Really really, the development of contour sequencing

The imitation of intonation contours requires remembering a sequence of tonal targets in the correct order. This study tested the relative contribution of perceptual development (contour discrimination and a narrowing temporal binding window) and language development (form-meaning mapping) on this ability. Young English-speaking children (4- and 6-year-olds) and adults were tasked with reproducing different orders of rising and falling contours, presented as two-word sequences (e.g, [↘really][↗really]). Imitation accuracy was evaluated using INTSINT (Hirst, (2007). “A Praat plugin for Momel and INTSINT with improved algorithms for modeling and coding intonation.” Proc. ICPhS, Saarbrücken, 1233–1236.). As expected, imitation accuracy improved with age: 4-year-olds (M = 59.1%, SD = 32.8), 6-year-olds (M = 67.4%, SD = 31.2), adults (M = 73.4%, SD = 32.4). Age group differences were also observed in performance on a contour discrimination task, a serial recall task of contour sequences with varied inter-word gaps (0–320 ms), and a form-meaning mapping task. But the relative age-related differences in performance, along with the absence of an effect of inter-word gaps on serial recall, suggested that the strongest contribution to correct reproduction of contour sequences is the acquisition of form-meaning mappings.