Abstract

The perceptual interaction of voicing cues that differentiate between final position /d/ and /t/ was investigated in 6–8‐month‐old infants. Fifty‐two infants were divided into four groups; half received three contrastive pairs of two‐syllable stimuli [ma + syllable] and the other half received analogous three‐syllable stimuli [masa + syllable]. Infants' discrimination was tested using the visually reinforced infant speech discrimination paradigm. Half the infants in each syllable condition received cooperating cues for final voicing; the other half received conflicting cues. The cooperating stimuli were (1) [masamad]‐[masamat] (voicing only), (2) [masamad]‐[masama:d] (vowel duration only), and (3) [masama:d]‐[masamat] (voicing + vowel duration). The competing group received (1) [masamad]‐[masamat], (2) [masamat‐masama:t], and (3) [masamad]‐[masama:t]. Analysis of variance yielded a significant stimulus‐pair effect but did not yield a significant syllable effect or a cue‐group by stimulus‐pair interaction. However, post hoc analysis indicated that vowel duration was a more potent cue than voicing and multiple cues were significantly better discriminated than single cues (pairs 1 and 2). No decrement in performance resulted from competing cues. Implications for development are discussed.

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