@misc{BijeljacBabicHoehleNazzi2016,
  author    = {Bijeljac-Babic, Ranka and H{\"o}hle, Barbara and Nazzi, Thierry},
  title     = {Early prosodic acquisition in bilingual infants},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {435},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407225},
  pages     = {8},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Infants start learning the prosodic properties of their native language before 12 months, as shown by the emergence of a trochaic bias in English-learning infants between 6 and 9 months (Jusczyk et al., 1993), and in German-learning infants between 4 and 6 months (Huhle et al., 2009, 2014), while French-learning infants do not show a bias at 6 months (Hohle et al., 2009). This language-specific emergence of a trochaic bias is supported by the fact that English and German are languages with trochaic predominance in their lexicons, while French is a language with phrase-final lengthening but lacking lexical stress. We explored the emergence of a trochaic bias in bilingual French/German infants, to study whether the developmental trajectory would be similar to monolingual infants and whether amount of relative exposure to the two languages has an impact on the emergence of the bias. Accordingly, we replicated Hohle et al. (2009) with 24 bilingual 6-month-olds learning French and German simultaneously. All infants had been exposed to both languages for 30 to 70\% of the time from birth. Using the Head Preference Procedure, infants were presented with two lists of stimuli, one made up of several occurrences of the pseudoword /GAba/ with word-initial stress (trochaic pattern), the second one made up of several occurrences of the pseudoword /gaBA/ with word-final stress (iambic pattern). The stimuli were recorded by a native German female speaker. Results revealed that these French/German bilingual 6-month olds have a trochaic bias (as evidenced by a preference to listen to the trochaic pattern). Hence, their listening preference is comparable to that of monolingual German-learning 6-month-olds, but differs from that of monolingual French-learning 6-month-olds who did not show any preference (Noble et al., 2009). Moreover, the size of the trochaic bias in the bilingual infants was not correlated with their amount of exposure to German. The present results thus establish that the development of a trochaic bias in simultaneous bilinguals is not delayed compared to monolingual German-learning infants (Hohle et al., 2009) and is rather independent of the amount of exposure to German relative to French.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{HolzgrefeLang2017,
  author    = {Holzgrefe-Lang, Julia},
  title     = {Prosodic phrase boundary perception in adults and infants},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-405943},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {VIII, 141},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Prosody is a rich source of information that heavily supports spoken language comprehension. In particular, prosodic phrase boundaries divide the continuous speech stream into chunks reflecting the semantic and syntactic structure of an utterance. This chunking or prosodic phrasing plays a critical role in both spoken language processing and language acquisition. Aiming at a better understanding of the underlying processing mechanisms and their acquisition, the present work investigates factors that influence prosodic phrase boundary perception in adults and infants. Using the event-related potential (ERP) technique, three experimental studies examined the role of prosodic context (i.e., phrase length) in German phrase boundary perception and of the main prosodic boundary cues, namely pitch change, final lengthening, and pause. With regard to the boundary cues, the dissertation focused on the questions which cues or cue combination are essential for the perception of a prosodic boundary and on whether and how this cue weighting develops during infancy. Using ERPs is advantageous because the technique captures the immediate impact of (linguistic) information during on-line processing. Moreover, as it can be applied independently of specific task demands or an overt response performance, it can be used with both infants and adults. ERPs are particularly suitable to study the time course and underlying mechanisms of boundary perception, because a specific ERP component, the Closure Positive Shift (CPS) is well established as neuro-physiological indicator of prosodic boundary perception in adults. The results of the three experimental studies first underpin that the prosodic context plays an immediate role in the processing of prosodic boundary information. Moreover, the second study reveals that adult listeners perceive a prosodic boundary also on the basis of a sub-set of the boundary cues available in the speech signal. Both ERP and simultaneously collected behavioral data (i.e., prosodic judgements) suggest