Vowels and consonants matter equally to British English-learning 11-month-olds' familiar word form recognition

While adult studies show that consonants are more important than vowels in lexical processing tasks, the developmental trajectory of this consonant bias varies cross-linguistically. This study tested whether British English-learning 11-month-old infants' recognition of familiar word forms is more reliant on consonants than vowels, as found by Poltrock and Nazzi (2015) in French. After establishing that infants prefer listening to a list of familiar words over pseudowords (Experiment 1), Experiment 2 examined preference for consonant versus vowel mispronunciations of these words. Infants listened to both alterations equally. In Experiment 3, using a simplified version of the task with one familiar word only ('mummy'), infants' preference for its correct pronunciation over a consonant or a vowel change confirmed an equal sensitivity to both alterations. British English-learning infants' word form recognition appears to be equally impacted by consonant and vowel information, providing further evidence that initial lexical processes vary cross-linguistically.

Automated summary

Adult studies have shown that consonants are more important than vowels in lexical processing tasks, but the developmental trajectory of this consonant bias varies across different languages. This study tested whether British English-learning 11-month-old infants rely more on consonants than vowels in recognizing familiar word forms, similar to findings in French. The results showed that infants had an equal preference for consonant and vowel mispronunciations of familiar words. This suggests that British English-learning infants' word form recognition is equally influenced by consonant and vowel information, supporting the idea that initial lexical processes vary cross-linguistically.