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The present study compared sensitivity to coarticulatory cues in school-aged children and adults using eyetracking, and how processing of phonetic detail in speech may relate to reading and language proficiency. Children and adults listened to words containing congruent and incongruent coarticulatory cues while we monitored eye movements to a target image versus a distractor. Consonant onsets in auditory words were cross-spliced to contain either congruent or incongruent coarticulatory cues. We then compared timing of looks to target and distractor images for congruent and incongruent trials. Contrary to theories positing weakened attention to phonetic detail in children, we observed greater sensitivity to coarticulatory cues in children compared to adults. Children also completed measures of reading, rapid naming, letter knowledge, and sentence recall, and we observed that the magnitude of coarticulation effects correlated with reading and language measures. These findings suggest that children are more sensitive to phonetic incongruency in speech than adults, and the phonological skills underlying this sensitivity are related to individual differences in reading and language ability.
Funding statement: This research was supported by NSERC and NIDCD grants. |
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