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
Citations
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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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46 of the 62 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
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Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.274.5294.1926 · Cited by 5,659
Self-citationStatistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults
Saffran, J. R., Johnson, E. K., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1999) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(98)00075-4 · Cited by 1,429
“As in the linguistic materials used by Saffran et al. (1996b), there were no acoustic markers of word boundaries.”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSelf-citationInfant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination
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Talking to Children Matters: Early Language Experience Strengthens Processing and Builds Vocabulary
Weisleder, A., & Fernald, A. (2013) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797613488145 · Cited by 1,273
Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month-old infants
Aslin, R. N., Saffran, J. R., & Newport, E. L. (1998) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00063 · Cited by 1,189
Self-citation
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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