Phonetic similarity influences learning word-object associations in 14-month-old infants

This series of studies investigated the ability of 14-month-old infants to differentiate similar-sounding words in a word-object association task. Despite the remarkable speech perception abilities previously demonstrated in young infants, studies of word learning in older infants indicate they have difficulty learning similar-sounding words. This evidence suggests that infants may not be using their remarkable speech-perception abilities as they move into word learning. The purpose of my research was to test for evidence of the ability to form word-object associations for similar sounding words, at an early stage of word learning. Previous research has demonstrated infants are able to learn word-object associations for words that do not sound similar (Werker, Cohen, & Lloyd, 1995). The present studies used a similar design, in which infants are habituated to either one or two word-object pairings and are then tested with a pairing where either the object or the label is switched from those presented in the habituation phase. Across a series of three experiments it was demonstrated that infants notice when the switch that occurs is a switch in the object, but not when the switch is a switch in the label. This suggests older infants do have difficulty learning phonetically similar word-object associations.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat