INFANTS RECOGNITION OF THE SOUND PATTERNS OF THEIR OWN NAMES

Among the earliest and most frequent words that infants hear ale their names. Yet little is known about when infants begin to recognize thei r own names. Using a modified version of the head-turn preference proc edure, we tested whether 4.5-month-olds preferred to listen to their o wn names over foils that were either matched or mismatched for stress pattern. Our findings provide the first evidence that even these young infants recognize the sound patterns of their own names. Infants demo nstrated significant preferences for their own names compared with foi ls that shared the same stress patterns, as well as foils with opposit e patterns. The results indicate when infants begin to recognize sound patterns of items frequently uttered in the infants' environments.