that the combination of pitch change and final lengthening triggers boundary perception; however, when presented as single cues, neither pitch change nor final lengthening were sufficient. Finally, testing six- and eight-month-old infants shows that the early sensitivity for prosodic information is reflected in a brain response resembling the adult CPS. For both age groups, brain responses to prosodic boundaries cued by pitch change and final lengthening revealed a positivity that can be interpreted as a CPS-like infant ERP component. In contrast, but comparable to the adults' response pattern, pitch change as a single cue does not provoke an infant CPS. These results show that infant phrase boundary perception is not exclusively based on pause detection and hint at an early ability to exploit subtle, relational prosodic cues in speech perception.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{OttHoehle2013,
  author    = {Ott, Susan and H{\"o}hle, Barbara},
  title     = {Verb inflection in German-learning children with typical and atypical language acquisition},
  series = {Journal of Child Language},
  journal   = {Journal of Child Language},
  number    = {530},
  issn      = {1866-8364},
  doi       = {10.1017/S030500091200027X},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-416475},
  pages     = {24},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Previous research has shown that high phonotactic frequencies facilitate the production of regularly inflected verbs in English-learning children with specific language impairment (SLI) but not with typical development (TD). We asked whether this finding can be replicated for German, a language with a much more complex inflectional verb paradigm than English. Using an elicitation task, the production of inflected nonce verb forms (3 rd person singular with -t suffix) with either high- or low-frequency subsyllables was tested in sixteen German-learning children with SLI (ages 4;1-5 ;1), sixteen TD-children matched for chronological age (CA) and fourteen TD- children matched for verbal age (VA) (ages 3;0-3 ;11). The findings revealed that children with SLI, but not CA- or VA-children, showed differential performance between the two types of verbs, producing more inflectional errors when the verb forms resulted in low-frequency subsyllables than when they resulted in high-frequency subsyllables, replicating the results from English-learning children.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchmitzHoehleMuelleretal.2006,
  author    = {Schmitz, Michaela and H{\"o}hle, Barbara and M{\"u}ller, Anja and Weissenborn, J{\"u}rgen},
  title     = {The recognition of the prosodic focus position in German-learning infants from 4 to 14 months},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19566},
  year      = {2006},
  abstract  = {The aim of the present study was to elucidate in a study with 4-, 6-, 8-, and 14-month-old German-learning children, when and how they may acquire the regularities which underlie Focus-to-Stress Alignment (FSA) in the target language, that is, how prosody is associated with specific communicative functions. Our findings suggest, that 14-month-olds have already found out that German allows for variable focus positions, after having gone through a development which goes from a predominantly prosodically driven processing of the input to a processing where prosody interacts more and more with the growing lexical and syntactic knowledge of the child.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Unger2023,
  author    = {Unger, Annika},
  title     = {Fr{\"u}he Wortsegmentierung im monolingualen und bilingualen Spracherwerb},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-58297},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-582970},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {VIII, 132},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Die vorgelegte Dissertation befasst sich mit der fr{\"u}hen Wortsegmentierung im monolingualen und bilingualen Spracherwerb. Die Wortsegmentierung stellt eine der wesentlichen Herausforderungen f{\"u}r S{\"a}uglinge im Spracherwerb dar, da gesprochene Sprache kontinuierlich ist und Wortgrenzen nicht zuverl{\"a}ssig durch akustische Pausen markiert werden. Zahlreiche Studien konnten f{\"u}r mehrere Sprachen zeigen, dass sich Segmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten von monolingualen S{\"a}uglingen zwischen dem 6. und 12. Lebensmonat herausbilden (z. B. Englisch: Jusczyk, Houston \& Newsome, 1999; Franz{\"o}sisch: Nazzi, Mersad, Sundara, Iakimova \& Polka, 2014; Deutsch: H{\"o}hle \& Weissenborn, 2003; Bartels, Darcy \& H{\"o}hle, 2009). Fr{\"u}he Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten sind sprachspezifisch (Polka \& Sundara, 2012). Crosslinguistische Studien zeigten, dass eine sprach{\"u}bergreifende Segmentierung f{\"u}r einsprachig aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge nur erfolgreich