Supplementary Tables for "Identification of Prelinguistic Phonological Categories" (Ramsdell et al., 2012)

Purpose The prelinguistic infant's babbling repertoire of syllables—the phonological categories that form the basis for early word learning—is noticed by caregivers who interact with infants around them. Prior research on babbling has not explored the caregiver's role in recognition of early vocal categories as foundations for word learning. In the present work, the authors begin to address this gap. Method The authors explored vocalizations produced by 8 infants at 3 ages (8, 10, and 12 months) in studies illustrating identification of phonological categories through caregiver report, laboratory procedures simulating the caregiver's natural mode of listening, and the more traditional laboratory approach (phonetic transcription). Results Caregivers reported small repertoires of syllables for their infants. Repertoires of similar size and phonetic content were discerned in the laboratory by judges who simulated the caregiver's natural mode of listening. However, phonetic transcription with repeated listening to infant recordings yielded repertoire sizes that vastly exceeded those reported by caregivers and naturalistic listeners. Conclusions The results suggest that caregiver report and naturalistic listening by laboratory staff can provide a new way to explore key characteristics of early infant vocal categories, a way that may provide insight into later speech and language development.

研究目的 前语言期婴儿的咿呀语（babbling）音节库——即构成早期词汇学习基础的音系范畴（phonological categories）——会被日常照料其的看护者所察觉。过往针对婴儿咿呀语的研究尚未探讨看护者对早期语音范畴的识别作用，而这类范畴正是词汇学习的核心基础，本研究旨在填补这一研究空白。研究方法 本研究收录了8名婴儿在3个年龄阶段（8、10、12月龄）时发出的语音发声样本，通过三种实验范式探索音系范畴的识别过程：一是看护者报告法，二是模拟看护者自然聆听模式的实验室程序，三是更为传统的实验室语音转录（phonetic transcription）法。研究结果 看护者报告的婴儿音节库规模普遍较小。模拟看护者自然聆听模式的实验室评判人员，同样能够识别出规模与语音内容相近的音节库。然而，通过反复聆听婴儿录音并进行语音转录得到的音节库规模，远超看护者报告法与自然聆听法所得到的结果。研究结论 本研究结果表明，看护者报告法与实验室人员的自然聆听法，可为探索婴儿早期语音范畴的关键特征提供全新的研究路径，该路径或能为理解个体后续的言语与语言发展提供重要洞见。