ERP correlates of word onset priming in infants and young children

Angelika B.C Becker,Ulrike Schild,Claudia K Friedrich

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2013.12.004

Angelika B.C Becker, Ulrike Schild + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2013.12.004

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Abstract

Using word onset priming with early learned words, we tracked access to phonological representations and predictive phonological processing at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after birth. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants heard German word onsets (primes) followed by disyllabic spoken words (targets). Primes and target onsets were either congruent or incongruent (ma – Mama vs. so – Mama [Engl. ‘mommy’]). For an adult control group, ERP differences were found for the N100 complex, which has been related to abstract auditory analysis; and for the P350 deflection, which has been related to lexical access. A combined analysis of all infants and young children revealed an immature instance of an N100 effect, suggesting adult-like abstract speech sound processing. A central negativity effect, which had formerly been obtained when adults or older children were engaged in a lexical decision task, suggests that adult-like predictive phonological processing is available early in infancy. However, the absence of a P350-like effect in the infant data suggests that adult-like access to phonological forms is not established in the first two years of life. Taken together, ERPs recorded in word onset priming proved useful in investigating early phonological processing without an explicit behavioral measure.

Highlights

From early on, infants store phonological representations of words that frequently occur in their caregivers’ speech
By means of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) recorded in auditory word onset priming, the present study explored access to phonological representations and predictive phonological processing in infants and toddlers aged 6, 12, 18, and 24 months, and in adults
Because former word onset priming studies with adults and children included a lexical decision task in which participants had to decide whether the target is a word or not (Friedrich et al, 2009; Schild et al, 2011), we first evaluate whether a passive listening situation in an adult control group elicits the ERP deflections formerly reported

Summary

Introduction

Infants store phonological representations of words that frequently occur in their caregivers’ speech. Whether the format of early phonological representations and their access mechanisms are compatible for infants, young children and adults is still a matter of debate. Several aspects that characterize adult spoken word recognition have been in focus of behavioral research with young children, namely (i) incremental activation of word form representations as the speech signal unfolds in time (Marslen-Wilson, 1987); (ii) graded activation of word form representations as a function of their goodness-of-fit with the speech signal (see Dahan and Magnuson, 2006; McQueen, 2007); and (iii) competition between activated entries (see Luce, 1986; McClelland and Elman, 1986). When 18-month-olds hear the onset syllable of a word like baby (/bei-/) and are presented with a picture of a dog and a baby, they fixate longer on the target picture with an

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