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Kalashnikova M, Singh L, Tsui A, Altuntas E, Burnham D, Cannistraci R, Chin NB, Feng Y, Fernández-Merino L, Götz A, Gustavsson L, Hay J, Höhle B, Kager R, Lai R, Liu L, Marklund E, Nazzi T, Oliveira DS, Olstad AMH, Picaud A, Schwarz IC, Tsao FM, Wong PCM, Woo PJ. The development of tone discrimination in infancy: Evidence from a cross-linguistic, multi-lab report. Dev Sci 2024; 27:e13459. [PMID: 37987377 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2019] [Revised: 10/23/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
We report the findings of a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants' ability to discriminate lexical tones as a function of their native language, age and language experience, as well as of tone properties. Given the high prevalence of lexical tones across human languages, understanding lexical tone acquisition is fundamental for comprehensive theories of language learning. While there are some similarities between the developmental course of lexical tone perception and that of vowels and consonants, findings for lexical tones tend to vary greatly across different laboratories. To reconcile these differences and to assess the developmental trajectory of native and non-native perception of tone contrasts, this study employed a single experimental paradigm with the same two pairs of Cantonese tone contrasts (perceptually similar vs. distinct) across 13 laboratories in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North-America testing 5-, 10- and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Across the age range and language backgrounds, infants who were not exposed to Cantonese showed robust discrimination of the two non-native lexical tone contrasts. Contrary to this overall finding, the statistical model assessing native discrimination by Cantonese-learning infants failed to yield significant effects. These findings indicate that lexical tone sensitivity is maintained from 5 to 17 months in infants acquiring tone and non-tone languages, challenging the generalisability of the existing theoretical accounts of perceptual narrowing in the first months of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This is a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants' ability to discriminate lexical tones. This study included data from 13 laboratories testing 5-, 10-, and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Overall, infants discriminated a perceptually similar and a distinct non-native tone contrast, although there was no evidence of a native tone-language advantage in discrimination. These results demonstrate maintenance of tone discrimination throughout development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Kalashnikova
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
- Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Leher Singh
- Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | - Eylem Altuntas
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
| | - Denis Burnham
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
| | - Ryan Cannistraci
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Psychology, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Ng Bee Chin
- Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Ye Feng
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Linguistics, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
| | - Laura Fernández-Merino
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
- University of Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain
| | - Antonia Götz
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
- Linguistics Department, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Lisa Gustavsson
- Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Jessica Hay
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Barbara Höhle
- Linguistics Department, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - René Kager
- Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
- Institute for Language Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Regine Lai
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Liquan Liu
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
- School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, Australia
- Center of Multilingualism across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ellen Marklund
- Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Thierry Nazzi
- INCC, CNRS Paris, Paris, France
- Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | | | | | - Anthony Picaud
- INCC, CNRS Paris, Paris, France
- Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Iris-Corinna Schwarz
- Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Special Education, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Feng-Ming Tsao
- Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Imaging Center for Integrated Body, Mind and Culture Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Pei Jun Woo
- Department of Psychology, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia
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Bergelson E, Soderstrom M, Schwarz IC, Rowland CF, Ramírez-Esparza N, R. Hamrick L, Marklund E, Kalashnikova M, Guez A, Casillas M, Benetti L, van Alphen P, Cristia A. Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2300671120. [PMID: 38085754 PMCID: PMC10756310 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300671120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Language is a universal human ability, acquired readily by young children, who otherwise struggle with many basics of survival. And yet, language ability is variable across individuals. Naturalistic and experimental observations suggest that children's linguistic skills vary with factors like socioeconomic status and children's gender. But which factors really influence children's day-to-day language use? Here, we leverage speech technology in a big-data approach to report on a unique cross-cultural and diverse data set: >2,500 d-long, child-centered audio-recordings of 1,001 2- to 48-mo-olds from 12 countries spanning six continents across urban, farmer-forager, and subsistence-farming contexts. As expected, age and language-relevant clinical risks and diagnoses predicted how much speech (and speech-like vocalization) children produced. Critically, so too did adult talk in children's environments: Children who heard more talk from adults produced more speech. In contrast to previous conclusions based on more limited sampling methods and a different set of language proxies, socioeconomic status (operationalized as maternal education) was not significantly associated with children's productions over the first 4 y of life, and neither were gender or multilingualism. These findings from large-scale naturalistic data advance our understanding of which factors are robust predictors of variability in the speech behaviors of young learners in a wide range of everyday contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elika Bergelson
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138, United Kingdom
| | | | - Iris-Corinna Schwarz
- Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, StockholmSE-106 91, Sweden
- Department of Special Education, Stockholm University, StockholmSE-106 91, Sweden
| | - Caroline F. Rowland
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen6525 XD, Netherlands
- Donders Centre for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen6525 XZ, Netherlands
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, ACT2601, Australia
| | | | - Lisa R. Hamrick
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN47907
| | - Ellen Marklund
- Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, StockholmSE-106 91, Sweden
| | - Marina Kalashnikova
- Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastian20009, Spain
- Ikerbasque - Basque Foundation of Science, Bilbao48009, Spain
| | - Ava Guez
- Départment d’études Cognitives, École normale supérieure, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSL University, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Paris75005, France
| | - Marisa Casillas
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen6525 XD, Netherlands
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, ACT2601, Australia
- Comparative Human Development Department, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL60637
| | - Lucia Benetti
- School of Music, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | | | - Alejandrina Cristia
- Départment d’études Cognitives, École normale supérieure, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSL University, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Paris75005, France
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Marklund U, Marklund E, Gustavsson L. Relationship Between Parent Vowel Hyperarticulation in Infant-Directed Speech and Infant Phonetic Complexity on the Level of Conversational Turns. Front Psychol 2021; 12:688242. [PMID: 34421739 PMCID: PMC8371631 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.688242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When speaking to infants, parents typically use infant-directed speech, a speech register that in several aspects differs from that directed to adults. Vowel hyperarticulation, that is, extreme articulation of vowels, is one characteristic sometimes found in infant-directed speech, and it has been suggested that there exists a relationship between how much vowel hyperarticulation parents use when speaking to their infant and infant language development. In this study, the relationship between parent vowel hyperarticulation and phonetic complexity of infant vocalizations is investigated. Previous research has shown that on the level of subject means, a positive correlational relationship exists. However, the previous findings do not provide information about the directionality of that relationship. In this study the relationship is investigated on a conversational turn level, which makes it possible to draw conclusions on whether the behavior of the infant is impacting the parent, the behavior of the parent is impacting the infant, or both. Parent vowel hyperarticulation was quantified using the vhh-index, a measure that allows vowel hyperarticulation to be estimated for individual vowel tokens. Phonetic complexity of infant vocalizations was calculated using the Word Complexity Measure for Swedish. Findings were unexpected in that a negative relationship was found between parent vowel hyperarticulation and phonetic complexity of the immediately following infant vocalization. Directionality was suggested by the fact that no such relationship was found between infant phonetic complexity and vowel hyperarticulation of the immediately following parent utterance. A potential explanation for these results is that high degrees of vowel hyperarticulation either provide, or co-occur with, large amounts of phonetic and/or linguistic information, which may occupy processing resources to an extent that affects production of the next vocalization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrika Marklund
- Division of Sensory Organs and Communication, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.,Department of Neurology, Speech and Language Clinic, Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.,Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Ellen Marklund
- Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Lisa Gustavsson
- Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.,Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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Marklund E, Marklund U, Gustavsson L. An Association Between Phonetic Complexity of Infant Vocalizations and Parent Vowel Hyperarticulation. Front Psychol 2021; 12:693866. [PMID: 34354637 PMCID: PMC8329736 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.693866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Extreme or exaggerated articulation of vowels, or vowel hyperarticulation, is a characteristic commonly found in infant-directed speech (IDS). High degrees of vowel hyperarticulation in parent IDS has been tied to better speech sound category development and bigger vocabulary size in infants. In the present study, the relationship between vowel hyperarticulation in Swedish IDS to 12-month-old and phonetic complexity of infant vocalizations is investigated. Articulatory adaptation toward hyperarticulation is quantified as difference in vowel space area between IDS and adult-directed speech (ADS). Phonetic complexity is estimated using the Word Complexity Measure for Swedish (WCM-SE). The results show that vowels in IDS was more hyperarticulated than vowels in ADS, and that parents' articulatory adaptation in terms of hyperarticulation correlates with phonetic complexity of infant vocalizations. This can be explained either by the parents' articulatory behavior impacting the infants' vocalization behavior, the infants' social and communicative cues eliciting hyperarticulation in the parents' speech, or the two variables being impacted by a third, underlying variable such as parents' general communicative adaptiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Marklund
- Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Ulrika Marklund
- Division of Sensory Organs and Communication, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Speech and Language Clinic, Department of Neurology, Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
- Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Lisa Gustavsson
- Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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Marklund E, Gustavsson L, Kallioinen P, Schwarz IC. N1 Repetition-Attenuation for Acoustically Variable Speech and Spectrally Rotated Speech. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 14:534804. [PMID: 33192385 PMCID: PMC7658466 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.534804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The amplitude of the event-related N1 wave decreases with repeated stimulation. This repetition-attenuation has not previously been investigated in response to variable auditory stimuli, nor has the relative impact of acoustic vs. perceptual category repetition been studied. In the present study, N1 repetition-attenuation was investigated for speech and spectrally rotated speech with varying degrees of acoustic and perceptual category variation. In the speech condition, participants (n = 19) listened to stimulus trains consisting of either the same vowel exemplar (no variability condition), different exemplars of the same vowel (low variability condition), or different exemplars of two different vowels (high variability condition). In the rotated speech condition, the spectrally rotated counterparts of the vowels were presented. Findings show N1 repetition-attenuation in the face of acoustic and perceptual category variability, but no impact of the degree of variability on the degree of N1 attenuation. Speech stimuli resulted in less attenuation than the acoustically matched non-speech stimuli, which is in line with previous findings. It remains unclear if the attenuation of the N1 wave is reduced as a result of stimuli being perceived as belonging to perceptual categories or as a result of some other characteristic of speech.
