Abstraction and specificity in preschoolers' representations of novel spoken words

Article Abstract:

Language acquisition research with preschool children suggests there is a powerful learning mechanism supporting auditory word priming which plays a crucial role in developing an auditory lexicon. Children's representations of new spoken words included abstract components common to changes in word token and phonetic context, and specific to original tokens.

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Less really is more for adults learning a miniature artificial language

Article Abstract:

Issues concerning language acquisition are examined, focusing on experiments that indicate language may be better acquired if learners first become familiar with only segments of a language, such as words, before being exposed to the full complexity of a language.

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Word segmentation by 8-month-olds: when speech cues count more than statistics

Article Abstract:

Speech cues were given more weight than statistical cues by 8-month-old infants in a series of experiments on word segmentation. Prosodic stress cues and coarticulation were the speech cues pitted against statistical cues; familiarity effects were also examined.

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