Statistical word segmentation: Anchoring learning across contexts. (19th December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Antovich, Dylan M.; Graf Estes, Katharine
• Is Part Of: Infancy. Volume 28:Number 2(2023)
• Page Start: 257
• Page End: 276
• Publication Date: 2022-12-19
• Subjects: Infant psychology -- Periodicals; Infants -- Development -- Periodicals; Infants -- Periodicals; 155.42205
• DOI: 10.1111/infa.12525
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1525-0008

Abstract

Abstract: The present experiments were designed to assess infants' abilities to use syllable co‐occurrence regularities to segment fluent speech across contexts. Specifically, we investigated whether 9‐month‐old infants could use statistical regularities in one speech context to support speech segmentation in a second context. Contexts were defined by different word sets representing contextual differences that might occur across conversations or utterances. This mimics the integration of information across multiple interactions within a single language, which is critical for language acquisition. In particular, we performed two experiments to assess whether a statistically segmented word could be used to anchor segmentation in a second, more challenging context, namely speech with variable word lengths. The results of Experiment 1 were consistent with past work suggesting that statistical learning may be hindered by speech with word‐length variability, which is inherent to infants' natural speech environments. In Experiment 2, we found that infants could use a previously statistically segmented word to support word segmentation in a novel, challenging context. We also present findings suggesting that this ability was associated with infants' early word knowledge but not their performance on a cognitive development assessment.