TY - THES A1 - Götz, Antonia T1 - Patterns of perceptual reorganization in infancy T1 - Muster der Wahrnehmungsorganisation im Säuglingsalter BT - decline, maintenance, and u shaped development BT - Abnahme, Aufrechterhaltung und U-Förmige Entwicklung N2 - Previous behavioral studies showed that perceptual changes in infancy can be observed in multiple patterns, namely decline (e.g., Mattock et al., 2008; Yeung et al., 2013), maintenance (e.g., Chen & Kager, 2016) and U-shaped development (Liu & Kager, 2014). This dissertation contributes further to the understanding of the developmental trajectory of phonological acquisition in infancy. The dissertation addresses the questions of how the perceptual sensitivity of lexical tones and vowels changes in infancy and how different experimental procedures contribute to our understanding. We used three experimental procedures to investigate German-learning infants’ discrimination abilities. In Studies 1 and 3 (Chapters 5 and 7) we used behavioral methods (habituation and familiarization procedures) and in Study 2 (Chapter 6) we measured neural correlates. Study 1 showed a U-shaped developmental pattern: 6- and 18-month-olds discriminated a lexical tone contrast, but not the 9-month-olds. In addition, we found an effect of experimental procedure: infants discriminated the tone contrast at 6 months in a habituation but not in a familiarization procedure. In Study 2, we observed mismatch responses (MMR) to a non-native tone contrast and a native-like vowel in 6- and 9-month-olds. In 6-month-olds, both contrasts elicited positive MMRs. At 9 months, the vowel contrast elicited an adult-like negative MMR, while the tone contrast elicited a positive MMR. Study 3 demonstrated a change in perceptual sensitivity to a vowel contrast between 6 and 9 months. In contrast to the 6-month-old infants, the 9-month-old infants discriminated the tested vowel contrast asymmetrically. We suggest that the shifts in perceptual sensitivity between 6 and 9 months are functional rather than perceptual. In the case of lexical tone discrimination, infants may have already learned by 9 months of age that pitch is not relevant at the lexical level in German, since the infants in Study 1 showed no perceptual sensitivity to the contrast tested. Nevertheless, the brain responded to the contrast, especially since pitch differences are also part of the German intonation system (Gussenhoven, 2004). The role of the intonation system in pitch discrimination could be supported by the recovery of behavioral discrimination at 18 months of age, as well as behavioral and neural discrimination in German-speaking adults. N2 - Frühere Verhaltensstudien haben gezeigt, dass Wahrnehmungsveränderungen im Säuglingsalter in verschiedenen Mustern beobachtet werden können, nämlich Rückgang (z. B. Mattock et al., 2008; Yeung et al., 2013), Aufrechterhaltung (z. B. Chen & Kager, 2016) und U-förmige Entwicklung (Liu & Kager, 2014). Diese Dissertation leistet einen weiteren Beitrag zum Verständnis des Entwicklungsverlaufs des phonologischen Erwerbs im Säuglingsalter und befasst sich mit den Fragen, wie sich die Wahrnehmungssensitivität von lexikalischen Tönen und Vokalen im Säuglingsalter verändert und wie verschiedene experimentelle Verfahren zu unserem Verständnis beitragen. Wir haben drei experimentelle Verfahren verwendet, um die Diskriminationsfähigkeiten von Deutsch lernenden Säuglingen zu untersuchen. In den Studien 1 und 3 (Kapitel 5 und 7) verwendeten wir Verhaltensmethoden (Habituierungs- und Familiarisierungsverfahren) und in Studie 2 (Kapitel 6) maßen wir neuronale Korrelate. Studie 1 zeigten ein U-förmiges Entwicklungsmuster: mit 6 und 18 Monaten unterschieden Kinder einen lexikalischen Tonkontrast, aber nicht mit 9 Monaten. Darüber hinaus fanden wir einen Effekt des experimentellen Verfahrens: Säuglinge unterschieden einen lexikalischen Tonkontrast mit 6 Monaten in einem Habituierungs-, aber nicht in einem Familiarisierungsverfahren. In Studie 2 beobachteten wir mismatch responses (MMR) auf einen nicht-muttersprachlichen Tonkontrast und auf einen muttersprachlichen Vokal bei 6 und 9 Monate alten Säuglingen. Die 6 Monate alten Säuglingen zeigten positive MMRs für beide Kontraste. Mit 9 Monaten löste der Tonkontrast eine positive MMR aus, während der Vokalkontrast eine erwachsenenähnliche negative MMR hervorrief. Studie 3 zeigte eine Veränderung der Wahrnehmungsempfindlichkeit für einen Vokalkontrast zwischen 6 und 9 Monaten. Im Gegensatz zu den 6 Monate alten Säuglingen unterschieden die 9 Monate alten Säuglinge den getesteten Vokalkontrast asymmetrisch. Wir vermuten, dass die Verschiebungen in der Wahrnehmungsempfindlichkeit zwischen 6 und 9 Monaten vielmehr funktionell als wahrnehmungsbezogen sind. Im Fall der lexikalischen Tonunterscheidung haben die Säuglinge im Alter von 9 Monaten möglicherweise bereits gelernt, dass die Tonhöhe auf der lexikalischen Ebene im Deutschen nicht relevant ist, da die Säuglinge in Studie 1 keine Wahrnehmungssensitivität für den getesteten Kontrast zeigten. Dennoch reagierte das Gehirn auf den Kontrast, zumal Tonhöhenunterschiede auch Teil des deutschen Intonationssystems sind (Gussenhoven, 2004). Die Rolle des Intonationssystems bei der Tonhöhendiskriminierung könnte durch die Wiederherstellung der Verhaltensdiskriminierung im Alter von 18 Monaten sowie durch die Verhaltens- und neuronale Diskriminierung bei deutschsprachigen Erwachsenen untermauert werden. KW - perceptual reorganization KW - infancy KW - lexical tones KW - vowels KW - experimental procedure KW - perzeptuelle Reorganisation KW - Säuglingsalter KW - lexikalische Töne KW - Vokale KW - experimentelle