title: The development of language constancy: attention to native versus nonnative accents.
abstract: The time frame for infants' acquisition of language constancy was probed, using the phonetic variation in a rarely heard accent (South African English) or a frequently heard accent (American English). A total of 156 Australian infants were tested. Six-month-olds looked longer to Australian English than less commonly heard South African accent, but at 9 months, showed similar looking times. With the more frequently heard American accent, 3-month-olds looked longer to Australian and American English, whereas 6-month-olds looked equally. Together these results imply that in the 1st year, differential attention to native versus nonnative accents decreases as infants develop a sense of language constancy for the common native language. However, experience with the nonnative accent can expedite this process.
authors: University of Western Sydney.
authors: Christine
authors: C
authors: Kitamura
authors: Robin
authors: R
authors: Panneton
authors: Catherine T
authors: CT
authors: Best
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001315:Australia; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013019:South Africa; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology