Preschool-Age Sound-Shape Correspondences to the Bouba-Kiki Effect

Karlee Jones, B.S. Ed. & Matthew Carter, Ph.D.

Valdosta State University

Disclosures• None of the authors had any financial relationships relevant to

the content of this presentation.

Background• From 25 to 29 weeks gestational age, fetuses are able to

demonstrate responses in a consistent manner to auditory stimulation.

• Early detection of speech sound perception indicates that newborns that are born full-term have more than two months of auditory experience at birth.

• Language experienced in utero affects vowel perception, and newborns’ perception of speech sounds reflects some extent of learning.

Background• Individuals’ sensitivity to sound symbolism may have affected

the evolution of languages and may influence children’s language development.

• Sound symbolism is present in the very early stages of language learning and infants can perceive that vocal sounds carry meaning in and of themselves.

Background• The Bouba-Kiki effect is a non-arbitrary mapping between speech

sounds and the visual shape of objects.

• This effect examined individuals constantly pairing specific structures of nonsense words to particular types of unfamiliar objects.

• In previous studies, researchers have observed the Bouba-Kiki effect across the lifespan, from infants to adults using visual cues when presenting the nonsense words to participants.

• The presence of these sound mappings suggests that this effect might be the neurological basis for sound symbolism.

HypothesisTypically developing preschool-age children will

respond similarly to their peers on the Bouba-Kiki test when the speaker’s productions are not visible.

MethodsParticipants• Participants were 19 typically developing preschool children

(M age = 4.8 years; range 3.2 – 5.4 years) • Consisted of 12 males and 7 females

Procedure• A pair of contrasting shapes, one rounded and one pointed

were shown to each participant individually. • With the speaker’s mouth covered, each participant was asked

which letter was bouba.

Methods

The contrasting shapes and the corresponding words consisting of rounded versus non-rounded vowels.

Bouba ‘boo-baa’ Kiki ‘kiki’

Results

Results revealed that 11 children (6 males, 5 females) correctly paired bouba with the round shape and 8 children (6 males, 2

females) incorrectly paired bouba with the more jagged shape.

Correct Incorrect0123456789

101112131415

Responses

Participants

Conclusion• The author’s hypothesis was rejected due to the resulting data

of 57.8% of the sample correctly pairing bouba with the more rounded shape.

• Results from this study revealed that children may rely upon visual cues to assist in the phoneme selection of nonsense word pairing to shapes.

Limitations• No standardized testing or parental questionnaires were

conducted in order to rule out developmental delays in the participants.

• The possibility of the participants’ acquired vocabulary cannot be ruled out as a factor for influencing their sound-object mappings.

• Only a single trial was performed with each participant using a single set of contrasting shapes and words.

Recommendations• Future research should be conducted with a larger sample size.

• Conducting more trials with multiple sets of contrasting shapes and nonsense word pairs would provide more opportunities for data collection.

• Trials could also be performed with adult participants to determine if visual cues play a role in adults’ sound-shape mapping.

References• Birnholz, J. C., & Benacerraf, B. B. (1983). The development of human

fetal hearing. Science, 222, 516–518.• Maurer, D., Pathman, T., & Mondloch, C. J. (2006). The shape of boubas:

Sound–shape correspondences in toddlers and adults. Developmental Science, 9(3), 316-322. doi:10.1111/j 1467-7687.2006.00495.x

• Nielsen, A. S., & Rendall, D. (2013). Parsing the role of consonants versus vowels in the classic takete-maluma phenomenon. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67(2), 153-163. doi:10.1037/a0030553

• Ramachandran, V. S., & Hubbard, E. M. (2001). Synesthesia – a window into perception, thought and language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(12), 3–34.

• Spector, F., & Maurer, D. (2013). Early sound symbolism for vowel sounds. I-Perception, 4(4), doi:10.1068/i0535

• Stager, C., & Werker, J. (1997). Infants listen for more phonetic detail in speech perception than in word-learning tasks. Nature, 388(6640), 381-382.