The effect of age on phonetic imitation in children

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effect of age on phonetic imitation in children. Previous studies have shown that adult speakers implicitly imitate the phonetic properties of recently heard speech (e.g. Goldinger, 1998). Recently, Nielsen (2011) reported that third-graders show similar patterns of phonetic imitation, including word-specific patterns of imitation. The current study extends these findings and investigates the effect of age on phonetic imitation, by comparing the pattern of imitation between third-graders and preschoolers. According to Piaget (1962), development of imitation is a manifestation of the increasing distinctiveness between assimilation and accommodation in early childhood, predicting greater imitation for older children. At the same time, findings on motor imitation by newborns (e.g., Meltzoff & Moore, 1997) suggest that the intermodal mapping necessary for imitation is at least partly innate. The experiment employed a picture-naming task: participants' speech production was compared before and after they were exposed to model speech with extended VOT on the target phoneme /p/. A preliminary data analysis revealed a greater degree of imitation for older children, while both groups showed significant imitation. These findings are in agreement with the effects of age and developmental level on motor imitation observed in Fouts and Liikanen (1975).