bew{\"a}ltigt wird, wenn die nicht-native Sprache rhythmische Eigenschaften mit ihrer Muttersprache teilt (Houston, Jusczyk, Kuijpers, Coolen \& Cutler, 2000; H{\"o}hle, 2002; Polka \& Sundara, 2012). In vier Studien dieser Dissertation wurden mit behavioralen (Headturn Preference Paradigma) und elektrophysiologischen Untersuchungen (Elektroenzephalografie) monolingual Deutsch aufwachsende und bilingual Deutsch-Franz{\"o}sisch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten untersucht. Dabei wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob monolingual Deutsch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten in der Lage sind, ihre Muttersprache Deutsch und die rhythmisch un{\"a}hnliche Sprache Franz{\"o}sisch zu segmentieren. Mit anderen Worten: K{\"o}nnen monolinguale S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten ihre Segmentierungsprozeduren modifizieren bzw. von ihrer bevorzugten Segmentierung abweichen, um auch nicht-muttersprachlichen Input erfolgreich zu segmentieren? Bezogen auf die bilingualen Sprachlerner wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob zweisprachig aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge vergleichbare Segmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten wie monolingual aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge aufweisen und ob sich zudem ein Einfluss der Sprachdominanz auf die Entwicklung der Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten in einer bilingualen Population zeigt. Durch die gew{\"a}hlten Methoden konnten sowohl Verhaltenskorrelate als auch elektrophysiologische Korrelate zur Beantwortung der Fragestellungen herangezogen werden. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus erm{\"o}glichte das EEG durch ereigniskorrelierte Potenziale (EKPs) einen Einblick in Lern- und Verarbeitungsprozesse, die mit Verhaltensmethoden nicht erfassbar waren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass monolingual Deutsch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten sowohl ihre Muttersprache als auch die nicht-native Sprache Franz{\"o}sisch erfolgreich segmentieren. Die F{\"a}higkeit zur Segmentierung der nicht-nativen Sprache Franz{\"o}sisch wird jedoch beeinflusst von der Muttersprache: monolinguale S{\"a}uglinge, die mit Franz{\"o}sisch zuerst getestet wurden, segmentierten sowohl das Franz{\"o}sische als auch das im Anschluss pr{\"a}sentierte deutsche Sprachmaterial. Monolinguale S{\"a}uglinge die zuerst mit Deutsch und anschließend mit Franz{\"o}sisch getestet wurden, segmentierten die deutschen Stimuli, jedoch nicht das franz{\"o}sische Sprachmaterial. Bilingual Deutsch-Franz{\"o}sisch aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge segmentieren im Alter von 9 Monaten beide Muttersprachen erfolgreich. Die Ergebnisse deuten zudem auf einen Einfluss der Sprachdominanz auf die Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten von zweisprachig aufwachsenden S{\"a}uglingen. Die balancierten Bilingualen segmentieren beide Muttersprachen erfolgreich, die unbalancierten Bilingualen zeigen nur f{\"u}r die jeweils dominante Sprache eine erfolgreiche Segmentierung. Zusammenfassend liefert diese Arbeit erstmals Evidenz f{\"u}r eine erfolgreiche sprach{\"u}bergreifende Segmentierung in prosodisch differenten Sprachen unterschiedlicher Rhythmusklassen in einer monolingualen Population. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus liefern die Studien dieser Arbeit Evidenz daf{\"u}r, dass bilingual aufwachsende S{\"a}uglinge bezogen auf die Wortsegmentierungsf{\"a}higkeiten eine vergleichbare Entwicklung wie einsprachig aufwachsende Sprachlerner zeigen. Dieses Ergebnis erweitert die Datenlage bisheriger Studien, die f{\"u}r verschiedene Entwicklungsschritte im Spracherwerb keine Verz{\"o}gerung, sondern eine zu monolingual aufwachsenden S{\"a}uglingen vergleichbare Entwicklung innerhalb einer bilingualen Population nachweisen konnten (Sprachdiskrimination: Byers-Heinlein, Burns \& Werker, 2010; Bosch \& Sebastian-Galles, 1997; Phonemdiskrimination: Albareda-Castellot, Pons \& Sebasti{\´a}n-Gall{\´e}s, 2011; Wahrnehmung rhythmischer Eigenschaften: Bijeljac-Babic, H{\"o}hle \& Nazzi, 2016).},
  language  = {de}
}
@misc{vanderKantBiroLeveltetal.2018,
  author    = {van der Kant, Anne and Biro, Szilvia and Levelt, Claartje and Huijbregts, Stephan},
  title     = {Negative affect is related to reduced differential neural responses to social and non-social stimuli in 5-to-8-month-old infants},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {643},
  issn      = {1866-8364},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-46813},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-468136},
