Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-49). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ99368

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Two experiments investigated how the cues of attractiveness, masculinity, and averageness contribute independently or jointly to elicit 6- and 12-month-old infants' attention toward male faces. In Experiment 1, infant interest in high vs. low attractive male faces depended on the masculinity of the face pair (i.e., infants looked longer at high relative to low attractive, low masculine male faces and looked longer at low relative to high attractive, medium masculine male faces), and infant interest in high vs. low masculine male faces depended on the infant's age (i.e., 12-month-olds, but not 6-month-olds, looked longer at low relative to high masculine male faces). In Experiment 2, infants looked longer at low relative to high masculine male faces only when the faces within the pair differed in both masculinity and attractiveness, and female infants looked longer at a low masculine averaged male face than low attractive, high masculine male faces. Although the combined pattern of results suggested that infant interest might be directed more toward low than high masculine male faces, particularly high attractive, low masculine male faces, the face pairings within which the longer looking occurred differed across the two studies. To ensure that these somewhat different results were not due to infants' inability to discriminate among the faces used in the studies, a third study demonstrated that infants at both ages could clearly differentiate among the faces used in the first two studies. The similarity of low masculine male faces to female faces is discussed as a possible reason for infant interest in these types of faces, and methodological differences between the first two studies are discussed as possibly accounting for the slightly different pattern of results. The results have implications for the development of attractiveness and masculinity stereotypes for male faces, and how well findings from the infant face perception literature generalize from female to male faces. / text

Previous research has revealed that very young infants discriminate most speech contrasts with which they are presented whether the contrasts are native or non-native while adults have difficulty discriminating non-native speech contrasts but easily discriminate those contrasts holding meaningful (phonemic) status in their native language. Several studies have shown that this reorganization in phonetic perception from language-general perception to language-specific perception occurs at about 10 to 12 months: infants this age attend only to native phonemic contrasts. It is of interest to determine if exposure to a phonetic variant plays an important role in influencing perception. We know from previous research that absence of exposure does not always lead to a lack of discrimination. This thesis was designed to determine if exposure per se maintains discriminability. To this end English-speaking adults and infants were tested using a phonetic distinction that does not hold phonemic status in English but does occur in English. This distinction involves the phonetic variants [da] and the stop produced following /s/ transcribed as [ta]. When tested in an identification procedure, English-speaking adults identify both [da] and (s)[ta] as members of one English phonemic category (i.e. [da]). When tested in a discrimination procedure and a category change procedure, adults discriminate (s) [ta] from [da] (albeit not as well as would be expected for a native phonemic contrast). With respect to infants, 6- to 8-month-olds discriminate this distinction revealing further support for broad-based phonetic perception at this age. However, 10- to 12-month-old infants do not discriminate, suggesting that the native phonemic status of the contrast (but not exposure) is the important factor in the reorganization. Discussion centers around how these results add to the existing literature and why infants of 10- to 12-months would fail to discriminate a native phonetic distinction.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-59)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-85).

Previous research has revealed that very young infants discriminate most speech contrasts with which they are presented whether the contrasts are native or non-native while adults have difficulty discriminating non-native speech contrasts but easily discriminate those contrasts holding meaningful (phonemic) status in their native language. Several studies have shown that this reorganization in phonetic perception from language-general perception to language-specific perception occurs at about 10 to 12 months: infants this age attend only to native phonemic contrasts. It is of interest to determine if exposure to a phonetic variant plays an important role in influencing perception. We know from previous research that absence of exposure does not always lead to a lack of discrimination. This thesis was designed to determine if exposure per se maintains discriminability. To this end English-speaking adults and infants were tested using a phonetic distinction that does not hold phonemic status in English but does occur in English. This distinction involves the phonetic variants [da] and the stop produced following /s/ transcribed as [ta]. When tested in an identification procedure, English-speaking adults identify both [da] and (s)[ta] as members of one English phonemic category (i.e. [da]). When tested in a discrimination procedure and a category change procedure, adults discriminate (s) [ta] from [da] (albeit not as well as would be expected for a native phonemic contrast). With respect to infants, 6- to 8-month-olds discriminate this distinction revealing further support for broad-based phonetic perception at this age. However, 10- to 12-month-old infants do not discriminate, suggesting that the native phonemic status of the contrast (but not exposure) is the important factor in the reorganization. Discussion centers around how these results add to the existing literature and why infants of 10- to 12-months would fail to discriminate a native phonetic distinction. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.