Pegg J E, Werker J F
B.C. Research Institute for Child and Family Health, Centre for Community Child Health Research, Vancouver, Canada.
J Acoust Soc Am. 1997 Dec;102(6):3742-53. doi: 10.1121/1.420137.
Previous research has shown that young infants easily discriminate both native and non-native consonant contrasts, but by 10-12 months of age infants perform like adults and easily discriminate only native consonant contrasts. The present study was designed to determine what kind of experience is required to maintain discrimination of native consonants. To address this question, English listeners of three ages (6-8 months, 10-12 months, and adults) were presented with the phonetic difference, [da] vs [t = a]. This distinction occurs in English but is not phonemic: [t = a] occurs when it follows an [s] (as in /sta/). If passive exposure is sufficient to maintain discrimination, all age groups should discriminate [da] vs [t = a]. However, if phonological status plays a role, then older infants and adults should fail. In experiment 1, English adults judged [da] and [t = a] to be equally good instances of the same phonemic category /da/. In an AX procedure in experiment 2, English adults discriminated [da] vs [t = a] better than chance but worse than native phonemic levels. In the Conditioned Head Turn procedure in experiment 3, adults and 6- to 8-month-old infants discriminated [da] vs [t = a], but 10- to 12-month-old infants did not. Taken together, these results are most consistent with the hypothesis that phonological status plays a role in maintaining discrimination of phonetic information.
先前的研究表明，年幼的婴儿能够轻松区分母语和非母语的辅音对比，但到10至12个月大时，婴儿的表现就像成年人一样，只能轻松区分母语的辅音对比。本研究旨在确定维持对母语辅音的辨别需要何种经验。为了解决这个问题，让三个年龄段（6至8个月、10至12个月和成年人）的英语听众听语音差异，即[da]与[t = a]。这种区别在英语中存在，但不是音位性的：[t = a]出现在它跟随[s]之后（如在/sta/中）。如果被动接触足以维持辨别能力，那么所有年龄组都应该能够区分[da]与[t = a]。然而，如果音位地位起作用，那么年龄较大的婴儿和成年人应该无法区分。在实验1中，成年英语使用者判断[da]和[t = a]是同一音位类别/da/的同样好的实例。在实验2的AX程序中，成年英语使用者区分[da]与[t = a]的能力高于随机水平，但低于母语音位水平。在实验3的条件性转头程序中，成年人和6至8个月大的婴儿能够区分[da]与[t = a]，但10至12个月大的婴儿则不能。综合来看，这些结果最符合音位地位在维持语音信息辨别中起作用这一假设。
