Degree
Master of Science
Program
Psychology
Supervisor
Dr. Lisa Archibald
Abstract
Infants rely on cues from their environment during language acquisition. Prosodic features of words are one such cue and involve changes in stress and rhythmic patterns within speech. Studies have examined prosody’s influence on word segmentation and have found it to be a useful cue for detecting word boundaries (Johnson & Seidl, 2009). What is less understood is how prosody helps infants form associations between novel labels and their referents during word learning. The present thesis investigated the influence of prosodic cues on word learning. The looking times were recorded of 13 infants (19-25 months) exposed to object-label pairings that either did or did not contain a prosodic manipulation. Results revealed shorter vs. longer looking times to prosodic cues congruent or incongruent, respectively, with previous pairings. Looking times to novel or consistent pairings involving no prosodic cues did not differ. These findings suggest that prosody may help facilitate word learning.
Recommended Citation
DaSilva, Monica, "Prosody: An Important Cue to Word Learning" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3143.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3143
Included in
Child Psychology Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons