Teinonen et al. (2009) exposed 2-day old infants to 15 minutes of speech and measured their ERP activity. Based on the findings of this study, you might predict that
A) newborns would be unable to detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables in a native language.
B) newborns would be able to detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables in a non-native language.
C) newborns would be unable to detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables in any language.
D) ERP is not an appropriate measure to use with infants to detect differences in transitional probabilities to auditory stimuli.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Teinonen et al. (2009) found that newborns can detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables, indicating an innate ability to process aspects of language, including in non-native languages. This suggests that even at a very young age, infants are sensitive to statistical regularities in auditory stimuli.

Teinonen Et Al