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Distributional learning of vowel categories in infants and adults
Wanrooij, K.E.
Publication date 2015
Document Version Final published version
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Wanrooij, K. E. (2015). Distributional learning of vowel categories in infants and adults.
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STELLINGEN behorend bij het proefschrift
Distributional learning of vowel categories in infants and adults van Karin Wanrooij
1. Distributional learning can contribute to the development of language-specific speech perception in infancy (this thesis).
2. The capacity for distributional learning is smaller in adults than in infants (this thesis). 3. Adult listeners who learn to use new cues when being exposed to a vowel distribution, tend
to adopt these cues in an order of declining salience (this thesis).
4. Effects of “distributional learning” observed in the lab are not based on differences in the
number of peaks between training distributions; instead they may be based on differences in dispersion (this thesis).
5. Distributional speech sound learning may correspond to neuronal tuning in low-level auditory cortical areas, triggered by ambient speech sound distributions (on the basis of a
literature review in this thesis).
6. Infant-directed speech supports the creation of balanced auditory maps in the primary auditory cortex (on the basis of a literature review in this thesis).
7. The earlier onset of language-specific speech perception for vowels than for plosives in infancy may reflect differences in the pace of maturation between synapses at different levels of processing and between different types of synapses, in low-level auditory cortex (on the
basis of a literature review in this thesis).
8. Representations of categories do not exist as fixed firing patterns or locations in the brain. 9. Humankind is less special for its ability to find answers than for its ability to pose questions. 10. Je bent nooit te oud om te leren.
