TY - JOUR
T1 - Children's Development of Self-Regulation in Speech Production
AU - MacDonald, Ewen
AU - Johnson, Elizabeth K.
AU - Forsythe, Jaime
AU - Plante, Paul
AU - Munhall, Kevin G.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Species-specific vocalizations fall into two broad categories: those that emerge during maturation, independent of experience, and those that depend on early life interactions with conspecifics. Human language and the communication systems of a small number of other species, including songbirds, fall into this latter class of vocal learning. Self-monitoring has been assumed to play an important role in the vocal learning of speech [1–3] and studies demonstrate that perception of your own voice is crucial for both the development and lifelong maintenance of vocalizations in humans and songbirds [4–8]. Experimental modifications of auditory feedback can also change vocalizations in both humans and songbirds [9–13]. However, with the exception of large manipulations of timing [14, 15], no study to date has ever directly examined the use of auditory feedback in speech production under the age of 4. Here we use a real-time formant perturbation task [16] to compare the response of toddlers, children, and adults to altered feedback. Children and adults reacted to this manipulation by changing their vowels in a direction opposite to the perturbation. Surprisingly, toddlers' speech didn't change in response to altered feedback, suggesting that long-held assumptions regarding the role of self-perception in articulatory development need to be reconsidered.
AB - Species-specific vocalizations fall into two broad categories: those that emerge during maturation, independent of experience, and those that depend on early life interactions with conspecifics. Human language and the communication systems of a small number of other species, including songbirds, fall into this latter class of vocal learning. Self-monitoring has been assumed to play an important role in the vocal learning of speech [1–3] and studies demonstrate that perception of your own voice is crucial for both the development and lifelong maintenance of vocalizations in humans and songbirds [4–8]. Experimental modifications of auditory feedback can also change vocalizations in both humans and songbirds [9–13]. However, with the exception of large manipulations of timing [14, 15], no study to date has ever directly examined the use of auditory feedback in speech production under the age of 4. Here we use a real-time formant perturbation task [16] to compare the response of toddlers, children, and adults to altered feedback. Children and adults reacted to this manipulation by changing their vowels in a direction opposite to the perturbation. Surprisingly, toddlers' speech didn't change in response to altered feedback, suggesting that long-held assumptions regarding the role of self-perception in articulatory development need to be reconsidered.
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.052
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.052
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 113
EP - 117
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
SN - 0960-9822
IS - 2
ER -