Development of the Mechanisms Underlying Audiovisual Speech Perception Benefit.

Kaylah Lalonde,Lynne A Werner

doi:10.3390/brainsci11010049

Kaylah Lalonde, Lynne A Werner

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11010049

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Abstract

The natural environments in which infants and children learn speech and language are noisy and multimodal. Adults rely on the multimodal nature of speech to compensate for noisy environments during speech communication. Multiple mechanisms underlie mature audiovisual benefit to speech perception, including reduced uncertainty as to when auditory speech will occur, use of correlations between the amplitude envelope of auditory and visual signals in fluent speech, and use of visual phonetic knowledge for lexical access. This paper reviews evidence regarding infants’ and children’s use of temporal and phonetic mechanisms in audiovisual speech perception benefit. The ability to use temporal cues for audiovisual speech perception benefit emerges in infancy. Although infants are sensitive to the correspondence between auditory and visual phonetic cues, the ability to use this correspondence for audiovisual benefit may not emerge until age four. A more cohesive account of the development of audiovisual speech perception may follow from a more thorough understanding of the development of sensitivity to and use of various temporal and phonetic cues.

Highlights

Studies of the development of speech perception in infancy and childhood have provided valuable information about the structure of phonological representations and the mechanisms of early speech and language learning [1,2]
An important distinction—supported by both behavioral and neurophysiological evidence—has been drawn between general perceptual audiovisual benefit resulting from the use of temporal cues and speech-specific audiovisual benefit resulting from the application of visual/multimodal phonetic knowledge
Adults rely on temporal cues for speech detection, and benefit to speech detection does not vary between infants, children, and adults [51,52]

Summary

Introduction

Studies of the development of speech perception in infancy and childhood have provided valuable information about the structure of phonological representations and the mechanisms of early speech and language learning [1,2]. Relatively few studies have considered the multimodal nature of speech perception and the noisy environments in which infants and children learn speech and language. This article reviews evidence regarding infants’ and children’s use of the mechanisms that underlie adults’ audiovisual speech perception benefit, with a particular focus on studies that differentiate between the use of temporal and phonetic cues. The current state of the literature suggests that the ability to use temporal cues for audiovisual speech perception benefit emerges in infancy, whereas the ability to use correspondences between auditory and visual phonetic cues may not emerge until 4 years of age. We suggest that a more thorough characterization of development of the use of various temporal and phonetic cues will result in a more cohesive account of audiovisual speech perception development

Our Natural Environments Are Noisy and Multimodal

Mechanisms of Audiovisual Speech Perception Benefit

Development of the Mechanisms of Audiovisual Speech Perception Benefit

Distinguishing Use of Temporal and Phonetic Cues in Development

Findings

Conclusions