MPI Colloquium Prof. Dr. Claudia Männel

Electrophysiology of infant phonological processing: Individual variability and learning environment

Abstract

Language acquisition starts well before birth and infants take crucial language acquisition steps during their first year of life. Processing of phonological information – acoustic modulations at syllable, word, and phrase levels – takes a pivotal role in the acquisition of linguistic information and is the most prominent predictor of language outcome.

In this talk, I will present electrophysiological evidence of how phonological abilities serve as longitudinal predictors of (a)typical language progression and how different factors in infants’ learning environment modulate their phonological abilities.