Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Apr;204:105055. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105055. Epub 2020 Dec 16.
Recent research suggests that young children are capable of distinguishing between phonetically dissimilar spoken accents yet have difficulty in distinguishing between phonetically similar accents. The current studies aimed to determine whether the presence of dialect-specific vocabulary enhances young children's ability to categorize speakers. In Study 1, 4- to 7-year-old children performed tasks in which they matched speakers based on the dialect-specific vocabulary the speakers used. Participants were successful in matching speakers based on vocabulary at a rate significantly greater than chance. In Study 2, participants performed a task in which they inferred a speaker's future dialect-specific vocabulary use based on the speaker's previous vocabulary use. Participants were able to infer a speaker's vocabulary use at a rate significantly greater than chance, and participants also showed social preference for and selective trust of speakers who used the participants' native dialect vocabulary over those who used a non-native dialect vocabulary. These interesting results suggest that when accent differences are too subtle for children to categorize speakers, dialect-specific vocabulary may enhance young children's ability to categorize a speaker. The results of preference and selective trust questions also suggest that children as young as 4 years use their knowledge of a speaker's vocabulary to guide their preferred social interactions, choosing to interact with others who speak similarly to them.
最近的研究表明，幼儿能够区分发音不同的口语口音，但难以区分发音相似的口音。本研究旨在确定特定方言词汇的存在是否能提高幼儿对说话者进行分类的能力。在研究 1 中，4 至 7 岁的儿童进行了根据说话者使用的特定方言词汇来匹配说话者的任务。参与者根据词汇成功匹配说话者的比率明显高于随机比率。在研究 2 中，参与者执行了一项任务，根据说话者之前的词汇使用来推断说话者未来的特定方言词汇使用。参与者能够以明显高于随机的比率推断出说话者的词汇使用，并且参与者还表现出对使用参与者母语词汇的说话者的社会偏好和选择性信任，而不是使用非母语词汇的说话者。这些有趣的结果表明，当口音差异细微到幼儿无法对说话者进行分类时，特定方言词汇可能会增强幼儿对说话者进行分类的能力。偏好和选择性信任问题的结果还表明，即使是 4 岁的儿童也会利用对方词汇的知识来指导他们的社交互动偏好，选择与与他们说话方式相似的人互动。
