Lecture 6: Language Development Flashcards
what age of infants does the high amplitude sucking procedure test?
infants from birth to 4 months of age
what does the high amplitude sucking procedure rely on?
infants’ sucking reflex
high amplitude sucking procedure
Infants hear a sound stimulus every time they produce a strong/high-amplitude suck on a pacifier
how does the high amplitude sucking procedure determine infants’ interest?
The number of strong sucks is an indicator of the infants’ interest
what do more strong sucks on the high amplitude sucking procedure represent?
more interest
two variations of the high amplitue sucking procedure
discrimination & preference
function of the discrimination high amplitude sucking procedure
Used to test whether infants can tell the difference between two auditory stimuli
the discrimination high amplitude sucking procedure is a variation of _____
the visual habituation paradigm
habituation phase of the discrimination high amplitude sucking procedure
each time an infant produces a strong suck, a sound is played. This continues until sucking has declined significantly (by about 20%)
test phase of the discrimination high amplitude sucking procedure
they hear a new speech stimulus every time they produce a strong suck
interpreting results of the discrimination high amplitude sucking procedure
If infants can distinguish between stimuli, sucking behaviour should increase
function of the preference high amplitude sucking procedure
Used to test infants’ preference for different stimuli
preference high amplitude sucking procedure method
2 different stimuli are played on alternating minutes each time a strong suck is produced. The number of strong sucks produced during the presentation of each stimulus type is compared
interpreting preference in the preference high amplitude sucking procedure
infants prefer a stimulus if they suck more during one stimulus minute type than the other
what has the high amplitude sucking paradigm shown about newborns?
- Prefer to listen to speech sounds over artificial sounds
- Prefer to listen to their mother’s voice over another woman’s voice
- Prefer to listen to their native language over another language
what does research using the high amplitude sucking procedure reveal?
that language learning starts in utero
what does speech perception rely on?
perceiving differences between speech sounds
what often distinguishes similar speech sounds?
voice onset time
voice onset time
the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start to vibrate
categorical perception
we perceive speech sounds as distinct categories even though the differences between speech sounds are gradual
why is categorical perception useful?
because it focuses listeners on sounds that are linguistically meaningful while ignoring meaningless differences
infants’ categorical perception of speech study question
do infants perceive the same speech categories as adults?
infants’ categorical perception of speech study sample
1-month-old infants learning English
infants’ categorical perception of speech study method
used a high amplitude sucking paradigm to test the discrimination between /ba/ and /pa/
infants’ categorical perception of speech study conditions
- Different speech sounds: infants were habituated to /ba/ (20 ms VOT) and then tested with /pa/ (40 ms VOT)
- Same speech sounds: infants were habituated to 60 ms VOT /pa/ and then tested with /pa/ (80 ms VOT)
infants’ categorical perception of speech study findings
- Different speech sounds condition: found increased sucking when sound from new category (/pa)
- Same speech sounds condition: found no change in sucking when sound from the same category (/pa)
infants’ categorical perception of speech study takeaway
newborns have the same categorical perception of speech as adults
distinguishing speech sounds in adults vs. infants
Infants make more distinctions between speech sounds than adults
perceiving unimportant speech sounds in adults
Adults have difficulty perceiving differences between speech sounds that are not important in their native language
infants cross-language speech perception study sample
tested 6-month-old American infants learning English
infants cross-language speech perception study method
used the high amplitude sucking paradigm to see if they can discriminate between Hindi /Ta/ and /ta/
infants cross-language speech perception study results
after habituating to one of these Hindi speech sounds, they increased sucking when they heard other speech sounds
implications of infant cross-language speech perception
- Infants discriminate between speech sounds they have never heard before (i.e. speech sounds not found in their native language)
- Infants are biologically ready to learn any of the world’s languages
perceptual narrowing of speech perception
- Infants’ ability to discriminate between speech sounds they have never heard before diminishes around 8 months
- Infants lose the ability to discriminate non-native speech sounds at 10-12 months
- This improves their perception of speech sounds in their native language
word segmentation
discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech
when does word segmentation begin?
7 months of age
how do we pick up on patterns of words in our native language?
via statistical learning
examples of statistical learning in our native language
- stress-patterning
- distribution of speech sounds
stress patterning
Different languages place stress on different parts of a word
stress patterning in English
stress usually lands on the first syllable
stress patterning in French
stress usually lands on the last syllable
distribution of speech sounds
- Sounds that appear together often are likely to be words
- Sounds that don’t appear together often are more likely to be boundaries between words
preferential listening procedure
- There is a speaker on either side of an infant’s head
- When the infant looks at the speaker, a recording of speech plays
- There is different speech from each speaker
interpreting results of the preferential listening procedure
How long an infant spends looking in a particular direction/listening to a particular sound indicates how much they like it
familiarity effect in the preferential listening procedure
infants will listen longer to sounds they recognize
novelty effect in the preferential listening procedure
if first habituated to a sound, infants will listen longer to the new sound
distribution of speech sounds study method
preferential listening procedure with 8-month-olds
distribution of speech sounds habituation
- 8-month-olds listened to a stream of syllables for a long time (2 mins)
- Some syllables always occurred together
- Others rarely or never occurred together
distribution of speech sounds test
infants were presented with a syllable sequence that always co-occurred vs. syllable sequences that rarely co-occurred
distribution of speech sounds results
infants listened longer to the rarely occurring sequence
distribution of speech sounds takeaway
this shows that infants understood word boundaries by detecting the likelihood of syllables belonging together
cooing
Drawn out vowel sounds like “ooooooh”
when does cooing start
at around 2 months
benefits of cooing
- Helps infants gain motor control over their vocalizations
- Elicits reactions from caregivers leading to back-and-forth cooing with caregivers
babbling
Repetitive consonant vowel syllables like “papapa”
when does babbling start
at around 7 months
babbling across culture
- Speech sounds are not necessarily from the child’s native language
- Infant babbling is very similar across languages
babbling in deaf infants
Deaf infants that are exposed to ASL babble with repetitive hand movements made up of pieces of full ASL signs
what does babling in deaf infants provide evidence for?
that language exposure is critical for babbling
functions of babbling
social & learning function
social function of babbling
- practicing turn-taking in a dialogue
- Infant babbling elicits caregiver reactions which in turn elicit more babbling
learning function of babbling
- signals that the infant is listening and ready to learn
- Infants learn more when an adult labels a new object just after they babble vs. learning the word in the absence of babbling
when do infants appear to understand high-frequency words
around 6 months of age
understanding words before first words study method
shows 6-month-olds pictures of common items and monitor where they look when one of the pictures is named (eye-tracking)
understanding words before first words study findings
6-month-olds look at the correct picture more often than chance
understanding words before first words study takeaways
- Infants understand more words than they can produce
- Infants understand more words than their caregivers realize
first word
any specific utterance consistently used to refer to or express meaning
why are first words hard to identify?
- Babbling can sound like words
- The meaning of a first word can differ from its standard meaning
when are first words produced?
around 12 months
how are first words often pronounced?
in predictable ways
predictable ways first words are pronounced
- Omit difficult parts of words
- Substitute difficult sounds for easier sounds
- Reorder sounds to put easy sounds first
what do first words usually refer to?
family members, pets, or important objects
first words across cultures
- The meaning of first words are very similar across cultures
- This suggests that infants around the world have similar interests and priorities around 12 months
limitations of first words
Infants express themselves initially with only one-word utterances so they cannot clearly communicate what they want to say
overextension
using a word in a broaden context than is appropriate
example of overextension
“dog” refers to any 4-legged animal
underextension
using a word in a more limited context than appropriate
example of underextension
“cat” refers only to the family’s pet cat
how many words do kids know at 18 months?
about 50 words
vocabulary spurt
the rate of learning accelerates
vocabulary spurt across languages
it occurs across all languages
how do children learn words?
- Their assumptions about language
- Social context (caregivers & peers)
childrens’ assumptions in word learning
- Mutual exclusivity
- Whole-object assumption
- Pragmatic cues
- Adult’s intentionality
- Grammatical form
- Shape bias
- Cross-situational word learning
mutual exclusivity assumption
A given object/being will have only one name
what object will a child turn their attention to when they hear a new word?
A child will turn their attention to the object they don’t have a name for when they hear a new word
what assumption do bilingual children follow less?
Mutual exclusivity
whole object assumption
A word will refer to the whole object rather than to a part or action of the object
pragmatic cues
Using the social context to infer the meaning of a word
adult gaze
when an adult says a new word, the child assumes that it refers to the object the adult is looking at, even if the child cannot see it
adults’ intentionality
If an adult uses a word that conflicts with a child’s word for that object, they will learn the new word if it is said with confidence
grammatical form
The grammatical form of a word influences whether it’s interpreted as a noun, verb, or adjective
shape bias
Children will apply a noun to a new object of the same shape, even if that object is very different in size, colour, or texture
cross-situational word learning
Determining word meanings by tracking the correlations between labels and meanings across contexts
caregivers and word learning
Children’s vocabularies are hugely impacted by the vocabularies and speech of their caregivers
Caregiver factors influencing word learning
- Infant directed speech
- Quantity of speech
- Quality of speech
infant-directed speech (IDS)
A distinctive mode of speech used when talking to babies and toddlers
IDS across cultures
Common in the majority of cultures around the world
characteristics of IDS
- Greater pitch variability
- Slower speech
- Shorter utterances
- Clearer pronunciation of vowels
- More word repetitions
- More questions
- Accompanied by exaggerated facial expressions
functions of IDS
- Draws infants’ attention to speech
- Because infants pay greater attention to IDS, it facilitates their language learning
what kind of speech do infants prefer?
Infants prefer IDS to regular adult speech
IDS and early word recognition study question
How long do infants look in the direction of the word introduced in IDS vs. word introduced in adult speech?
IDS and early word recognition study method
7-8 month-old infants were introduced to new words in either infant-directed speech or regular adult speech. Their recognition of words was tested 24 hours later using the preferential listening procedure. All speech in the recognition testing was presented in IDS
IDS and early word recognition study findings
infants looked longer at words introduced in IDS than adult speech
IDS and early word recognition study takeaway
indicates that IDS facilitates word recognition
quantity of speech and vocabulary
- The number of words children hear used around them predicts children’s vocabulary size (especially speech directed to children)
- Children that hear more words have larger vocabularies
quantity of speech and SES study findings
A classic study found that parents’ SES predicts how much speech infants hear
quantity of speech and SES study method
- tested parents with their 7-month-old children over 2.5 years until the child turned three
- High, middle, and low SES
- Came to the lab for an hour every week
- Everything the parent and child said was recorded and analyzed
implications of effect of SES on vocabulary
- Children from higher SES have larger vocabularies than kids from low SES
- Differences in language exposure contribute to achievement gap between higher and lower SES children
quality of speech
The richness of adult communication with their children predicts children’ language ability
what elements make up the quality of speech?
- Joint engagement
- Fluency
- Stressing and repeating new words
- Playing naming games
- Naming an object when a toddler is already looking at it
aim of the grocery store intervention
Focuses on increasing the amount of time parents spend talking to their children to close the word gap
grocery store intervention
Signs are placed in grocery stores in low SES neighbourhoods encouraging parents to talk to their children about the foods in the store
results of the grocery store intervention
Parents increased quantity and quality of speech to their child
peer’s influence on language in children with poor language ability
Placing preschool children with similarly poor language ability in the same classroom negatively impacts their language growth
when do children have a better chance of catching up on language ability?