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Marklund E, Schwarz IC, Lacerda F. Amount of speech exposure predicts vowel perception in four- to eight-month-olds. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2019; 36:100622. [PMID: 30785071 PMCID: PMC6969197 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2017] [Revised: 12/17/2018] [Accepted: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
During the first year of life, infants shift their focus in speech perception from acoustic to linguistic information. This perceptual reorganization is related to exposure, and a direct relation has previously been demonstrated between amount of daily language exposure and mismatch response (MMR) amplitude to a native consonant contrast at around one year of age. The present study investigates the same relation between amount of speech exposure and MMR amplitude to a native vowel contrast at four to eight months of age. Importantly, the present study uses spectrally rotated speech in an effort to take general neural maturation into account. The amplitude of the part of the MMR that is tied specifically to speech processing correlates with amount of daily speech exposure, as estimated using the LENA system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Marklund
- Stockholm University, Ellen Marklund, Department of Linguistics, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Iris-Corinna Schwarz
- Stockholm University, Ellen Marklund, Department of Linguistics, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Francisco Lacerda
- Stockholm University, Ellen Marklund, Department of Linguistics, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden
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Marklund U, Marklund E, Schwarz IC, Lacerda F. Introducing WCM-SE: The word complexity measure phonetically justified and adapted to Swedish. Clin Linguist Phon 2018; 32:1042-1053. [PMID: 29985657 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2018.1493620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
This paper presents the Word Complexity Measure for Swedish (WCM-SE), an adaptation of the original WCM developed for English by Stoel-Gammon. These measures are used to calculate the phonological complexity of words or vocalizations, based on a number of phonological complexity parameters. Each production receives a complexity score based on how many of the parameters are present in the production. Using phonological complexity scores to measure expressive phonology is suitable for assessing very young children, children with early phonology and children with phonological deficits. It is useful for both relational and independent analyses and enables comparisons between children and across development. The original WCM uses eight phonological complexity parameters in three domains: word patterns, syllable structures and sound classes. The parameters selected are phonological characteristics that are acquired late in development among English-speaking children. In the WCM-SE, complexity parameters in the domain sound classes were modified or added according to Swedish or universal patterns of phonology development. The parameters' complexity is accounted for in terms of language-general phonetic characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrika Marklund
- a Department of Linguistics , Stockholm University, Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab , Stockholm , Sweden
- b Speech Clinic, Danderyds Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden
| | - Ellen Marklund
- a Department of Linguistics , Stockholm University, Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab , Stockholm , Sweden
| | - Iris-Corinna Schwarz
- a Department of Linguistics , Stockholm University, Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab , Stockholm , Sweden
| | - Francisco Lacerda
- a Department of Linguistics , Stockholm University, Phonetics Laboratory, Stockholm Babylab , Stockholm , Sweden
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Marklund E, Lacerda F, Schwarz IC. Using rotated speech to approximate the acoustic mismatch negativity response to speech. Brain Lang 2018; 176:26-35. [PMID: 29172074 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2017.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2015] [Revised: 08/31/2017] [Accepted: 10/21/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The mismatch negativity (MMN) response is influenced by the magnitude of the acoustic difference between standard and deviant, and the response is typically larger to linguistically relevant changes than to linguistically irrelevant changes. Linguistically relevant changes between standard and deviant typically co-occur with differences between the two acoustic signals. It is therefore not straightforward to determine the contribution of each of those two factors to the MMN response. This study investigated whether spectrally rotated speech can be used to determine the impact of the acoustic difference on the MMN response to a combined linguistic and acoustic change between standard and deviant. Changes between rotated vowels elicited an MMN of comparable amplitude to the one elicited by a within-category vowel change, whereas the between-category vowel change resulted in an MMN amplitude of greater magnitude. A change between rotated vowels resulted in an MMN ampltude more similar to that of a within-vowel change than a complex tone change did. This suggests that the MMN amplitude reflecting the acoustic difference between two speech sounds can be well approximated by the MMN amplitude elicited in response to their rotated counterparts, in turn making it possible to estimate the part of the response specific to the linguistic difference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Marklund
- Stockholm University, Department of Linguistics, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Francisco Lacerda
- Stockholm University, Department of Linguistics, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
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Abstract
20 children with serious language problems (mainly expressive) were tested with the Dichotic Listening (DL) test for language laterality. 16 were right-handed and 4 left-handed. The dichotic test consisted of series of pairwise presentations of CVC-syllables with "target-syllables" that should be detected interspersed among "distractors." The child pointed to a sheet of paper on which a picture representing the targets (and distractors) was printed. In addition, the children were tested on several expressive and impressive language tests and on finger-tapping. Analysis showed an increased frequency of subjects with a left-ear advantage (LEA) and a reduced amplitude of the right-ear advantage (REA) for those subjects showing a right-ear advantage. Correlations with the language variables and with finger-tapping are presented and discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- B O
- Department of Education, University of Oslo, Norway
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