Statistical Learning in a Natural Language by 8-Month-Old Infants Export

@article{citeulike:4525929, abstract = {Numerous studies over the past decade support the claim that infants are equipped with powerful statistical language learning mechanisms. The primary evidence for statistical language learning in word segmentation comes from studies using artificial languages, continuous streams of synthesized syllables that are highly simplified relative to real speech. To what extent can these conclusions be scaled up to natural language learning? In the current experiments, English-learning 8-month-old infants' ability to track transitional probabilities in fluent infant-directed Italian speech was tested (N = 72). The results suggest that infants are sensitive to transitional probability cues in unfamiliar natural language stimuli, and support the claim that statistical learning is sufficiently robust to support aspects of real-world language acquisition.}, address = {University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Ferrara; University of Wisconsin-Madison}, author = {Pelucchi, Bruna and Hay, Jessica F. and Saffran, Jenny R.}, citeulike-article-id = {4525929}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01290.x}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/122386004/ABSTRACT}, doi = {10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01290.x}, journal = {Child Development}, keywords = {infants, language, statistical\_learning}, number = {3}, pages = {674--685}, posted-at = {2009-07-01 22:32:35}, priority = {2}, title = {Statistical Learning in a Natural Language by 8-Month-Old Infants}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01290.x}, volume = {80}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:4525929 L3 - citeulike-article-id:4525929 N2 - Numerous studies over the past decade support the claim that infants are equipped with powerful statistical language learning mechanisms. The primary evidence for statistical language learning in word segmentation comes from studies using artificial languages, continuous streams of synthesized syllables that are highly simplified relative to real speech. To what extent can these conclusions be scaled up to natural language learning? In the current experiments, English-learning 8-month-old infants' ability to track transitional probabilities in fluent infant-directed Italian speech was tested (N = 72). The results suggest that infants are sensitive to transitional probability cues in unfamiliar natural language stimuli, and support the claim that statistical learning is sufficiently robust to support aspects of real-world language acquisition. IS - 3 JF - Child Development AD - University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Ferrara; University of Wisconsin-Madison EP - 685 TI - Statistical Learning in a Natural Language by 8-Month-Old Infants VL - 80 SP - 674 KW - infants KW - language KW - statistical_learning AU - Pelucchi, Bruna AU - Hay, Jessica AU - Saffran, Jenny PY - 2009/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01290.x ER -