The present study investigated the role of phrasal prosody in speech segmentation adult bilingual speakers two languages with opposite basic word orders: Basque and Spanish (Object-Verb Verb-Object, respectively). We created a structurally ambiguous artificial language (AL) that allowed possible parses, mimicking order characteristic OV VO languages, enriched it prosodic cue associated to an order: pitch contrast, which element receiving prominence within phrases has higher than...

The insertion of silences at regular intervals restores the intelligibility English utterances that have been accelerated beyond comprehension, as long duration resulting speech-silence chunks falls within theta rhythm natural speech, i.e. temporal modulation associated to syllabic rate. We test whether such a rhythmic strategy works in languages rhythmically different from English, an stress-timed language. Thus, we assess comprehension time-compressed Semantically Unpredictable Sentences...

Concerns about the reproducibility of experimental findings have recently emerged in many disciplines, from psychology to medicine and neuroscience. As NIRS is a relatively recent brain imaging technique, question has not yet been systematically addressed.The current study seeks test replicability effects observed experiments assessing young infants' rule-learning ability.We conducted meta-analyses mixed-effects modeling-based inferential statistics determine whether effect sizes were...

Abstract The present production study investigates the prosodic phrasing characteristic of sentences containing a relative clause with two possible noun phrase antecedents [Noun Phrase 1 Noun 2 Relative Clause] in variety Spanish spoken Basque Country. It aims to establish default these structures, as well whether differences are found between native and non-native speakers. Additionally, it examines effect on constituent length familiarity (skimming prior reading them aloud). To do that,...

The present investigation seeks to determine whether and under what circumstances can adult bilinguals deploy segmentation strategies characteristic of their two languages, or dominant language. To that end, we inquired the context language employed during experiment (i.e., in which participants receive instructions experiment) modulates bilinguals' preferences given an ambiguous artificial Four groups bilingual speakers Basque (Object Verb, i.e., OV) Spanish (Verb Object, VO) were sorted by...

Infants readily extract linguistic rules from speech. Here, we ask whether this advantage extends to stimuli that do not rely on the spoken modality. To address question, first examine infants can differentially learn signs. We show that, despite having no previous experience with a sign language, six-month-old reduplicative rule (AA) dynamic signs, and neural response signs differs visual controls, matched for spatiotemporal properties of next demonstrate brain is similar speech stimuli....

We review the existing evidence, behavioral and neural, of infants' ability to encode repetition- ('same') diversity- ('different') based regularities in speech. These studies show that, from birth, infants exhibit a robust capacity for learning repetition-based rules speech (e.g. AAB or ABA, which A = A). Further, generalize such structures is not strictly language-specific, as extract musical tones, animal pictures, abstract geometrical shapes, faces under some conditions. However, this...

The audiovisual speech signal contains multimodal information to phrase boundaries. In three artificial language learning studies with 12 groups of adult participants we investigated whether English monolinguals and bilingual speakers a opposite basic word order (i.e., in which objects precede verbs) can use frequency, phrasal prosody co-speech (facial) visual information, namely head nods, parse unknown languages into phrase-like units. We showed that bilinguals used the auditory sources...

The input contains perceptually available cues, which might allow young infants to discover abstract properties of the target language. Thus, word frequency and prosodic prominence correlate systematically with basic order in natural languages. Prelexical are sensitive these frequency-based use them parse new into phrases that follow characteristic their native Importantly, readily integrate auditory visual facial information while processing Here, we ask whether co-verbal provided by...

The acoustic realization of phrasal prominence is proposed to correlate with the order V(erbs) and O(bjects) in natural languages. present production study 15 talkers Japanese (OV) English (VO) investigates whether speech signal contains coverbal visual information that covaries auditory prosody, Infant- Adult-Directed Speech (IDS ADS). Acoustic analysis revealed carried by different cues two languages styles, while analyses motion showed this not accompanied gestures. Instead, both produced...

In order to acquire grammar, infants need extract regularities from the linguistic input. From birth, can detect in speech based on identity relations, and show strong neural activation syllable sequences containing adjacent repetitions of identical syllables (e.g. ABB: mubaba). Meanwhile, newborns' responses different ABC: mubage, i.e. diversity-based relations) do not differ baseline. However, this latter ability needs emerge during development, as most units, such words, are composed...

The present study investigated 7-month-old infants’ ability to perceive structural symmetry in mosaic-like abstract visual patterns. We examined (n = 98) spontaneous looking behaviour sequences with symmetrical and asymmetrical structures. Sequences were composed of square tiles from two categories that differed their colour scheme internal shape. manipulated sequence length (3 or 5 tiles) abstractness the (token vs. category level). 7-month-olds discriminated structurally mosaics first half...

Abstract Infants begin to segment word forms from fluent speech—a crucial task in lexical processing—between 4 and 7 months of age. Prior work has established that infants rely on a variety cues available the speech signal (i.e., prosodic, statistical, acoustic‐segmental, lexical) accomplish this task. In two experiments with French‐learning 6‐ 10‐month‐olds, we use psychoacoustic approach examine if how degradation fundamental acoustic components extracted by auditory system, namely,...

In two artificial language learning experiments with four groups of highly proficient Basque-Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals, we examine the cues that allow adult listeners to parse new input into phrases. addition, investigate which factors lead switch between segmentation strategies characteristic their languages. We show segmental information drives bilinguals’ choice a strategy when presented an unfamiliar language. The in are addressed during study (i.e. context)...

Consonants facilitate lexical processing across many languages, including French. This study investigates whether acoustic degradation affects this phonological bias in an auditory decision task. French words were processed using eight-band vocoder, degrading their frequency modulations (FM) while preserving original amplitude (AM). Adult natives presented with these words, preceded by similarly pseudoword primes sharing vowels, consonants, or neither. Results reveal a consonant the...

The acoustic realization of phrasal prominence correlates systematically with the order Verbs and Objects in natural languages. Prominence is realized as a durational contrast V(erb)-O(bject) languages (English: short-long, to [Ro]me), pitch/intensity O(bject)-V(erb) (Japanese: high-low, [‘To]kyo ni). Seven-month-old infants can use segment unknown artificial This information might thus allow prelexical learn basic word their native language(s). present study investigates whether this...