language Flashcards
when does hearing begin?
in the womb
who investigated change in heart rate in response to sound?
Lecanuet et al, 1995
how does heart rate change in response to sound in the womb?
from weeks 23-28 there was no response
from 29 weeks of age, when a noise is introduced, there is a response in heart rate
who showed that babies actively process speech before birth?
De Casper and Spence (1986)
how is it shown that speech processing occurs before birth?
babies can recognise a story that they heard whilst in the womb
what is transnatal learning?
encoding information before birth
recognising information after birth
what was De Casper and Spence’s procedure for investigating speech processing before birth?
12 pregnant women read a passage from The Cat in the Hat twice a day per day for the last 6 weeks of pregnancy
story chosen as expressive with a regular rhyme
2/3 days after birth, babies were tested for recognition with a sucking response
pressure sensitive dummy- either played The Cat in the Hat, or an unfamiliar passage
what were the results of De Casper and Spence’s study?
babies altered sucking pattern to The Cat in the Hat, but not the unfamiliar one
change occurred irrespective of who read the test
so the babies were recognising the story rather than the mother’s voice
who investigated whether babies can tell languages apart?
Christophe and Morton (1998)
what does prosodic mean?
rhythm/pattern of language
what was Christophe and Morton’s procedure for seeing if babies can tell languages apart?
presented 2 month old English babies with two different language comparisons
English vs Japanese (different prosodies)
English vs Dutch (similar prosodies)
what were Christophe and Morton’s results for seeing if babies can tell languages apart?
babies could tell the difference between English and Japanese, but not English and Dutch
babies can use prosody to distinguish languages
what is a phoneme?
smallest sound unit which carries distinctions between one meaning and another, eg) b and p
what is a phoneme boundary?
where a change in sound can provide a change in meaning
physical parameter, such as voice onset time, changes perception from one phoneme (b) to another (p)
what is important to be able to do with phonemes?
tell apart different phonemes
perceive different variants of the same phoneme as the same (to perceive all instances of p as p)
who investigated infant’s early discrimination of speech sounds?
Eimas et al, 1971
how did Eimas et al test infants discrimination of speech sounds?
High Amplitude Sucking Paradigm
familiar sound: sucking declines
novel sound: sucking revives
what was Eimas’ method to determine infant’s early discrimination of speech sounds?
phase 1: babies aged 1-4 months were presented with the single sound ba
increased their rate of sucking, then it went back to the baseline
phase 2: now a new but familiar sound was played- half the babies heard a different phoneme (p), half the babies heard a variant of (b)
what were the results of Eimas’ method to determine infant’s early discrimination of speech sounds?
babies who heard p increased sucking rate
babies who heard b did not increase sucking rate
what age group has the potential to make any phonetic discrimination?
newborn babies
who investigated the developmental change for how language experience shapes infant’s speech perception?
Werker and Tees, 1984