Home > Events > LSLT: Amritha Mallikarjun (NACS/HESP)
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LSLT: Amritha Mallikarjun (NACS/HESP)

Time: 
Thursday, September 13, 2018 - 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Location: 
2130 H.J. Patterson Hall


Title: What Domestic Dogs Can Tell Us About Language Learning

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss two speech perception studies done with domestic dogs, designed to be very similar to studies that have been done with human infants. These dog studies are both done using headturn preference procedure, a common infant testing method. In the first study, we explore whether or not dogs can detect a mispronunciation in their name. Dogs listened to their name and various mispronounced versions of their name, and we looked to see if they preferred to listen to one over the other. We found that dogs can detect a vowel mispronunciation in their name, but not a consonant mispronunciation; this is a similar result to that of 5-month-old infants.

In the second study, dogs listened to clips of a speaker reading fairy tales in Spanish and English, and in adult-directed and infant-directed speech. We find that dogs who have been hearing English at home prefer to listen to the Spanish stories. We are not finished with data collection on dogs that hear Spanish, but currently they prefer to listen to the English stories. Dogs are able to detect the difference between their familiar language and a novel one, like infants, but unlike infants, they prefer to listen to the novel language.

I then discuss what comparative research with dogs can add to our understanding of speech perception. 

 

Food and ideas bring people together. Our weekly lunch talk series provides students and faculty with the opportunity to present their in-progress work to a supportive, interdisciplinary audience.

Talks take place at the Language Science Center in 2130 H.J. Patterson. Lunch is served by 12:15, and the talk starts promptly at 12:30. 

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