
Have you ever wondered how babies start to make sense of all the sounds they hear? For adults, recognizing words in a continuous stream of speech comes naturally and feels effortless, as we are able to rely on our existing knowledge of word forms, grammar, and context.
This study explored how infants use familiar names, such as their own name and the name they use for their caregiver (i.e., Mommy), to help break the continuous flow of speech into separate words. Unlike adults, infants don’t yet have the skill to use top-down processing and rely on stored knowledge of word forms. Instead, they use bottom-up cues like stress, sound patterns, and rhythm to make sense of speech. Because infants only recognize a few words by around six months (like their name or their parents’ name), researchers wondered whether these familiar words could serve as anchors to help them identify new ones. Infants between 6.5 and 7 months from English-speaking homes participated in two experiments. Using a head-turn preference method, researchers played short passages for each baby. In one passage, the baby’s own name was followed by a novel word; in the other, a different name appeared before another new word. The setup tracked how long babies listened to each passage to measure recognition and interest. In both experiments, infants listened significantly longer to the words that followed their own or their mother’s name compared to unfamiliar names or control words. This means that infants could segment and remember new words only when they were paired with familiar names, which showed that even by six months, they can use known words to help make sense of speech. These results suggested that infants begin to develop top-down processing much earlier than previously thought. While adults use a broad vocabulary and grammar to decode speech, infants start with a handful of familiar words as their anchors. As their vocabulary grows through exposure, their speech processing becomes more efficient, eventually resembling the advanced top-down processing adults use every day.
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Alexandra Lagaros
UConn KIDS Research Assistant