Lexical learning shapes the development of speech perception until late adolescence
Authors
Davis, Matthew H.Evans, Samuel
McCarthy, Kathleen
Evans, Lindsey
Giannakopoulou, Anastasia
Taylor, Joanne S.H.
Affiliation
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitUniversity of Westminster
Queen Mary, University of London
University of Bedfordshire
Aston University
Issue Date
2019-01-29
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The role of neurobiologically-constrained critical periods for language learning remains controversial. We provide new evidence for critical periods by examining speech sound processing across the lifespan. We tested perceptual acuity for minimal word-word (e.g. bear-pear), and word-pseudoword (e.g. bag-pag) pairs generated using trial-unique audio morphed speech tokens. Participants (N=1537) performed a 3-interval, 2-alternative forced choice perceptual task indicating which of two cartoon characters said a referent word correctly. We adaptively reduced the contrastive acoustic cues in speech tokens to measure the Proportion of Acoustic Difference Required for Identification (PADRI) at 79.4% correct. Results showed effects of age, lexical context, and language experience on perceptual acuity. However, for native-listeners responding to word-word trials, age-related improvements stopped at 16.7 years. This finding suggests a role for continued lexical experience in shaping perceptual acuity for spoken words until late adolescence consistent with interactive models of speech perception and critical periodsCitation
Davis MH, Evans S, McCarthy K, Evans L, Giannakopoulou A, Taylor JSH (2019) 'Lexical learning shapes the development of speech perception until late adolescence', PsyArXivPublisher
PsyArXivJournal
PsyArXivAdditional Links
https://psyarxiv.com/ktsey/Type
ArticleLanguage
enSponsors
This research was funded by a DSF award from the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and by 752 the United Kingdom Medical Research Council (MC-A060-5PQ80 / RG91365-SUAG/008).ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.31234/osf.io/ktsey
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