Perceiving onset clusters in infancy

By 9-months infants are sensitive to native-language sound combinations. Our studies show that while younger infants discriminate clusters, they are not sensitive to differences in statistical frequency. Thus, the emergence of phonotactic knowledge is driven by experience with the frequency of occurrence of the sound combinations in one's language.

► We examined what might be driving the developmental differences between 6-month and 9-month olds’ sensitivity to native language sound combinations (phonotactics).
► It has been shown that infants of 9-months have preferences for words that conform to their native language sound patterns, but this is not the case for 6-month-olds.
► We explored whether this could be due to perceptual factors (inability to perceive differences) or due to experience, in particular accumulated knowledge about the frequency of sound combinations.
► We examined if infants attend to type and/or token frequency of consonant combinations.
► Our results demonstrate that both 6- and 9-month old infants can discriminate clusters, but only 9-month-olds are sensitive to the type frequency of legal clusters.