The development of perceptual cue-weighting in children aged 6 to 12

Development in the ability to categorise phonemic contrasts was examined in 85 children aged 6 to 12 and thirteen adult controls using synthetic stimulus continua presented in identification tests. The range of contrasts included a stop voicing contrast (/g/-/k/), a stop place contrast (/d/-/g/), a fricative voicing contrast (/s/-/z/), a fricative place contrast (/s/-/S/), and a fricative-affricate manner contrast (/S/-/tS/). This study aimed to test: (1) whether there would be age effects in the sharpness of categorisation; (2) whether the sharpness of categorisation would differ across phonemic contrasts acquired at different stages of development and (3) whether children would give greater perceptual weighting than adults to cues marked by rapid spectral change. Shallower identification function gradients were obtained for the 6;0-7;6 year old group than for the 9 to 12 year old groups, and all groups of children showed decreased sharpness of categorisation relative to adults. As predicted, the stop place and voicing contrasts were categorised more sharply than the fricative place and voicing contrasts. There was no conclusive support for the view that children aged 6 or more still placed greater reliance on dynamic cues than older children or adults.