Language Acquisition Flashcards
describe results of study investigating when hearing begins? (Lecanuet et al., 1995)
at 29 weeks of age: when a noise is introduced, there is an obvious heart rate response from infants = starting to pick up on sounds
what is transnatal learning?
encoding information before birth and recognising it after birth
describe results of De Casper & Spence (1986) study into whether babies actively process speech before birth?
- 2/3 days after birth
- babies altered sucking pattern to hear familiar passage but not unfamiliar one
- change in sucking irrespective of whether mother or unfamiliar read the Cat in the Hat
describe the 2 conditions in De Casper & Spence (1986) study into whether babies actively process speech before birth?
group 1: more they sucked on dummy = played cat in the hat
group 2: more they sucked on dummy = played unfamiliar passage
n Christophe & Morton (1998) investigating whether babies can tell 2 languages apart, what 2 language comparisons did they use?
english vs dutch (similar in prosody)
or
english vs japanese (diff prosodic pattern)
describe results of Christophe & Morton (1998) study into whether babies can tell 2 languages apart
babies could tell difference between english and Japanese but not english and dutch
can use prosody to distinguish languages
what is a phoneme?
smallest sound unit that carries distinctiontions between one meaning and another (b and p)
what are phoneme boundaries?
a physical parameter, such as voice onset time, changes perception from one phoneme to another
in regards to phonemes, what is it crucial for infants to do?
- tell apart different phonemes (b and p)
- perceive different variants of same phoneme as same
describe principle behind Eimas et al’s (1971) study into infant’s early discrimination of speech sounds?
- shown same voice stimuli again and again
- high stimulus response initially, gradually wanes
- new sound stimulus
- greater response = dishabituated and recognised this as different sound
describe results of Eimas et al’s (1971) study into infant’s early discrimination of speech sounds?
babies who heard p increased sucking rate
babies who heard b did not increase sucking rate
describe conclusions of Eimas et al’s (1971) study into infant’s early discrimination of speech sounds?
infants as young as 1mo have a built in mechanism for distinguishing speech sounds, can be used as building blocks for language acquisition
what is phonetic discrimination in native and foreign languages?
- newborn babies have potential to make any phonetic discrimination
- adults do not have this same ability (unable to hear phonetic distinctions that occur in other languages)
what was the research question in Werker & Tess (1984) study into how language experience shapes infant’s speech perception?
can english babies discriminate between hindi ‘da’ and ‘da’?
describe the conditioned head turn paradigm?
- whenever there is change in auditory stimulus
- electric toy is lit up and activated
- infants trained to look at toy whenever they hear a change in anticipation
- target items played
- observer who can’t hear sounds judges whether infants heard a stimulus change based on their actions
describe results of Werker & Tess (1984) study into how language experience shapes infant’s speech perception?
by 10 months: baby stops hearing differences between 2 sounds and is no longer universal listener
6-8 months: infants able to discriminate between hindi contrasts
what is a problem with perceptual narrowing?
relies on experimental evidence that is very limited in its linguistic and geographic diversity
has perceptual narrowing been found in face recognition?
yes:
- all good at distinguishing faces from own face
- 6 mos good at distinguishing faces monkey faces
- other race effect = better at distinguishing faces from own race
when does the other race effect begin?
1 year
describe the preferential listening paradigm?
- infant sits on caregivers lap
- on each trial, one of the side lights flash
- when infant orients to light, sound comes from that speaker
- experimenter records how long infant looks at ‘source’ of sound as a measure of infant’s preference
how are infants able to tell when one word ends and the next begins?
- infant directed speech
- syllable stress
- ability to attend to transitional probabilities
how does infant directed speech help infants be able to tell when one word ends and the next begins?
- higher in pitch
- exaggerated intonation contours
- shorter utterances
- longer pauses
- simplified sentence structure
what are the exceptions to words with a strong-weak stress pattern in english?
guitar and belong
describe results of Jusczyk, Cutler & Redanz (1993) study into infant’s sensitivity to syllable stress?
at 9 months, infants spent longer listening to strong-weak lists of words (typical of english language), must be sensitive
