Development of Single/Geminate Obstruent Discrimination by Japanese Infants: Early Integration of Durational and Nondurational Cues

Autor/inn/en	Sato, Yutaka; Kato, Mahoko; Mazuka, Reiko
Titel	Development of Single/Geminate Obstruent Discrimination by Japanese Infants: Early Integration of Durational and Nondurational Cues
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 48 (2012) 1, S.18-34 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/a0025528
Schlagwörter	Cues; Nonverbal Communication; Infants; Japanese; Cultural Differences; Infant Behavior; Age Differences; Auditory Perception; Child Language; Habituation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Stichwort; Non-verbal communication; Nonverbale Kommunikation; Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Japaner; Japanisch; Kultureller Unterschied; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Auditive Wahrnehmung; Akustische Wahrnehmung; Akustik; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache
Abstract	The Japanese language has single/geminate obstruents characterized by durational difference in closure/frication as part of the phonemic repertoire used to distinguish word meanings. We first evaluated infants' abilities to discriminate naturally uttered single/geminate obstruents (/pata/ and /patta/) using the visual habituation-dishabituation method. The results revealed that 9.5-month-old Japanese infants were able to make this discrimination, t(21) = 2.119, p = 0.046, paired t test, whereas 4-month-olds were not, t(25) = 0.395, p = 0.696, paired t test. To examine how acoustic correlates (covarying cues) are associated with the contrast discrimination, we tested Japanese infants at 9.5 and 11.5 months of age with 3 combinations of natural and manipulated stimuli. The 11.5-month-olds were able to discriminate the naturally uttered pair (/pata/ vs. /patta/), t(20) = 4.680, p less than 0.000, paired t test. Neither group discriminated the natural /patta/ from the manipulated /pata/ created from natural /patta/ tokens: For 9.5-month-olds, t(23) = 0.754, p = 0.458; for 11.5-month-olds, t(27) = 0.789, p = 0.437, paired t tests. Only the 11.5-month-olds discriminated the natural /pata/ and the manipulated /patta/ created from /pata/ tokens: For 9.5-month-olds, t(24) = 0.114, p = 0.910; for 11.5-month-olds, t(23) = 2.244, p = 0.035, paired t tests. These results suggest that Japanese infants acquire a sensitivity to contrasts of single/geminate obstruents by 9.5 months of age and that certain cues that covary with closure length either facilitate or interfere with contrast discrimination under particular conditions. (Contains 7 figures, 2 tables and 5 footnotes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10