Department of Psychology and Centre for Family and Population Research, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Dev Sci. 2023 Jul;26(4):e13351. doi: 10.1111/desc.13351. Epub 2022 Nov 29.
Infants undergo fundamental shifts in perception that are reported to be critical for language acquisition. In particular, infants' perception of native and non-native sounds begins to align with the properties of their native sound system. Thus far, empirical evidence for this transition - perceptual narrowing - has drawn from socio-economically and linguistically narrow populations from limited world regions. In this study, infants were sampled across diverse socio-economic strata and linguistic development in Singapore. One hundred and 16 infants were tested on their ability to discriminate both a native phonetic contrast (/ba/ versus /da/) and a non-native Hindi contrast (/ta/ versus /ʈa). Infants ranged in age from 6 to 12 months. Associations between age and discrimination varied by contrast type. Results demonstrated that infants' native sensitivities were positively predicted by family SES, whereas non-native sensitivities were not. Maternal socio-economic factors uniquely predicted native language sensitivity. Findings suggest that infants' sensitivity to native sound contrasts is influenced by their family socio-economic status. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We investigated effects of socio-economic status on infant speech perception. Infants were tested on native and non-native speech discrimination. Socio-economic status predicted native speech discrimination. Maternal occupation was a key predictor of native speech discrimination.
婴儿在感知方面经历了根本性的转变，据报道，这些转变对语言习得至关重要。特别是，婴儿对母语和非母语声音的感知开始与他们的母语语音系统的属性相匹配。到目前为止，这种转变（感知收窄）的经验证据来自于来自有限世界地区的社会经济和语言狭隘的人群。在这项研究中，婴儿在新加坡跨越了不同的社会经济阶层和语言发展进行了抽样。160 名婴儿接受了测试，以测试他们区分母语语音对比（/ba/ 与 /da/）和非母语印地语对比（/ta/ 与 /ʈa/）的能力。婴儿的年龄从 6 个月到 12 个月不等。年龄与辨别力之间的关系因对比类型而异。结果表明，婴儿对母语的敏感性与家庭社会经济地位呈正相关，而非母语的敏感性则不然。母亲的社会经济因素独特地预测了母语敏感性。研究结果表明，婴儿对母语语音对比的敏感性受到家庭社会经济地位的影响。研究亮点：我们研究了社会经济地位对婴儿言语感知的影响。婴儿接受了母语和非母语语音辨别能力的测试。社会经济地位预测了母语语音辨别能力。母亲的职业是母语语音辨别能力的关键预测因素。