- if they are placed with children with higher language ability
- if the teacher uses rich communication with students
when do first sentences occur?
around 2 years of age
telegraphic speech
2-3 word phrases that leave out non-essential words
telegraphic speech across languages
Common in many languages
when do children master basic aspects of grammar?
by age 5
benefit of undestanding basic aspects of grammar
allows children to express and understand more complex ideas
how do we know when chidren have learned the grammar of their language?
when they can apply a grammatical rule to a new word/context
overregularization errors
Speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
what do overregularization errors demonstrate?
that children have learned grammatical rules but not exceptions to the rule
example of applying a grammatical rule to a new context
adding “s” to make a work plural
example of an overegularization error
mans, goed
how do we learn grammar?
- Parents and other caregivers
- Statistical learning
how do we learn grammar from our caregivers?
They model grammatically correct speech, but generally don’t correct children’s grammatical errors
learning grammar study question
can infants pick up on new grammatical patterns?
learning grammar study method
preferential listening paradigm with 8-month-olds
learning grammar study habituation
infants were habituated to a list of 3-word sequences in which the second word is repeated
learning grammar study test
infants were represented with new sentences with the same structure or with a different structure
learning grammar study findings
8-month-olds looked longer in the direction of sentences with a different structure
learning grammar study takeaways
this is evidence that infants can pick up on grammatical patterns
speech in 1-4-year-olds
- Children struggle to engage in mutual conversation
- They engage in private speech
- Egocentric discussion between children
private speech
infants’ speech is often initially directed to themselves to organize actions
speech in 5+-year-olds
children are able to stick to the same conversation topic as their conversation partner
when does the sensitive period for language acquisition occur?
from birth to before puberty
why does the sensitive period for language acquisition occur?
Due to maturational changes in the brain whereby language brain areas become less plastic
sensitive period for language
Crucial period in which an individual can acquire a first language if exposed to adequate linguistic stimuli
learning languages during the sensitive period
Languages are learned relatively easily during this period and full native competence is possible
learning languages after the sensitive period
After this period, languages are learned with great difficulty and native-like competence is rare
evidence for a sensitive period in language acquisition
- case of Genie
- recovery after brain damage
- deaf individuals
- second language learners
the case of Genie as evidence for a sensitive period for language acquisition
- Discovered in L.A. in 1970
- From 18 months until she was rescued at age 13, she was deprived of linguistic input
- She could barely speak
- Her development was also stunted in all other areas
- Her language ability is never fully developed despite intensive training after age 13
- This provides evidence of a sensitive period in language acquisition
counterargument for the case of Genie
Her difficulties may be due to inhumane treatment rather than linguistic deprivation
brain damage in children as evidence for a sensitive period for language acquisition
- Children that sustain brain damage to language areas usually recover full language capacity
- Childrens’ brains are highly plastic; other parts of the developing brain can take over language functions
brain damage in adults as evidence for a sensitive period for language acquisition
- Teenagers and adults that sustain brain damage to language areas are more likely to suffer from permanent language impairment
- A more mature brain is less plastic
deaf people and language acqusition study method
- Researchers tested 2 groups of deaf adults:
1. No exposure to language during early childhood
2. Learned spoken language during early childhood - Both groups began learning ASL in school between ages of 9-15
deaf people and language acqusition study findings
those with exposure to language in infancy, even though spoken, performed better on language tasks than those with no language exposure
deaf people and language acqusition follow-up study
tested deaf adults that had exposure to ASL in early childhood
deaf people and language acqusition follow-up study findings
the performance of deaf adults with early exposure to ASL was the same as deaf adults with exposure to their spoken language
deaf people and language acquisition study implications
this shows that exposure to language, regardless of modality, in infancy is critical for full language development
language acquisition for Chinese and Korean immigrants study
Performance on an English test by Chinese and Korean immigrants was related to the age at which they first arrived in the USA
language acquisition for Chinese and Korean immigrants study takeaways
- Language proficiency is related to the first age of exposure to that language
- Language performance is highly variable when a language is learned after puberty
implications of a sensitive period for language
- Deaf children should be exposed to sign language as young as possible to develop native-like ability
- Second language exposure at school should begin as early as possible to maximize opportunity to achieve native-like ability
prevalence of bilingualism internationally
About 50% of people across the world use at least two languages daily
prevalence of English-French bilingualism in Canada
17% of Canadians are English-French bilinguals
prevalence of English-French bilingualism in Montreal
55% of Montrealers are English-French bilinguals
prevalence of bilingualism in Canada
20% of Canadians’ first language is neither English nor French
monolingual brain hypothesis
the belief that infants’ brains are programmed to be monolingual and that they treat input in 2 languages as if it were one language. argues that bilingualism stretches the limited processing capacity of infants
implication of the monolingual brain hypothesis
if bilingual from birth, children will confuse their languages and this could result in language delays
when does bilingual learning begin?
