Early Socialisation

Question 1

What are the basics of language?

Answer 1

> Generative
Comprised of small units that are combined - PHONOLOGY
Conveys meaning - SEMANTICS
Rules about how words go together - SYNTAX - for English: [Subject-Verb-Object]
Social

Question 2

What designs are used for infant research?

Answer 2

> Preference studies - NO TRAINING, what do infants WANT to listen (or look) to
Habituation/ familiarisation studies - TRAIN infants, then measure what they prefer
Change detection studies - TRAIN infants to respond to a change (can infants tell the difference between two things)

Question 3

What is the definition of Prosody?

Answer 3

The pattern of stress and intonation in a language.

Question 4

What is the definition of Phonemes?

Answer 4

The perceptually distinct units of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another.

Question 5

Early phonological development: Prosody

Answer 5

> Foetal system is fully functional during last semester.
Newborns prefer their mother’s voice. (De Caspar & Fifer, 1980)
Infants can discriminate languages with different prosody but not languages with similar prosody.
Babies cry with an ‘accent’ (Mampe et al., 2009)

Question 6

At what age are infants able to segment words from their language?

Answer 6

~ 7.5 months

Question 7

What did Saffran’s study in 1996 do?

Answer 7

An experiment with 8 month olds, using highly controlled made-up language. FOUR words were played in a random order for about 3 minutes and ppts listened to it.
> Infants listened longer to Part-Words, suggesting they found the words in the stream.

Question 8

How was Saffran’s experiment HIGHLY CONTROLLED?

Answer 8

> Made sure they had no other cues
Syllables were all the same length, the same pitch.

Question 9

What is IDS?

Answer 9

Infant directed speech:
> Higher pitched
> Slower speaking rate
> Important words are generally at the end and exaggerated more
> Boundaries between phrases are enhanced, easier to segment.
> Infants prefer to listen to IDS - and are more attentive around IDS.

Question 10

What is Primary Intersubjectivity?

Answer 10

> First months: attention to faces; Eye contact; Produce vocalisations, imitate sounds and gestures
Caregiver and infant share experiences in face-to-face interactions- Interactions are dyadic (baby and caregiver, baby and object)
Baby has no assumption of the perspective of others.
Interactions are NOT intentional

Question 11

What is Secondary Intersubjectivity?

Answer 11

> Older infants: more sophisticated; pointing; turn-taking; shared attention
Caregiver and infant share experiences - interactions become triadic (baby and caregiver interacting with object)
Interactions ARE intentional
Infants assume that others have own perspective

Question 12

How and when do infants have a ‘revolution’ in social understanding?

Answer 12

a) 9 months
b) Through coordinating with others : Coordinating emotional response via social referencing; Coordinating visual attention with another person. Infants interact over another object, activity or 3rd person.

Question 13

How do infants signify intentional communication?

Answer 13

> Use of eye contact/ pointing to direct another’s attention
Consistent use of vocalisation to indicate specific goal
Evidence of child waiting for response
Persistence if not understood

Question 14

What is dyadic mimicry?

Answer 14

Imitation from infants. New-borns mimic facial expressions. 3-4 month olds imitate sounds; limited form of imitation; unable to understand others’ intentions, but it shows that infants are motivated to engage with others.

Question 15

What type of gaze do newborns prefer?

Answer 15

Direct

Question 16

What did Senju and Csibra conclude in their experiment (2008)?

Answer 16

6 month old infants only followed the gaze if object was preceded by a mutual eye gaze - SAME RESULTS FOUND FOR IDS-. The communicative signal (eye gaze/IDS) encourages infants to attend to the same object.

Question 17

What is ‘turn-taking’?

Answer 17

Infants [from around 3 months] alternate vocalisations with their mothers. By 12 months, there are very few overlaps between speakers in infant conversations.

Question 18

What is ‘joint attention’?

Answer 18

Triadic interaction involving child, adult and object/event. Shared awareness of the shared attention.

Question 19

Sharing Attention

Answer 19

By 9 months, children look to adult in unfamiliar or threatening situations to gauge emotional response.- This is an example of social referencing.

Question 20

How important are routines?

Answer 20

Much of early language is learnt in routines.
Caregivers structure routines around child.
Routines create a shared context. The child knows what comes next.
Highly repetitive routines provide a scaffold for language learning.
Routines differ in the types of words used.

Question 21

Collis and Shaffer, 1975

Answer 21

During 1st year, mothers constantly monitor child’s line of regard. When child’s attention shifts from desired object of attention, mothers attempt to regain child’s attention.

Question 22

Mother’s role in language learning:

Answer 22

> Mother initially solely responsible for establishing shared topic and providing relevant language.
Mother’s sensitivity to child’s focus of attention related to child’s vocabulary development - children more likely to learn the referent for an object they attend to for one their attention is directed to (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986)
Twins often show language delay - linked to amount of time spent in joint attention episodes with mother, highlighting mother’s role.

Question 23

Following attention:

Answer 23

Following points: At 9 months, infant can follow point in front of another person. At 12 months, infants begin to check back with pointer. At 14 months, infant follows point across line of sight.
Following eye gaze: Gaze following allows us to track where someone else is looking and join them, engaging in joint attention. By 9 months, infants will turn to follow an adult’s gaze and share an object of attention with another. (Scaife and Bruner, 1975).

Question 24

Direction attention:

Answer 24

Imperative pointing: to get adult to do something.
Declarative pointing: to direct adult’s attention to something.
At 9 months, child points to object then check’s mother’s line of regard, by 18 months child checks mother’s line of regard before pointing to an object.

Question 25

Which words act as an ‘anchor’ in children’s development of language?

Answer 25

Highly frequent salient words; Highly frequent linguistic words.

Question 26

Infants use highly frequent words to segment other words, what evidence is there for that?

Answer 26

Infants listened longer to an isolated word that was taught with a real function word.

Question 27

In what way does syntax matter?

Answer 27

To convey meaning and message