Language III: Language Development 58 Flashcards
Language Learning - Perception? (Phonotactics)
- Sound organization/syllable structure/rhythm
- Phonotactics: rules on phoneme combination “blend sounds natural not bneld”
- Word segmentation
Language Learning - Lexicon development?
Association of words and meaning
Language Learning - Production?
Producing correct sounds
When do babies start learning language?
DeCasper& Fifer (1980) studied newborn babies
– Mother’s voice recorded
– Electronic soother to measure suckling
Baseline suckling rate -> InterburstInterval (IBI)
– Recording of Mother’s voice or other voice played
Depending on IBI (above or below median IBI)
– Babies could control voice based on their IBI
Results:
–Babies could learn to produce different voices based on IBI
–Babies preferred to hear their own Mother’s voice
–Newborn babies can already discriminate voices
What explains vocal preference?
- Instinct?
- Do babies learn their Mother’s voice before birth?
DeCasperand Spence (1986)
Mothers read one of three stories to their baby during last 6 weeks of pregnancy
– “The King, the Mice, & the Cheese”
– “The Cat in the Hat”
– “The Dog in the Fog” (modified version of The Cat in the Hat)
After birth (mean = 55 hours) babies tested for story preference
– Same IBI-based reinforcement procedure
Results:
- Babies preferred story that was read during pregnancy!
- Babies attend and listen to stories before birth
What can babies do?
Babies show more left hemisphere activity when hearing speech compared with backward speech (Pena et al., 2003)
– Early evidence for speech perception ability
Within 3 months, infants can discriminate vowels that are not distinguished in native language (Swoboda et al., 1976)
2-4 months, infants can discriminate dialects within same language (Nazzi& Ramus, 2003)
Perceptual Development?
Babies more sensitive to phonotactic contrast than adults (Werker& Tees, 1984)
- Adults could not discriminate between Hindi sounds (/tha/ vs. /dha/)
- Infants between 6-8 months could discriminate
After 1 year, children tune-in to native language
Word Segmentation?
Based on transitional probabilities of syllables (Saffran)
Word form also helps
- Prosody, rhythm
By 8 months, word stress (emphasis) overrides transitional probabilities (Johnson & Jusczyk, 2001)
Frequent words (the) facilitate segmentation of following words
Whole-word Recognition?
- Own name: 4.5 months
- Own name in full sentence: 6 months
- Discriminate between frequent words and rare words (no context): 11 months (meaning dominance)
- Newborns can remember a word-form for 24 hours
- 9 month oldscan remember new word for two weeks
Word Meaning?
8-16 months: average 36 words (Bates et al. 1995)
Comprehension starts to increase at 13 months
- Use phonetic detail (gall vs ball)
Eyetracking methods
- Infants look at correct object when name heard
Learning new words without context?
Werkeret al., (1998)
– Infants 8-14 months
– Received Infant Scientist degree for participation
– Saw objects paired with nonsense CVCs
– Tested using looking time procedure
Looking-time procedure
– Infants presented with object and name together
– Objects repeatedly presented until looking declines -> Habituation
Test phase: objects presented with wrong name (switch trials)
DV: looking time
Results:
– 14 month-olds learned associations
– Younger than 14 months couldn’t learn
– Objects learned easier when moving
– Girls learned slightly better than boys
Early Vocabulary Size?
- Language-specific babbling starts after 6 months
- Significant amount of real words after 16 months
- After 16 months, production can be used as measure of vocabulary size
- Parents can report vocabulary using CDI (Communicative Development Index)
Bilingual Babies?
Children raised in bilingual environment maintain broad phonotactic discrimination
Bilingualism also associated with improved memory, executive attention control (Bialystok, 2015)
– But others do not find same differences
