Categorical perception of nonspeech sounds by 2-month-old infants.

Number 207
Year 1977
Drawer 4
Entry Date 06/01/1999
Authors Jusczyk, P. W., Rosner, B. S., Cutting, J. E., Foard, C. L., & Smith, L. B.
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Publication Perception & Psychophysics, 21(1), 50-54
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Abstract According to J. E. Cutting and B. S. Rosner's (see PA, Vol 53:10801) investigations, adult listeners perceive rise-time differences in both speech and nonspeech stimuli in a categorical manner. Adults labeled sawtooth-wave stimuli as either plucked or bowed. The present study used the high-amplitude sucking technique to explore 9 male and 9 female 5-10 wk old infants' perception of rise-time differences for sawtooth stimuli. Ss discriminated rise-time differences which marked off the different nonspeech categories but did not discriminate equal differences within either category. Thus, the present study shows that infants, like adults, can perceive nonspeech stimuli in a categorical manner.
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