  pages     = {23 -- 30},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Both social perception and temperament in young infants have been related to social functioning later in life. Previous functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) data (Lloyd-Fox et al., 2009) showed larger blood-oxygenation changes for social compared to non-social stimuli in the posterior temporal cortex of five-month-old infants. We sought to replicate and extend these findings by using fNIRS to study the neural basis of social perception in relation to infant temperament (Negative Affect) in 37 five-to-eight-month-old infants. Infants watched short videos displaying either hand and facial movements of female actors (social dynamic condition) or moving toys and machinery (non-social dynamic condition), while fNIRS data were collected over temporal brain regions. Negative Affect was measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Results showed significantly larger blood-oxygenation changes in the right posterior-temporal region in the social compared to the non-social condition. Furthermore, this differential activation was smaller in infants showing higher Negative Affect. Our results replicate those of Lloyd-Fox et al. and confirmed that five-to-eight-month-old infants show cortical specialization for social perception. Furthermore, the decreased cortical sensitivity to social stimuli in infants showing high Negative Affect may be an early biomarker for later difficulties in social interaction.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Wellmann2023,
  author    = {Wellmann, Caroline},
  title     = {Early sensitivity to prosodic phrase boundary cues: Behavioral evidence from German-learning infants},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-57393},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-573937},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xii, 136},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {This dissertation seeks to shed light on the relation of phrasal prosody and developmental speech perception in German-learning infants. Three independent empirical studies explore the role of acoustic correlates of major prosodic boundaries, specifically pitch change, final lengthening, and pause, in infant boundary perception. Moreover, it was examined whether the sensitivity to prosodic phrase boundary markings changes during the first year of life as a result of perceptual attunement to the ambient language (Aslin \& Pisoni, 1980). Using the headturn preference procedure six- and eight-month-old monolingual German-learning infants were tested on their discrimination of two different prosodic groupings of the same list of coordinated names either with or without an internal IPB after the second name, that is, [Moni und Lilli] [und Manu] or [Moni und Lilli und Manu]. The boundary marking was systematically varied with respect to single prosodic cues or specific cue combinations. Results revealed that six- and eight-month-old German-learning infants successfully detect the internal prosodic boundary when it is signaled by all the three main boundary cues pitch change, final lengthening, and pause. For eight-, but not for six-month-olds, the combination of pitch change and final lengthening, without the occurrence of a pause, is sufficient. This mirrors an adult-like perception by eight-months (Holzgrefe-Lang et al., 2016). Six-month-olds detect a prosodic phrase boundary signaled by final lengthening and pause. The findings suggest a developmental change in German prosodic boundary cue perception from a strong reliance on the pause cue at six months to a differentiated sensitivity to the more subtle cues pitch change and final lengthening at eight months. Neither for six- nor for eight-month-olds the occurrence of pitch change or final lengthening as single cues is sufficient, similar to what has been observed for adult speakers of German (Holzgrefe-Lang et al., 2016). The present dissertation provides new scientific knowledge on infants' sensitivity to individual prosodic phrase boundary cues in the first year of life. Methodologically, the studies are pathbreaking since they used exactly the same stimulus materials - phonologically thoroughly controlled lists of names - that have also been used with adults (Holzgrefe-Lang et al., 2016) and with infants in a neurophysiological paradigm (Holzgrefe-Lang, Wellmann, H{\"o}hle, \& Wartenburger, 2018), allowing for comparisons across age (six/ eight months and adults) and method (behavioral vs. neurophysiological methods). Moreover, materials are suited to be transferred to other languages allowing for a crosslinguistic comparison. Taken together with a study with similar French materials (van Ommen et al., 2020) the observed change in sensitivity in German-learning infants can be interpreted as a language-specific one, from an initial language-general processing mechanism that primarily focuses on the presence of pauses to a language-specific processing that takes into account prosodic properties available in the ambient language. The developmental pattern is discussed as an interplay of acoustic salience, prosodic typology (prosodic regularity) and cue reliability.},
  language  = {en}
}