Poster #70 - Child Word Learning in Song and Speech

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Like language, music is a major auditory channel of communication. The use of music features in speech may facilitate language learning. Adults capitalize on infant sensitivity to musical features by using a special form of infant-directed speech when they talk to babies that features exaggerated prosody, slower transitions, and increased repetition: all elements characteristic of music. Research also found that children learn new words better in infant-directed speech than in adult-directed speech (ADS). However, it is still unknown whether singing facilitates young children’s learning and long-term memory (LTM) of new words.

This study examined word learning (assessed as forming word-object associations) in 1-2-year-olds and 3-4-year-olds, and word LTM in 4-5-year-olds several days after the initial learning. In an intermodal preferential looking paradigm, children were taught a pair of words utilizing adult-directed speech (ADS) and a pair of sung words.
Four experiments were conducted. In each, children were trained on the associations between novel words and novel objects, and their learning of the associations was then tested in an immediate (Experiments 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b) and delayed (Experiments 2a, 2b) task. Experiment 1a examined whether sung words are easier to learn than ADS words when embedded in the same sentence frames. Experiment 1a required word segmentation, word mapping (forming a word-referent association), and word recognition at test. Experiment 1b investigated whether the effect of song on word learning is still observable when the novel words are presented in isolation, without sentence frames. Experiment 1b required only word mapping and recognition, thus allowing us to determine whether song facilitates the word mapping–recognition processes. Experiment 3 used a delayed word recognition task to test children’s LTM for the word-object associations on which they were trained several days earlier. Experiment 4 examined whether the effect of song on word LTM arose from hearing sung words in the training that facilitated the learning of the word-object association or hearing sung words at test that facilitated word recognition.

Word learning performance was better with sung words than with ADS words in 1-2-year-olds (Experiments 1a-1b), 3-4-year-olds (Experiment 1a), and 4-5-year-olds (Experiment 2b). In addition, the 1-2-year-olds learned only sung words but the 3-4- and 4-5-year-olds learned both sung and ADS words. The benefit of song on word learning cannot be explained as an attentional effect. In addition, song facilitated word learning through its effect on the word mapping–recognition processes. However, results did not reveal conclusive evidence for the effect of song on word LTM, as word LTM did not differ between ADS and sung words at ages 4-5. Nevertheless, reliable word LTM was observed only with sung words – a finding that cannot be explained as an attentional effect. Finally, the retention of sung words arose from hearing sung words in the training rather at test, since hearing sung words at test did not improve child LTM performance.

The findings suggest that the widespread tradition of singing to young children not only provides an emotional means of adult-child communication, but also may assist in language learning.

Authors

• Weiyi Ma, University of Arkansas
  Presenting Author

• William Forde Thompson