TY  - GEN
A1  - Höhle, Barbara
A1  - Fritzsche, Tom
A1  - Meß, Katharina
A1  - Philipp, Mareike
A1  - Gafos, Adamantios I.
T1  - Only the right noise?
BT  - Effects of phonetic and visual input variability on 14-month-olds' minimal pair word learning
T2  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Seminal work by Werker and colleagues (Stager & Werker [1997]Nature, 388, 381-382) has found that 14-month-old infants do not show evidence for learning minimal pairs in the habituation-switch paradigm. However, when multiple speakers produce the minimal pair in acoustically variable ways, infants' performance improves in comparison to a single speaker condition (Rost & McMurray [2009]Developmental Science, 12, 339-349). The current study further extends these results and assesses how different kinds of input variability affect 14-month-olds' minimal pair learning in the habituation-switch paradigm testing German learning infants. The first two experiments investigated word learning when the labels were spoken by a single speaker versus when the labels were spoken by multiple speakers. In the third experiment we studied whether non-acoustic variability, implemented by visual variability of the objects presented together with the labels, would also affect minimal pair learning. We found enhanced learning in the multiple speakers compared to the single speaker condition, confirming previous findings with English-learning infants. In contrast, visual variability of the presented objects did not support learning. These findings both confirm and better delimit the beneficial role of speech-specific variability in minimal pair learning. Finally, we review different proposals on the mechanisms via which variability confers benefits to learning and outline what may be likely principles that underlie this benefit. We highlight among these the multiplicity of acoustic cues signalling phonemic contrasts and the presence of relations among these cues. It is in these relations where we trace part of the source for the apparent paradoxical benefit of variability in learning.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 868 
KW  - acoustic variability
KW  - habituation-switch paradigm
KW  - infant word learning
KW  - minimal pairs
KW  - phonological development
KW  - visual variability
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-516674
SN  - 1866-8364
IS  - 5
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Höhle, Barbara
A1  - Fritzsche, Tom
A1  - Meß, Katharina
A1  - Philipp, Mareike
A1  - Gafos, Adamantios I.
T1  - Only the right noise?
BT  - Effects of phonetic and visual input variability on 14-month-olds' minimal pair word learning
JF  - Developmental Science
N2  - Seminal work by Werker and colleagues (Stager & Werker [1997]Nature, 388, 381-382) has found that 14-month-old infants do not show evidence for learning minimal pairs in the habituation-switch paradigm. However, when multiple speakers produce the minimal pair in acoustically variable ways, infants' performance improves in comparison to a single speaker condition (Rost & McMurray [2009]Developmental Science, 12, 339-349). The current study further extends these results and assesses how different kinds of input variability affect 14-month-olds' minimal pair learning in the habituation-switch paradigm testing German learning infants. The first two experiments investigated word learning when the labels were spoken by a single speaker versus when the labels were spoken by multiple speakers. In the third experiment we studied whether non-acoustic variability, implemented by visual variability of the objects presented together with the labels, would also affect minimal pair learning. We found enhanced learning in the multiple speakers compared to the single speaker condition, confirming previous findings with English-learning infants. In contrast, visual variability of the presented objects did not support learning. These findings both confirm and better delimit the beneficial role of speech-specific variability in minimal pair learning. Finally, we review different proposals on the mechanisms via which variability confers benefits to learning and outline what may be likely principles that underlie this benefit. We highlight among these the multiplicity of acoustic cues signalling phonemic contrasts and the presence of relations among these cues. It is in these relations where we trace part of the source for the apparent paradoxical benefit of variability in learning.
KW  - acoustic variability
KW  - habituation-switch paradigm
KW  - infant word learning
KW  - minimal pairs
KW  - phonological development
KW  - visual variability
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12950
SN  - 1363-755X
SN  - 1467-7687
VL  - 23
IS  - 5
SP  - 1
EP  - 16
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Oxford
ER  -