Language Acquisition

Question 1

Between __-__ weeks in the womb, babies heart rates change in response to noise, suggesting the ability to ____.

Answer 1

29-35 weeks babies can hear

Question 2

Trans-natal learning is the ability to do what?

Answer 2

express info learnt in the womb after birth

Question 3

DeCasper and Spence (1986) showed that babies will change their _______ pattern in response to a story they heard _____ ______.

Answer 3

Babies will change their sucking pattern in response to a story they heard in the womb

Question 4

prosody refers to the ____ of a language

A Appearance
B Harshness
C Rhythm
D None of the above

Answer 4

C Rhythm

Question 5

The ability for infants to distinguish between english and japanese, but not english and danish, suggest babies use ________ to distinguish between languages.

Answer 5

prosody

Question 6

Phonemes refer to ________ ______ ______.
Phoneme boundaries refer to changes from one ________ to _________.

Answer 6

Phonemes refer to distinguishable sound units
Phoneme boundaries refer to changes from one phoneme to another

Question 7

In the High Amplitide Sucking (HAS) paradigm (Eimas et al 1971) , for familiar sounds sucking ______, suggesting habituation or ________, but for novel sounds, sucking ________, suggesting _______.

Answer 7

HAS - familiar sounds sucking decreases suggesting habituation or disinterest
novel sounds - sucking increases suggesting interest.

Question 7

Newborn babies have the ability to make any ______ ________, whereas adults do not.

Answer 7

babies can make phonetic discriminations better than adults
not yet learnt

Question 8

How does the conditioned headturn paradigm work ?

Answer 8

babies learn that when change in auditory stimulus occurs, a toy pops up
they will look at toy and turn their head
therefore if they can discriminate a change they will turn their head

Question 9

At age 6-8 months, nearly all babies can discriminate between phonemes in _____ and _____, 2 different sounding languages. However this ability decreases at age __-__ months. This change is known as ______ _______

Answer 9

6-8mo - can discriminate between phonemes in english as well as hindi
ability decreased at 10-12 months
this is an example of perceptual narrowing

Question 10

What is the main advantage of perceptual narrowing?

Answer 10

system efficiency - only discriminate relevant info (own language) and ignore irrelevant info (other languages)

Question 11

Can exposure to non-native (second language) reduce perceptual narrowing?

Answer 11

yes but only for that language

Question 12

What is the main critique of perceptual narrowing studies, and the claim of universality?

Answer 12

Most studies done in W.EI.R.D countries where english is the first language, and many families not bilingual

Question 13

Speech segmentation is the ability to do what?

Answer 13

Identify where one word ends and the next one begins

Question 14

By age __ months infants have the ability to detect target words in _____ speech contexts, using the ______ ______ paradigm.

Answer 14

by 7.5 months infants can detect target words in fluent speech contexts
using the preferential listening paradigm

Question 15

What are the 3 main explanations for children developing word recognition/speech segmentation?

Answer 15

Infant directed speech
Implicit language cues
transitional probabilities

Question 16

Infant directed speech refers to techniques used to _____ speech to help infants understand.
List 5 technique.

Answer 16

Tailoring speech to infants
Short utterances
long pauses
pitch changes
exaggeration
simplified sentence structure

Question 17

Implicit language cues and transitional probabilities refer to the fact that __% of english words have their ______ syllable stressed.

Answer 17

90% of English words have the first syllable stressed

Question 18

Juszcyk et al showed that after 9 months babies prefer what type of words?

A Short words
B Long words
C Words with the first syllable stressed
D Words with the last syllable stressed

Answer 18

C words with the first syllable stressed

Question 19

Saffran et al showed using non words, that at __ months children can _____ continuous speech streams based on _)______ cues alone.

Answer 19

At 8 months children can segment speech streams based on statistical cues alone

Question 20

Word comprehension refers to ______________
Word production refers to ______________

Answer 20

comprehension - refers to consistent and specific response to use of a word
production - consistent use of sound sequence in specific context

Question 21

Comprehension requires an ___________, whereas production requires _______ ________.

Answer 21

Comprehension = an understanding
production requires verbal responding

Question 22

What 3 ways can word comprehension be measured in infants?

Answer 22

Parental reports using Communicative developmental inventory
home observation/recordings
Laboratory

Question 23

By 6-9 months children know the meaning of many common nouns such as ______ and _____ ______. Word understanding starts ______ but then ________ rapidly, using a technique called fast ________. By 16 months an infants word range is anywhere from __ to ____ words.

Answer 23

6-9 months babies know meaning of common nouns like foods and body parts
starts slowly then rapidly increases due to fast mapping
16 mo - infants word range from 70-270 words

Question 24

Fast Mapping refers to the ability to form quick and _____ but ______ hypotheses about the meaning of ____ words based on how they are used in a ________.

Answer 24

Fast Mapping = forming quick rough but accurate hypotheses about meaning of new words based on how they are used in a sentence