28.2872, Diss: Measuring children’s sensitivity to phonological detail using eye tracking and pupillometry

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-2872. Fri Jun 30 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.2872, Diss: Measuring children’s sensitivity to phonological detail using eye tracking and pupillometry

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Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:56:05
From: Katalin Tamasi [tamaasi.kata at gmail.com]
Subject: Measuring children’s sensitivity to phonological detail using eye tracking and pupillometry

 
Institution: Universität Potsdam 
Program: International Doctorate in Experimental Approaches to Language and Brain (IDEALAB) 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2017 

Author: Katalin Tamasi

Dissertation Title: Measuring children’s sensitivity to phonological detail
using eye tracking and pupillometry 

Dissertation URL:  http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-395954

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
                     Phonology
                     Psycholinguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Barbara Hohle
Cristina McKean
Adamantios I. Gafos

Dissertation Abstract:

Infants' lexical processing is modulated by featural manipulations made to
words, suggesting that early lexical representations are sufficiently
specified to establish a match with the corresponding label. However, the
precise degree of detail in early words requires further investigation due to
equivocal findings. We studied this question by assessing children’s
sensitivity to the degree of featural manipulation (Chapters 2 and 3), and
sensitivity to the featural makeup of homorganic and heterorganic consonant
clusters (Chapter 4). Gradient sensitivity on the one hand and sensitivity to
homorganicity on the other hand would suggest that lexical processing makes
use of sub-phonemic information, which in turn would indicate that early words
contain sub-phonemic detail. The studies presented in this thesis assess
children’s sensitivity to sub-phonemic detail using minimally demanding online
paradigms suitable for infants: single-picture pupillometry and intermodal
preferential looking. Such paradigms have the potential to uncover lexical
knowledge that may be masked otherwise due to cognitive limitations. The study
reported in Chapter 2 obtained a differential response in pupil dilation to
the degree of featural manipulation, a result consistent with gradient
sensitivity. The study reported in Chapter 3 obtained a differential response
in proportion of looking time and pupil dilation to the degree of featural
manipulation, a result again consistent with gradient sensitivity. The study
reported in Chapter 4 obtained a differential response to the manipulation of
homorganic and heterorganic consonant clusters, a result consistent with
sensitivity to homorganicity.  These results suggest that infants' lexical
representations are not only specific, but also detailed to the extent that
they contain sub-phonemic information.




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