Language Optional and Language bound
In my 2004-4-29 blog Shadow » Blog Archive » reversing words query I quoted Tina Bennett-Kastor:
Ruth Day (who used to be in the Dept. of Psych. at Duke University; perhaps she still is) was doing some interesting research on adults and finding that some (whom she called “language bound”) were unable to manipulate the sounds in their own language or even recognize when they wre being manipulated. They could not, for example, recite “Mary Had a Little Lamb” reversing /l/ and /r/; they could not perceive clusters which violated English morpheme structure such /lb-/–they reported hearing /bl-/ instead. Other adults (”language optional”) were very adept at these tasks. However, she did not note that there were any differences between groups in terms of gender, choice of profession, intelligence, academic success, etc.
Sure enough, Ruth Day is still at Duke Psychology, a dear colleague and friend. Related work on "language optional" and "language bound" people:
Day, Ruth S. Systematic individual differences in information processing. In P. G. Zimbardo and F. L. Ruch, Psychology and Life. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1977. Pp. 5A-5D.
Day, Ruth S. Verbal fluency and the language-bound effect. In C. J. Fillmore, D. Kempler, and W. S-Y. Want (Eds.), Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior. New York: Academic Press, 1979. Pp. 57-84.
Day,R.S. (1973) "On learning ’secret languages’". Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech research. SR-34.141-50. (not availalbe online).
I need to ask Ruth for them.