Modelling the Noise-Robustness of Infants' Word Representations: The Impact of Previous Experience.

ABSTRACT: During language acquisition, infants frequently encounter ambient noise. We present a computational model to address whether specific acoustic processing abilities are necessary to detect known words in moderate noise--an ability attested experimentally in infants. The model implements a general purpose speech encoding and word detection procedure. Importantly, the model contains no dedicated processes for removing or cancelling out ambient noise, and it can replicate the patterns of results obtained in several infant experiments. In addition to noise, we also addressed the role of previous experience with particular target words: does the frequency of a word matter, and does it play a role whether that word has been spoken by one or multiple speakers? The simulation results show that both

SUBMITTER: Bergmann C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4517927 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature