Filippi, P. 1, 2 & Gingras, B. 2
1 Vrije Universiteit Brussel
2 University of Vienna
This study investigates word-learning examining the role of statistical learning and prosody in a cross-situational sound-meaning mapping task. Participants viewed a photograph belonging to one of three semantic categories while hearing a five-word utterance containing a target word. Eight between-subjects conditions were tested. In condition 1, the only cue to word-meaning mapping was the co-occurrence of word and referents. This statistical cue was present in all conditions. In conditions 2, 3, and 4 the target word was sounded at a pitch one octave higher (interval typical of infant-directed speech), one fifth higher, and one fifth lower than the non-target syllables, respectively. In condition 5, random words were sounded at a higher pitch, creating an inconsistent cue. In condition 6, the duration of the target word was lengthened. In conditions 7 and 8, an extraneous acoustic cue and a visual cue were associated with the target word, respectively. Performance in this word-learning task was significantly higher than that observed with simple co-occurrence only when a pitch interval of one octave consistently marked the target word. We discuss implications for the pragmatic value of pitch marking as well as the relevance of our findings to language acquisition and language evolution.