発話刺激における「間」の時間的変化が幼児の発話反応に及ぼす影響

Effects of pause duration in adult speech on the imitated speech of young children

　本研究では，成人話者の発話刺激におけるポーズ(以下，間)の持続時間が幼児の発話反応時間と復唱発話の間に及ぼす影響を検証した．発話刺激は「普通の間」「少し遅い間」「長い間」を設定し，CRTから提示した．その結果，発話刺激の間の変化は幼児の発話反応時間に影響するが，復唱発話の間には影響しないことが明らかになった．

　会話は話し手と聞き手における相互作用であり，その構造は「発話刺激―発話反応時間―応答発話」という時間的要素の繰り返しである．発話刺激に対して幼児が発話で反応するタイミングを規定する1要因に，発話刺激の間の持続時間をあげることができる．

　We examined the effects of pause duration in adults providing speech stimulus on the speech reaction time and pause duration of young children's imitated speech.　Three stimulus conditions―"normal pause," "somewhat long pause," and "very long pause" ―were studied, using speech presented by adults reading from a CRT prompter.　It was found that the change in pause duration influenced young children's speech reaction times, but not their pause duration times.　A conversation is an interaction process between a speaker and a listener consisting of a repeated chain of "stimulation―reaction time―response".　The pause duration of speech stimulation can be considered one of the factors that prescribe the timing of young children's speech reactions.