Attention/Language

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

refers to concentrating on one aspect of the sensory environment

Question 2

What is selective attention?

Answer 2

focusing on one part of the sensorium while ignoring other stimuli

Question 3

What is divided attention?

Answer 3

ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time

Question 4

What is controlled/effortful processing?

Answer 4

new or complex tasks that require undivided attention

Question 5

What is automatic processing?

Answer 5

used by familiar or routine actions

Question 6

What is phonology?

Answer 6

the sound of language

Question 7

What is categorical perception?

Answer 7

ability to know when the differences in sound represent a change in meaning or not

Question 8

What is morphology?

Answer 8

the structure of words

Question 9

What is a phoneme?

Answer 9

a speech sound

Question 10

What is a morpheme?

Answer 10

building blocks of words that contain meaning

Question 11

What is semantics?

Answer 11

the association of meaning with a word

Question 12

What is syntax?

Answer 12

refers to how words are put together to form sentences

Question 13

What is pragmatics?

Answer 13

refers to the dependence of language on context and preexisting knowledge; manner in which we speak may differ depending on audience

Question 14

What is prosody?

Answer 14

rhythm, cadence, and inflection of our voices

Question 15

What is babbling and its timeline?

Answer 15

an important precursor to language which peaks between 9 and 12 months of age

Question 16

What do children do with language during 12 - 18 months?

Answer 16

add about one word per month

Question 17

What do children do with language during 18 -20 months?

Answer 17

“explosion of language” and combining words

Question 18

What do children do with language during 2-3 years?

Answer 18

longer sentences (3 words or more)

Question 19

When do children master language rules?

Answer 19

5 years old

Question 20

What is the nativist/biological theory?

Answer 20

Noam chomsky advocates for existence of some innate capacity for language

Question 21

What is the language acquisitive device (LAD)?

Answer 21

a theoretical pathway in the brain that allows infants to process and absorb language rules

Question 22

What is the critical period?

Answer 22

a time between 2 years old and puberty in which the child must be exposed to language rules to learn them

Question 23

What is the sensitive period?

Answer 23

a time when environmental input has maximal effect on the development of an ability - before the onset of puberty

Question 24

What is the learning/behaviorist theory?

Answer 24

explained language acquisition by operant conditioning

Question 25

What is the social interactionist theory?

Answer 25

language development focuses on the interplay between biological and social processes

Question 26

What is the Whorfian hypothesis/linguistic relativity hypothesis?

Answer 26

suggest that our perception of reality is determined by the context of language

Question 27

What is Broca’s area?

Answer 27

controls the motor function of speech via connections with the motor cortex

Question 28

What is Wernicke’s area?

Answer 28

responsible for language comprehension

Question 29

What is the arcuate fasciculus?

Answer 29

a bundle of axons that allow appropriate association between language comprehension and speech production

Question 30

What is aphasia?

Answer 30

a deficit of language production or comprehension `

Question 31

What is Broca’s/expressive aphasia?

Answer 31

speech comprehension is intact but the patient will have reduced or absent ability to produce spoken language

Question 32

What is Wernicke’s/receptive aphasia?

Answer 32

motor production and fluency of speech is retained but comprehension of speech is lost

Question 33

What is conduction aphasia?

Answer 33

when the arcuate fasciculus is affected and the patient is unable to repeat something that has been said because the connection between these two regions has been lost