Verfahren Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-536185 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rubertus, Elina A1 - Noiray, Aude T1 - Vocalic activation width decreases across childhood BT - Evidence from carryover coarticulation JF - Laboratory Phonology N2 - This study is the first to use kinematic data to assess lingual carryover coarticulation in children. We investigated whether the developmental decrease previously attested in anticipatory coarticulation, as well as the relation between coarticulatory degree and the consonantal context, also characterize carryover coarticulation. Sixty-two children and 13 adults, all native speakers of German, were recruited according to five age cohorts: three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds, seven-year-olds, and adults. Tongue movements during the production of ə.CV.Cə utterances (C = /b, d, g/, V = /i, y, e, a, o, u/) were recorded with ultrasound. We measured vowel-induced horizontal displacement of the tongue dorsum within the last syllable and compared the resulting coarticulatory patterns between age cohorts and consonantal contexts. Results indicate that the degree of vocalic carryover coarticulation decreases with age. Vocalic prominence within an utterance as well as its change across childhood depended on the postvocalic consonant’s articulatory demands for the tongue dorsum (i.e., its coarticulatory resistance): Low resistant /b/ and /g/ allowed for more vocalic perseveration and a continuous decrease, while the highly resistant /d/ displayed lower coarticulation degrees and discontinuous effects. These findings parallel those in anticipation suggesting a similar organization of anticipatory and carryover coarticulation. Implications for theories of speech production are discussed. KW - language acquisition KW - coarticulation KW - carryover effects KW - vowels KW - gestural organization KW - speech motor control Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.228 SN - 1868-6346 SN - 1868-6354 VL - 11 IS - 1 PB - de Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin, New York ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rubertus, Elina A1 - Noiray, Aude T1 - Vocalic activation width decreases across childhood BT - Evidence from carryover coarticulation T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - This study is the first to use kinematic data to assess lingual carryover coarticulation in children. We investigated whether the developmental decrease previously attested in anticipatory coarticulation, as well as the relation between coarticulatory degree and the consonantal context, also characterize carryover coarticulation. Sixty-two children and 13 adults, all native speakers of German, were recruited according to five age cohorts: three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds, seven-year-olds, and adults. Tongue movements during the production of ə.CV.Cə utterances (C = /b, d, g/, V = /i, y, e, a, o, u/) were recorded with ultrasound. We measured vowel-induced horizontal displacement of the tongue dorsum within the last syllable and compared the resulting coarticulatory patterns between age cohorts and consonantal contexts. Results indicate that the degree of vocalic carryover coarticulation decreases with age. Vocalic prominence within an utterance as well as its change across childhood depended on the postvocalic consonant’s articulatory demands for the tongue dorsum (i.e., its coarticulatory resistance): Low resistant /b/ and /g/ allowed for more vocalic perseveration and a continuous decrease, while the highly resistant /d/ displayed lower coarticulation degrees and discontinuous effects. These findings parallel those in anticipation suggesting a similar organization of anticipatory and carryover coarticulation. Implications for theories of speech production are discussed. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 645 KW - language acquisition KW - coarticulation KW - carryover effects KW - vowels KW - gestural organization KW - speech motor control Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-473536 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 645 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Williams, Daniel A1 - Escudero, Paola A1 - Gafos, Adamantios I. T1 - Perceptual sensitivity to spectral change in Australian English close front vowels BT - an electroencephalographic investigation T2 - 19 th annual conference of the international speech communicaton association (INTERSPEECH 2018), VOLS 1-6: Speech research for emerging marjets in multilingual societies N2 - Speech scientists have long noted that the qualities of naturally-produced vowels do not remain constant over their durations regardless of being nominally "monophthongs" or "diphthongs". Recent acoustic corpora show that there are consistent patterns of first (F1) and second (F2) formant frequency change across different vowel categories. The three Australian English (AusE) close front vowels /i:, 1, i/ provide a striking example: while their midpoint or mean F1 and F2 frequencies are virtually identical, their spectral change patterns distinctly differ. The results indicate that, despite the distinct patterns of spectral change of AusE /i:, i, la/ in production, its perceptual relevance is not uniform, but rather vowel-category dependent. KW - vowels KW - pre-attentive discrimination KW - speech perception KW - speech acoustics KW - English dialects Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-1-5108-7221-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2018-2505 SN - 2308-457X SP - 1442 EP - 1446 PB - ISCA-International Speech Communication Association CY - Baixas ER -