Infants' ability to categorise on the basis of rhyme

Two experiments are described, which investigated 71/2- to 13-month-old inf ants' abilities to categorise syllables according to their ending sounds, o r rimes. Using the Conditioned Headturn (CHT) Procedure, infants were condi tioned to turn their head when one set of rhyming CVCs changed to another s et of rhyming CVCs. Even the 71/2-month-old infants demonstrated an ability to categorise according to rhyme. The infants could be separated into thre e different groups: those who conditioned but did not succeed in a rhyming task; those who succeeded at one rhyming task but not a second; and those i nfants who succeeded on two rhyming tasks. The infants in the second group were showing an early sensitivity to rhyme. However, they appeared to be le arning a very specific rule, listening only for one category of rhyme. The third group of infants was able to extend the initial rule they learned to include new rhymes. This group learned not only to highlight one particular rhyme, but were also able to abstract the previously learned rule to new r hymes, thereby demonstrating a higher level of sophistication in their cate gorisation of rhymes. These results are discussed in relation to the ontoge ny of language learning, and work demonstrating a relationship between rhym ing ability and competence in reading and writing. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scienc e Inc. All rights reserved.