Studies of listeners' ability to distinguish languages when segmental information is eliminated have been taken as evidence for categorical rhythmic distinctions between language groups ("rhythm classes"). Furthermore, it has been suggested that sensitivity to rhythm class is present at birth and that infants must establish the rhythm class of…

Emerging phonotactic knowledge facilitates the development of the mental lexicon, as demonstrated by studies showing that infants use the phonotactic patterns of their native language to extract words from continuous speech. The present study provides a computational account of how infants might induce phonotactics from their immediate language…

The "weaker links" hypothesis proposes that bilinguals are disadvantaged relative to monolinguals on speaking tasks because they divide frequency-of-use between two languages. To test this proposal, we contrasted the effects of increased word use associated with monolingualism, language dominance, and increased age on picture naming times. In two…