, 4-year-old children demonstrated a dependency, such that those children who showed more pronounced responses to pitch changes still showed an effect of rule learning. These results narrow down the developmental decline of the ability for automatic linguistic rule learning to the age between 2 and 4 years, and, moreover, point towards a strong modification of this change by auditory processes. At an age when the ability of automatic linguistic rule learning phases out, rule learning can still be observed in children with enhanced auditory responses. The observed interrelations are plausible causes for age-of-acquisition effects and inter-individual differences in language learning.
婴儿从早期就能学习复杂的语言规则，这一点已经被电生理学研究揭示出来，这些研究表明，3 个月大的婴儿（而非成年人）可以自动检测音节之间的非相邻依赖关系。虽然成人和婴儿的不同 ERP 反应表明，语言规则学习及其与基本听觉处理的联系都经历了发展变化，但对发展轨迹的系统研究却很少。在本研究中，我们在基于音节的分音设计中评估了 2 岁和 4 岁儿童的脑电反应（ERP）指标，以评估音高辨别和语言规则学习。为了测试听觉辨别与规则学习之间的关系，我们将 ERP 对音高变化的反应用作潜在语言规则学习效应的预测因子。结果表明，2 岁的儿童（而非 4 岁的儿童）表现出了规则学习的 ERP 标志物。虽然 2 岁的儿童的规则学习不依赖于音高感知的差异，但 4 岁的儿童则表现出了依赖性，即那些对音高变化反应更强烈的儿童仍然表现出了规则学习的效果。这些结果将自动语言规则学习能力的发展下降缩小到 2 至 4 岁之间的年龄，并进一步指出听觉过程对这种变化有强烈的修正作用。在自动语言规则学习能力逐渐消失的年龄，具有增强的听觉反应的儿童仍然可以观察到规则学习。观察到的相互关系是获得年龄效应和语言学习个体差异的合理原因。
