Combining Techniques to Reveal Emergent Effects in Infants' Segmentation, Word Learning, and Grammar

Abstract

This paper provides three representative examples that highlight the ways in which procedures can be combined to study interactions across traditional domains of study: segmentation, word learning, and grammar. The first section uses visual familiarization prior to the Headturn Preference Procedure to demonstrate that synchronized visual information aids in speech segmentation in noise. The second section uses audio familiarization prior to the Preferential Looking Procedure to demonstrate that speech perception aids in the learning of meaning. The third section uses visual familiarization prior to the Preferential Looking Procedure to demonstrate that attentional distractions inhibit grammatical understanding. Thus, what infants see affects what they hear. What infants hear affects the words they learn. What infants remember affects the sentences they understand.