In speech perception tasks young infants show remarkable sensitivity to fine phonetic detail. Despite this impressive ability demonstrated at early ages, studies of word learning in young toddlers indicate that they have difficulty learning similar-sounding words. This evidence suggests that infants may not be using this speech-perception ability as they begin to learn words. The studies in this thesis were designed to test how infants' speech-perception skills are used in the early stages of word learning. Using a simple habituation procedure, we have shown in earlier work that 14-month-old infants, but not younger infants, are able to learn the association between novel nonsense words and objects (Werker, Cohen, Lloyd, Casasola, & Stager, 1998). The current series of experiments used this simple habituation procedure to test whether infants use minimally contrastive phonetic detail in the very early stages of word learning. In this thesis, I show that 14-month-old infants, who are on the cusp of word learning, while still able to discriminate phonetically-similar words in a speech perception task, do not incorporate minimally contrastive phonetic detail when first forming word-object associations. Infants of 8 months of age do, however, appear to use fine phonetic detail in a similar task. Taken together, these results suggest a decline in the phonetic detail used by infants as they move from processing speech to learning words. I hypothesize that this decline may occur as infants move from treating the task as one of speech perception to treating the task as one of word learning. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1998. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-107). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39315.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2003. / Includes tables and questionnaires. Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 28, 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Centre for Perinatal Health Services Research, School of Public Health. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 15, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-150).

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The aim of the thesis is to offer a comprehensive account of the developmental course of hand-mouth (HM) coordination from birth until a mature form of the coordination is attained. Questions relating both to the structure and function of the coordination were addressed. Three studies are reported. The method of observation was the same in each case; video records of two perpendicular views of the infant were obtained and a micro-analysis of movement structure was carried out. The main question addressed in study 1 was whether spontaneous HM contacts in newborns are related to hunger. HM contacts were compared before and after feeding in a group of newborn babies. There was no change in the relative distribution of locations of contacts on the mouth and face before and after feeding, but anticipatory mouth opening prior to HM contacts only occurred before feeding. Study 2 sought to obtain detailed measures of transitions taking place between 1-5 months in the structure of HM coordination, and to investigate what factors could be responsible for the changes observed. A longitudinal design was employed where babies were observed at monthly intervals. A small object was placed in the hands of infants to promote oral contacts. At 4 months of age, contacts began to be centred on the mouth (as opposed to other parts of the face) and the frequency of contacts was significantly higher when the object was present relative to the frequency of spontaneous contacts. Anticipatory mouth opening only occurred at 5 months of age, suggesting that this aspect of the coordination follows a U-shaped developmental trajectory. There was evidence that vision was playing a role in motivating HM contacts by 5 months of age. Consistent individual differences between babies were found in different aspects of HM coordination raising the possibility that more than one developmental route is followed in the achievement of mature HM coordination. Study 3 investigated HM coordination cross-sectionally between the ages of 5-9 months. The possibility that the development of reaching was influencing the development of HM coordination was investigated. Two situations were compared, one where the infant had to reach for an object prior to transportation to the mouth and another where the object was placed in the hand of the infant. Although HM coordination and reaching and grasping were already integrated at 5 months, the two coordinations appear to develop independently of each other. The development of HM coordination was found to be marked by motivational and structural shifts and apparent regressions. The results are interpreted within a dynamic systems view of development.

The purpose of the study was to identify and compare characteristics of preterm infants' pulse rate, respiratory rate, stress related behavior and self comforting behavior in two situations: (1) the infant receiving routine nursing care in the environment of a neonatal intensive care nursery, and (2) the infant in the same environment after experiencing a gentle back massage. Specifically, the research question for this study was: what patterns of pulse rate, respiratory rate and behavior, are associated with massage? Preterm infants between 33 and 36 weeks gestational age were observed for a baseline period of 50 minutes, given a 10 minute back massage, and observed for an additional 50 minutes. Exploratory data analysis revealed changes in the pulse rate, and in the frequencies of stress related and self comforting behaviors after massage that were associated with gestational age. Younger infants displayed a decline in pulse rate and an increase in respiratory rate after massage when compared to baseline observations, whereas older infants showed an increase in pulse rate immediately following massage. Stress related behavior declined during the first 10 minutes after massage in all age groups. Most preterm infants in this sample did not manifest any stress related behavior for several minutes after the massage. The frequency of self comforting behaviors increased after infants experienced a massage. Behavioral patterns were coupled with physiological variables; the frequency of self comforting behaviors was reflected in the pattern of respiratory rate whereas the frequency of stress related behaviors was more closely coupled with pulse rate. As infants became more aroused, they used a greater variety of behaviors. The behavioral reportoire also increased with gestational age. Content analysis demonstrated that infants spent more time in quiet sleep after having a massage than before massage. There were more frequent changes between active and quiet sleep before massage than afterward among infants who were treated concurrently with ultraviolet light. There was a trend for infants of all ages to take less time to console themselves after having a massage than before. None of these observed differences was statistically significant. Rotational movements were noted among more mature infants and were associated with quiet sleep. Infant behaviors showed a general decrease in the amplitude of movement over time. Several infants appeared alert, opening their eyes and looking around after having a massage. In general, preterm infants in this sample manifested changes in arousal and in activity which were observed in the differences in their behavior and vital signs after having a massage.