Acoustic/phonological saliency

[Alcock, Katherine]

I have a question about this concept which seems to be bandied about a lot in the language acquisition literature.  While there do seem to be some empirical studies, for example of the amplitude of particular phonemes compared to other phonemes, it also seems to be a concept that many assume in studies - for example, assuming that initial syllables or phonemes, or final ones, or stressed ones, will be more salient to children learning language.  I am using this concept in the field of literacy (spelling, in particular) and although I can find many papers in spoken language acquisition which draw on the concept of saliency to explain children's preferences for particular words/sounds, I can't seem to find any discussion of the concept per se, or measurements, either acoustic or behavioural, of some aspects of salience.
 
Does anyone have any ideas - is this lost in the mists of time, or something that linguists take in with their mothers' milk and I missed out in my neuroscience education? Or am I confusing two different concepts?
 
thanks
 
Katie Alcock