The DOI matches its Crossref record; 16 of the 62 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Word Segmentation: The Role of Distributional Cues
Open accessAbstract
One of the infant's first tasks in language acquisition is to discover the words embedded in a mostly continuous speech stream. This learning problem might be solved by using distributional cues to word boundaries—for example, by computing the transitional probabilities between sounds in the language input and using the relative strengths of these probabilities to hypothesize word boundaries. The learner might be further aided by language-specific prosodic cues correlated with word boundaries. As a first step in testing these hypotheses, we briefly exposed adults to an artificial language in which the only cues available for word segmentation were the transitional probabilities between syllables. Subjects were able to learn the words of this language. Furthermore, the addition of certain prosodic cues served to enhance performance. These results suggest that distributional cues may play an important role in the initial word segmentation of language learners.
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In the citing paper
“infants may be able to exploit statistical cues to word boundaries”
From Incidental Language Learning: Listening (and Learning) Out of the Corner of Your Ear (1997) · cites this paper as Saffran, Newport, & Aslin, 1996
In the citing paper
“We (Saffran et al., 1996) demonstrated, in an explicit-learning task, that adult subjects were able to use transitional probabilities to learn the multisyllabic words of an artificial language presented as a synthesized speech stream containing no other cues to word boundaries.”
From Incidental Language Learning: Listening (and Learning) Out of the Corner of Your Ear (1997) · cites this paper as Saffran et al., 1996
In the citing paper
“the input was quite impoverished, containing neither utterance boundaries nor the acoustic and prosodic cues that are probabilistically correlated with word boundaries in some languages”
From Incidental Language Learning: Listening (and Learning) Out of the Corner of Your Ear (1997) · cites this paper as Saffran et al., 1996
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“Words may be defined in distributional terms,boundaries, including word-initial strong syllables in English and word-final accent in along the lines of other syntactic constituents (e.g., Lyons, 1968).”
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The status of word-final phonetic phenomena
Rouch, M., & Lunden, A. (2020) · doi:10.3765/plsa.v5i1.4730
“It has been shown that both infants and adults can complete this task fairly well with just the use of transitional probabilities (TP) for the unique syllables, using these statistics to parse words out of the speech stream of the artificial language (e.g. Saffran et al. 1996).”
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InfluentialGonzalez-Gomez, N. (2020) · The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development · doi:10.1002/9781119171492.wecad124
Gonzalez-Gomez, N. (2020) · The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development · doi:10.1002/9781119171492.wecad125
Literacy Acquisition: A Plus Factor in French Children’s Word Segmentation After 5 Years of Age
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Counting Occurrences: How Frequency Made Its Way into the Study of Language
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The Brain’s Attention-Orienting Mechanisms
Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.007
Salience: Capturing Attention in and through Language
Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.008 · Cited by 1
More than Frequencies: Towards a Probabilistic View on Language
Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.004
Learning: Navigating Frequency, Recency, Context and Contingency
Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.010
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Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.005
Entrenching Linguistic Structures
Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.006
Category learning is constrained by training context and prior experience
Roark, C. L. (2019) · doi:10.1184/r1/9695873.v1
“As I have mentioned, this sensitivity is present in infants 10 (Eimas, 1975; Saffran et al., 1996).”
