Learnability Advantage of Segmental Repetitions in Word Learning.
Johanna Basnak, Mitsuhiko Ota
PMID 38312096WHAT IT FOUND
Adults learning made-up words remembered those with repeated consonants better than words with repeated vowels or no repetitions.
This advantage came specifically from better recall of the consonants themselves, suggesting a general memory bias for repeating sounds in speech.
Key findings
01Novel words with identical consonants were recalled more accurately than words with identical vowels or no segmental repetitions.
02The learning advantage for repeated consonants was driven by better retention of the consonants themselves, with no significant benefit for repeated vowels.
03Participants did not prefer consonant-repeated words over vowel-repeated words as labels, ruling out perceived wordlikeness as the cause of the recall advantage.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used synthesized speech with a Spanish accent, which may not perfectly represent natural English speech patterns, although perception errors were accounted for. The novel words were all CVCV (consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel) structures, so the findings may not apply to more complex word shapes or multi-syllabic words. The study tested immediate recall after a short training period, so it is unknown if the advantage of consonant repetition persists for long-term retention. Participants were adults with typical language abilities; it is unclear if this learning bias operates similarly in children or individuals with speech-language disorders.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this finding applies to all populations or word types. The study tested only adults with typical language skills learning simple two-syllable words, so it does not prove that consonant repetition will help children with language disorders or adults with aphasia learn complex vocabulary.