Polka L, Werker J F
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1994 Apr;20(2):421-35. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.20.2.421.
Discrimination of 2 German vowel contrasts was examined in English-learning infants of 6-8 and 10-12 months of age using a head turn procedure. The younger infants were better able than the older infants to discriminate the nonnative contrasts, but performance at 6-8 months was below levels that have been reported for nonnative consonant contrasts. A 2nd experiment using a habituation looking procedure showed that 4-month-old infants discriminated both German vowel contrasts, but the 6-month-olds could not. The findings are consistent with previous consonant work, revealing a shift from a language-general toward a language-specific pattern during the 1st year of life. However, that shift begins earlier in development for vowels than for consonants.
利用转头程序，对6至8个月以及10至12个月大的学英语婴儿辨别2种德语元音对比的能力进行了研究。年龄较小的婴儿比年龄较大的婴儿更能辨别非母语的对比，但6至8个月大婴儿的表现低于此前报道的非母语辅音对比的水平。使用习惯化注视程序的第二项实验表明，4个月大的婴儿能够辨别这两种德语元音对比，但6个月大的婴儿却不能。这些发现与之前关于辅音的研究结果一致，揭示了在生命的第一年中从通用语言模式向特定语言模式的转变。然而，这种转变在元音发育中比在辅音发育中开始得更早。