in utero
bilingualism in utero study sample
tested 2 groups of newborn infants: Bilingual English-Tagalog mothers and
Monolingual English mothers
bilingualism in utero study method
- preferential high amplitude sucking procedure
- Exposed infants to Tagalog and English sentences
- Measures the rate of sucking on a pacifier
- More intense sucking indicates a preference for one language
bilingualism in utero study results
- English monolinguals had a preference for English
- English-Tagalog bilinguals showed no consistent preference for either language
bilingualism in utero study takeaway
this suggests that bilingual infants start learning about two native languages pre-birth
distinguishing between two native languages in utero study sample
tested 2 groups of newborn infants: Bilingual English-Tagalog mothers and
Monolingual English mothers
distinguishing between two native languages in utero study method
discrimination high amplitude sucking procedure
distinguishing between two native languages in utero habituation phase
both groups were habituated to English or Tagalog until sucking declined
distinguishing between two native languages in utero test phase
hearing sentences in a new language
distinguishing between two native languages in utero study results
both bilingual babies and monolingual babies differentiated between Tagalog and English
distinguishing between two native languages in utero study takeaway
this shows that bilingual infants can differentiate between native languages despite showing similar preferences for both languages
what do bilingualism in utero studies suggest about bilingualism?
- These studies suggest that bilingual infants are developing two separate language systems rather than confusing two languages
- This goes against the monolingual brain hypothesis
evidence for two separate linguistic systems
- Language development in bilingual vs. monolingual children is very similar
- Children select the language they use based on their conversation partner
- Even if children mix language, it isn’t a sign of confusion
vocabulary size in monolingual vs. bilingual children
They have the same vocabulary size when considering both languages (smaller vocabulary in each language separately vs. monolinguals
language mixing in bilingual adults
- Language mixing in adult bilinguals is normal
- 90% of bilingual parents mix their languages in speech
advantages of bilingualism
- Bilingual children perform better on measures of executive functioning than monolingual children
- Bilingualism seems to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults
- Bilingual individuals have to quickly switch between languages, which practices their executive functioning skills, especially cognitive flexibility
implications of bilingualism research
Schools should support learning both native and non-native languages from a young age
language development timeline
- in utero: language learning begins
- at birth: infants can distinguish between two native languages and show a preference for their native language
- 1 month: infants display the same categorical perception of speech as adults
- 2 months: cooing begins
- 4 months: sucking reflex disappears (can no longer use the high amplitude sucking procedure)
- 6 months: infants begin to understand high-frequency words, they make more distinctions between speech sounds than adults
- 7 months: infants begin to understand word segmentation, babbling begins, IDS facilitates their word recognition
- 8 months: infants’ ability to discriminate between speech sounds they have never heard before diminishes, they understand word boundaries by detecting the likelihood of syllables belonging together, they pick up on grammatical patterns
- 10 months: infants lose the ability to discriminate between non-native speech sounds (perception of speech in the native language improves)
- 12 months: first words appear
- 18 months: infants know around 50 words
- 2 years: first sentences appear
- 5 years: basic mastery of grammar, can stick to the same conversation topics as their partner
