Browsing by Author "Mehler, Jacques"

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    Language acquisition in premature and full-term infants
    (NATL ACAD SCIENCES, 2010) Pena, Marcela; Pittaluga, Enrica; Mehler, Jacques
    We tested healthy preterm (born near 28 +/- 2 weeks of gestational age) and full-term infants at various different ages. We compared the two populations on the development of a language acquisition landmark, namely, the ability to distinguish the native language from a rhythmically similar one. This ability is attained 4 months after birth in healthy full-term infants. We measured the induced gamma-band power associated with passive listening to (i) the infants' native language (Spanish), (ii) a rhythmically close language (Italian), and (iii) a rhythmically distant language (Japanese) as a marker of gains in language discrimination. Preterm and full-term infants were matched for neural maturation and duration of exposure to broadcast speech. We found that both full-term and preterm infants only display a response to native speech near 6 months after their term age. Neural maturation seems to constrain advances in speech discrimination at early stages of language acquisition.
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    The "soul" of language does not use statistics: Reflections on vowels and consonants
    (ELSEVIER MASSON, CORP OFF, 2006) Mehler, Jacques; Pena, Marcela; Nespor, Marina; Bonatti, Luca
    This paper reviews studies of language processing with the aim of establishing whether any type of statistical information embedded in linguistic signals can be exploited by the language learner. The constraints as to the information that can be so used, we will argue, should be used to inform theories of language acquisition.