Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Cognition. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Cognition, 213, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104543
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Infancy studies come of age
T2 - Jacques Mehler's influence on the importance of perinatal experience for early language learning
AU - Panneton, R.
AU - Bremner, J.G.
AU - Johnson, S.P.
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Cognition. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Cognition, 213, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104543
PY - 2021/8/31
Y1 - 2021/8/31
N2 - In this paper, we pay homage to Jacques Mehler's empirical and theoretical contributions to the field of infancy studies. We focus on studies of the ability of the human fetus and newborn to attend to, learn from, and remember aspects of the environment, in particular the linguistic environment, as a part of an essential dynamic system of early influence. We provide a selective review of Mehler's and others' studies that examined the perinatal period and helped to clarify the earliest skills and predilections that infants bring to the task of language learning. We then highlight findings on newborns' perceptual skills and biases that motivated a shift in researchers' focus to fetal learning to better understand the role of the maternal voice in guiding newborns' speech perception. Finally, we point to the inspiration drawn from these perinatal approaches to more full-scale empirical treatments of how prenatal experience and behavior have come to be recognized as essential underpinnings to the earliest mental architectures of human cognition.
AB - In this paper, we pay homage to Jacques Mehler's empirical and theoretical contributions to the field of infancy studies. We focus on studies of the ability of the human fetus and newborn to attend to, learn from, and remember aspects of the environment, in particular the linguistic environment, as a part of an essential dynamic system of early influence. We provide a selective review of Mehler's and others' studies that examined the perinatal period and helped to clarify the earliest skills and predilections that infants bring to the task of language learning. We then highlight findings on newborns' perceptual skills and biases that motivated a shift in researchers' focus to fetal learning to better understand the role of the maternal voice in guiding newborns' speech perception. Finally, we point to the inspiration drawn from these perinatal approaches to more full-scale empirical treatments of how prenatal experience and behavior have come to be recognized as essential underpinnings to the earliest mental architectures of human cognition.
KW - article
KW - female
KW - fetus
KW - human
KW - human experiment
KW - infancy
KW - infant
KW - language development
KW - newborn
KW - perinatal period
KW - skill
KW - speech perception
KW - theoretical study
KW - voice
U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104543
DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104543
M3 - Journal article
VL - 213
JO - Cognition
JF - Cognition
SN - 0010-0277
M1 - 104543
ER -