Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months

  1. Patricia K. Kuhl1,
  2. Erica Stevens1,
  3. Akiko Hayashi2,
  4. Toshisada Deguchi3,
  5. Shigeru Kiritani4,
  6. Paul Iverson5

Article first published online: 9 FEB 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00468.x

Issue

Developmental Science

Developmental Science

Volume 9, Issue 2, pages F13–F21, March 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Kuhl, P. K., Stevens, E., Hayashi, A., Deguchi, T., Kiritani, S. and Iverson, P. (2006), Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months. Developmental Science, 9: F13–F21. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00468.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, USA

  2. 2

    Research Institute for the Education of Exceptional Children, Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan

  3. 3

    Comprehensive Educational Science, Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan

  4. 4

    Institute of Cognitive Sciences in Languages and Cultures, Kobe Kaisei College, Kobe, Japan

  5. 5

    Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, UK

*Address for correspondence: Patricia K. Kuhl, Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, Box 357920, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; e-mail: pkkuhl@u.washington.edu

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 FEB 2006
  2. Article first published online: 9 FEB 2006
  3. Received: 23 September 2005 Accepted: 8 November 2005

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Abstract

Patterns of developmental change in phonetic perception are critical to theory development. Many previous studies document a decline in nonnative phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months of age. However, much less experimental attention has been paid to developmental change in native-language phonetic perception over the same time period. We hypothesized that language experience in the first year facilitates native-language phonetic performance between 6 and 12 months of age. We tested 6–8- and 10–12-month-old infants in the United States and Japan to examine native and nonnative patterns of developmental change using the American English /r-l/ contrast. The goals of the experiment were to: (a) determine whether facilitation characterizes native-language phonetic change between 6 and 12 months of age, (b) examine the decline previously observed for nonnative contrasts and (c) test directional asymmetries for consonants. The results show a significant increase in performance for the native-language contrast in the first year, a decline in nonnative perception over the same time period, and indicate directional asymmetries that are constant across age and culture. We argue that neural commitment to native-language phonetic properties explains the pattern of developmental change in the first year.

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