English-learning infants developing sensitivity to vowel phonotactic cues to word segmentation

Previous research has shown that when domain-general transitional probability (TP) cues to word segmentation are in conflict with language-specific stress cues, English-learning 5- and 7-month-olds rely on TP, whereas 9-month-olds rely on stress. In two artificial languages, we evaluated English-learning infants’ sensitivity to TP cues to word segmentation vis-a-vis language-specific vowel phonotactic (VP) cues—English words do not end in lax vowels. These cues were either consistent or conflicting. When these cues were in conflict, 10-month-olds relied on the VP cues, whereas 5-month-olds relied on TP. These findings align with statistical bootstrapping accounts, where infants initially use domain-general distributional information for word segmentation, and subsequently discover language-specific patterns based on segmented words.

Research Highlights

• Research indicates that when transitional probability (TP) conflicts with stress cues for word segmentation, English-learning 9-month-olds rely on stress, whereas younger infants rely on TP.
• In two artificial languages, we evaluated English-learning infants’ sensitivity to TP versus vowel phonotactic (VP) cues for word segmentation.
• When these cues conflicted, 10-month-olds relied on VPs, whereas 5-month-olds relied on TP.
• These findings align with statistical bootstrapping accounts, where infants first utilize domain-general distributional information for word segmentation, and then identify language-specific patterns from segmented words.