BackgroundInfluentialDiscussion 2 Multilingualism and Socioeconomic Development
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Kim, Y. G., & Yun, J. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.007 · Cited by 6
Discussion 1 Bilingualism as Action
Rutherford-Quach, S., & Hakuta, K. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.022
Measurement of Reading Comprehension, Processing, and Growth
Biancarosa, G. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.014 · Cited by 1
Nicolopoulou, A. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.009 · Cited by 1
Classroom Conversations as Support for Vocabulary Learning
Ford‐Connors, E., & O’Connor, M. C. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.013 · Cited by 1
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Uchikoshi, Y., & Marinova-Todd, S. H. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.021 · Cited by 2
Chen, S. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.018
Leyva, D., & Skorb, L. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.006
Grøver, V., Uccelli, P., Rowe, M. L., & Lieven, E. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.001
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Grøver, V., Uccelli, P., Rowe, M. L., & Lieven, E. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.026
(2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316718537.025
Influence of metrical structure on learning of positional regularities in movement sequences
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Word segmentation cues in the process of spoken language
Yu, W.-B., & Liang, D. (2018) · Advances in Psychological Science · doi:10.3724/sp.j.1042.2018.01765
Distributional learning on Mechanical Turk and effects of attentional shifts
Moeng, E. (2017) · Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America · doi:10.3765/plsa.v2i0.4105
“Learners are able to make use of transitional probabilities to segment a stream of speech (Saffran et al. 1996), but if their attention is diverted, they exhibit less learning. Toro et al. (2005) and Saffran et al. (1997) both exposed learners to a speech stream in a segmentation experiment.”
BackgroundInfluentialDependence-Based Segmentation Approach for Detecting Morpheme Boundaries
Khorsi, A., & Al-Sheddi, A. S. (2017) · Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems · doi:10.25046/aj020314
“The article discusses one of the main challenges in computational linguistics is the identification of morpheme boundaries [2, 3, 4].”
Nouvelles technologies et standards méthodologiques en linguistique
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“The formula in (4) closely resemble an average conditional probability – which children are likely to use to infer structure in language (Saffran et al., 1996) –, but differs from it”
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Nishibayashi, L. (2014) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/c92b3d1azfc5bz441fza27bz131263a97c00
“These cues include transitional probabilities (TPs) between syllables (Johnson & Jusczyk, 2001; Mersad & Nazzi, 2012; Saffran et al., 1996b; Thiessen & Saffran, 2003), the rhythmic unit of the native language (Curtin et al., 2005; Jusczyk et al., 1999a; Nazzi et al., 2006; Nazzi et al., 2014),…”
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A statistical model for word discovery in child directed speech
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“Approaches not based on explicit probability models include those based on information theoretic criteria such as MDL (Brent & Cartwright, 1996; de Marcken, 1995), transitional probability (Saffran et al., 1996) or simple recurrent networks (Elman, 1990; Christiansen et al., 1998).”
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Managing and Analyzing Data with Phonological CorpusTools
Berez-Kroeker, A., McDonnell, B., Koller, E., & Collister, L. (2022) · The Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management · doi:10.7551/mitpress/12200.003.0056
“• Measures of how likely some sound is based on other components of its environment_transitional probability_; see, e.g., Saffran et al. 1996; (informativity; see, e.g., Cohen Priva 2008, 2015; and mutual information; see, e.g., Brent 1999; Goldsmith & Riggle 2012).”
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Sequential Learning by Touch, Vision, and Audition
Conway, C. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019) · Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society · doi:10.4324/9781315782379-75
“The acquisition of statistical/sequential information from the environment appears to be involved in many learning situations, ranging from speech segmentation ( Saffran, Newport, & Aslin, 1996 ), to learning orthographic regularities of written words (Pacton, Perruchet, Fayol, & Cleeremans, 2001) to processing visual…”
BackgroundDivjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.001
(2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.012
Divjak, D. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781316084410.013
Yuk, L. (2017) · doi:10.25911/5d6668cfe6e31
“In their seminal study, Saffran et al. (1996) showed that 8-month-old infants were capable of segmenting continuous speech based on co-occurrence probabilities between adjacent syllables.”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Saffran, J. R., Newport, E. L., & Aslin, R. N.
- Affiliations
- University of Rochester (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Memory and Language
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1996-08
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 606-621
- ISSN
- 0749-596X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2115867364
- Cited by
- 1,405
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 35 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 109 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 104 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 95 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 62 · 2014: 65 · 2013: 56 · 2012: 51
- FWCI
- 19.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Memory and Language (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- word segmentation, distributional cues, transition probabilities, prosodic cues, artificial language learning, infant language acquisition, word boundary detection, statistical learning
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