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Three-month-old Winston will probably listen longer to ________ than to ________.

A) pure tones; voices
B) pure tones; noises
C) human speech; nonspeech sounds
D) a foreign language; his native language

User Josh Smith
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

Three-month-old Winston will likely listen longer to human speech than to nonspeech sounds, due to innate preferences and recognition of linguistic patterns.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question posed asks which sounds three-month-old Winston is likely to listen to longer. Based on research on the sensory abilities of newborns and language development, infants show a strong preference for human voices over other sounds. This preference occurs due to the babies' innate abilities to recognize their mother's voice and to distinguish speech sounds from non-speech sounds. Studies like those by Vouloumanos & Werker (2004) indicate that young infants are tuned to the signal of speech, suggesting they deem it as having a privileged status.

Answering the student's question, three-month-old Winston will probably listen longer to human speech than to nonspeech sounds. This is because human speech contains linguistic signals and patterns that are familiar to Winston, particularly those of his mother's voice and the language spoken in his environment. Therefore, the correct answer to the question is C) human speech; nonspeech sounds.

User Mathieu Amiot
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