Christopher T Fennell
Biographic Data
| ID | 5761733 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher T Fennell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher T |
| FAMILY NAME | Fennell |
| SIGNATURE | FENNELL C T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9616-9385 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 22 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Covid-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: Associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 1…
A Multilab Study of Bilingual Infants: Exploring the Preference for Infant-Directed Speech
From the earliest months of life, infants prefer listening to and learn better from infant-directed speech (IDS) than adult-directed speech (ADS). Yet, IDS differs within communities, across languages, and across cultures, both in form and in prevalence. This large-scale, multi-site study used the diversity of bilingual infant experiences to explore the impact of different types of linguistic experience on infants' IDS preference. As part of the …
Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference
Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) as…
Associative word learning in infancy: A meta-analysis of the switch task
Object Familiarity Enhances Infants’ Use of Phonetic Detail in Novel Words
Infants greatly refine their ability to discriminate language sounds by 12 months, yet 14‐month‐olds appear to confuse similar‐sounding novel words. Two explanations could account for this phenomenon: infants initially have incomplete phoneme representations, suggesting developmental discontinuity; or word‐learning demands interfere with use of established phonetic detail. These hypotheses were tested at 14 months by pairing a novel word with an …
Early Word Learners' Ability to Access Phonetic Detail in Well-Known Words
Several recent studiesfrom our laboratory have shown that14-month old infants have difficulty learning to associate two phonetically similar new words to two different objects when tested in the Switcht task. Because the infants can discriminate the same phonetic detail that they fail to use in the associative word-learning situation, we have argued that this wordlearning failure results from a processingoverload. Herewe explore how infants perfo…
Infants' Ability to Learn Phonetically Similar Words: Effects of Age and Vocabulary Size
What do novice word learners know about the sound of words? Word‐learning tasks suggest that young infants (14 months old) confuse similar‐sounding words, whereas mispronunciation detection tasks suggest that slightly older infants (18–24 months old) correctly distinguish similar words. Here we explore whether the difficulty at 14 months stems from infants' novice status as word learners or whether it is inherent in the task demands of learning n…
Infants' Ability to Learn Phonetically Similar Words: Effects of Age and Vocabulary Size
What do novice word learners know about the sound of words? Word-learning tasks suggest that young infants (14 months old) confuse similar-sounding words, whereas mispronunciation detection tasks suggest that slightly older infants (18–24 months old) correctly distinguish similar words. Here we explore whether the difficulty at 14 months stems from infants' novice status as word learners or whether it is inherent in the task demands of learning n…
Early Word Learners' Ability to Access Phonetic Detail in Well-Known Words
Several recent studiesfrom our laboratory have shown that14-month old infants have difficulty learning to associate two phonetically similar new words to two different objects when tested in the Switcht task. Because the infants can discriminate the same phonetic detail that they fail to use in the associative word-learning situation, we have argued that this wordlearning failure results from a processingoverload. Herewe explore how infants perfo…
Infants' Ability to Learn Phonetically Similar Words: Effects of Age and Vocabulary Size
What do novice word learners know about the sound of words? Word-learning tasks suggest that young infants (14 months old) confuse similar-sounding words, whereas mispronunciation detection tasks suggest that slightly older infants (18–24 months old) correctly distinguish similar words. Here we explore whether the difficulty at 14 months stems from infants' novice status as word learners or whether it is inherent in the task demands of learning n…
Associative word learning in infancy: A meta-analysis of the switch task
Infants' Ability to Learn Phonetically Similar Words: Effects of Age and Vocabulary Size
What do novice word learners know about the sound of words? Word‐learning tasks suggest that young infants (14 months old) confuse similar‐sounding words, whereas mispronunciation detection tasks suggest that slightly older infants (18–24 months old) correctly distinguish similar words. Here we explore whether the difficulty at 14 months stems from infants' novice status as word learners or whether it is inherent in the task demands of learning n…
Infants' Ability to Learn Phonetically Similar Words: Effects of Age and Vocabulary Size
What do novice word learners know about the sound of words? Word-learning tasks suggest that young infants (14 months old) confuse similar-sounding words, whereas mispronunciation detection tasks suggest that slightly older infants (18–24 months old) correctly distinguish similar words. Here we explore whether the difficulty at 14 months stems from infants' novice status as word learners or whether it is inherent in the task demands of learning n…
Early Word Learners' Ability to Access Phonetic Detail in Well-Known Words
Several recent studiesfrom our laboratory have shown that14-month old infants have difficulty learning to associate two phonetically similar new words to two different objects when tested in the Switcht task. Because the infants can discriminate the same phonetic detail that they fail to use in the associative word-learning situation, we have argued that this wordlearning failure results from a processingoverload. Herewe explore how infants perfo…
Object Familiarity Enhances Infants’ Use of Phonetic Detail in Novel Words
Infants greatly refine their ability to discriminate language sounds by 12 months, yet 14‐month‐olds appear to confuse similar‐sounding novel words. Two explanations could account for this phenomenon: infants initially have incomplete phoneme representations, suggesting developmental discontinuity; or word‐learning demands interfere with use of established phonetic detail. These hypotheses were tested at 14 months by pairing a novel word with an …
Associative word learning in infancy: A meta-analysis of the switch task
Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference
Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) as…
Covid-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: Associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 1…
A Multilab Study of Bilingual Infants: Exploring the Preference for Infant-Directed Speech
From the earliest months of life, infants prefer listening to and learn better from infant-directed speech (IDS) than adult-directed speech (ADS). Yet, IDS differs within communities, across languages, and across cultures, both in form and in prevalence. This large-scale, multi-site study used the diversity of bilingual infant experiences to explore the impact of different types of linguistic experience on infants' IDS preference. As part of the …
Language Development and Disorders (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Linguistics (6 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (5 works) · Vocabulary (5 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (4 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Developmental psychology (3 works) · Word learning (3 works) · Artificial Intelligence (2 works)