Supplementary online information for

Modelling Motor Pattern Generation in the Development of Infant Speech

Paper for the eighth International Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP'08) Strasbourg, France, 8th to the 12th of December, 2008

Ian Spencer1 Howard & Piers Messum2

 1Biological & Machine Learning Lab,

Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, England,

2Centre for Human Communication, University College London, UK

E-mail: ish22@cam.ac.uk, p.messum@ucl.ac.uk

Important signal flow paths flow

Sensory Input

Motor ActionOutput

A) Proprioception

B) External sensory consequences

Action/Reaction

from Mother

C) Communicationpaths D) Reformulations

Explore Reward

Infant model

Reward and effort

Play Sound

Well synchronized breathing

Play Sound

Poorly synchronized breathing

Play Sound

More examplesPlay SoundPlay Sound

Segmentation using acoustic powerPlay Sound

Learning multi-syllable words

Caregiveroutput

As recognizedby infant

Best pronunciationby infant

bar bar

a b

b oo

Utterance

• The caregiver produces several 2-syllable sounds• These are then segmented and recognized by the infant model • The infant then pronounces them in his voice• The caregiver selects his best productions