Speech priming: An examination of rateand syntactic persistence in preschoolers

摘要

Interactional coordination is important for conversational competence. Forexample, the syntactic form and rate of perceived speech can influence futureproductions in adults. Previous work has shown that children are similarly primedby syntax. This experiment demonstrates that syntactic priming and rate primingexist simultaneously in children. Participants (4- and 5-years-old) alternatedbetween listening to priming sentences that described visual scenes and producingtheir own descriptions of similar scenes. The priming sentences varied in rate (fastand slow) and syntactic structure (active and passive). Children's sentencesreflected the timing and syntactic structure of the primes, and there weredevelopmental differences in their rate persistence.