Prelinguistic Speech Processing Flashcards
True or False?
Language is generative
True
Language is comprised of small units that are combined
This is known as…?
Phonology
What is language comprised of?
Phonology
What is phonology?
Small units that are combined
Simply = Sounds or gestures that make up words in that language
What does language convey?
Meaning (semantics)
True or False?
Languages do not have rules about how words go together (syntax)
False
Languages have rules about how words go together (syntax)
True or False?
Language is social
True
What are the 5 characteristics of language?
1) Language is generative
2) Language is comprised of small units that are combined (phonology)
3) Language conveys meaning (semantics)
4) Languages have rules about how words go together (syntax)
5) Language is social
True or False?
Infants learn their native language slowly and follow different developmental paths according to culture
False
Infants learn their native language quickly and effortlessly, and follow the same developmental path regardless of culture
How do babies learn languages quickly?
They identify key sounds and their meaning
What are the 3 types of infant designs used to study how infants learn languages?
1) Preference studies
2) Habituation /familiarisation studies
3) Change detection studies
Preference studies is a type of infant study design
What do preference studies look at?
With no training, what do infants want to listen (or look) to
Simply = Baseline preferences infants might have
Habituation/familiarisation studies is a type of infant study design
What do habituation /familiarisation studies look at?
First, we train infants and then measure what they prefer
Simply = Look at what they learn and process after a training period
Change detection studies is a type of infant study design
What do change detection studies look at?
We train infants to respond to a change (can infants tell the difference between two things)
With no training, what do infants want to listen (or look) to
Simply = Baseline preferences infants might have
What type of infant study design is this?
Preference studies
First, we train infants and then measure what they prefer
Simply = Look at what they learn and process after a training period
What type of infant study design is this?
Habituation/familiarisation studies
We train infants to respond to a change (can infants tell the difference between two things)
What type of infant study design is this?
Change detection studies
What are the 2 types of sounds infants learn to recognise in their language?
1) Prosody
2) Phonemes
What is a prosody?
The pattern of stress and intonation in a language
Simply = The musicality of a speech
The pattern of stress and intonation in a language
Simply = The musicality of a speech
This is known as..?
Prosody
What are phonemes?
The perceptually distinct units of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another (e.g., p, b, d, t)
Pat, bat, bad, pad
The perceptually distinct units of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another (e.g., p, b, d, t)
Pat, bat, bad, pad
This is known as..?
Phonemes
True or False?
Languages have the same prosodic patterns
False
Languages have different prosodic patterns
True or False?
Languages have the same sounds that they use as
phonemes
False
Languages differ in the sounds that they use as
phonemes
True or False?
The foetal auditory system is fully functioning during the last trimester
True
The foetal auditory system is fully functioning during the ___ trimester.
a. First
b. Second
c. Last
c. Last
Whose voices do newborns prefer?
Their own mother’s voice
Can newborns discriminate languages with prosody?
They can discriminate languages with different prosody (German/Spanish) but not languages of similar prosody (English/Dutch)
What language do newborns prefer?
They prefer their native language compared to a foreign language
True or False?
Newborns cry in a monotonous way
False
Newborns cry with an “accent” that their mothers have
True or False?
Newborns prefer their own mother’s voice
True
True or False?
Early language processing has nothing to do with prenatal experience
False
Early language processing is influenced by prenatal experience
True or False?
Newborns can discriminate languages of similar prosody (English/Dutch) but not languages of different prosody (German/Spanish)
False
Newborns can discriminate languages with different prosody (German/Spanish) but not languages of similar prosody (English/Dutch)
Can foetuses in the womb make out individual words?
No
They can make out sounds but not individual words
True or False?
Newborns prefer their native language compared to a foreign language, even if the language is spoken by a stranger
True
What is known as the sounds that distinguish words?
(e.g., pat/bat, sip/zip)
Phonemes
Across the world’s, there are about ___ consonants and ___ vowels.
But any language uses about ___
a. 600, 40, 200
b. 200, 600, 40
c. 40, 200, 600
d. 600, 200, 40
d. 600, 200, 40
True or False?
Children’s babble initially starts with only producing sounds of target language
False
Children’s babble initially starts off with a wide range of sounds
Only in their first year, they move towards producing only sounds of target language
At what age do infants move towards producing only sounds of target language?
In their first year
At what age can infants discriminate between all sounds, even foreign ones?
1 - 2 months
At what age do infants experience a systematic decline in ability to
distinguish sounds from nontarget language and increase for target language?
7 - 11 months
True or False?
At 5-8 months, infants can
discriminate between all
sounds, even foreign ones.
Adults only discriminate those in their language
False
At 1-2months, infants can
discriminate between all
sounds, even foreign ones.
Adults only discriminate those in their language
True or False?
Between 1-4 months,
systematic decline in ability to distinguish sounds from nontarget language and increase for target language
False
Between 7-11 months,
systematic decline in ability to distinguish sounds from nontarget language and increase for target language
Young infants are _____ sensitive to subtle differences between all phonetic units, whereas older children _____ their sensitivity to distinctions that are not used in their native language
a. More, Lose
b. More, Gain
c. Less, Lose
d. Less, Gain
a. More, Lose
What are young infants especially sensitive to?
Acoustic changes at the phonetic boundaries between categories, including those of languages they have never heard
An experiment on early phonological development phonemes was conducted.
A 6 month old infant was presented with 2 hindi sounds, “da” and “dda”
Meanwhile, a 10 month old infant was presented with the same 2 sounds
Which infant would be most likely able to tell the difference between the 2 phonemes?
The 6 month old infant
True or False?
The loss of discrimination for foreign-language distinctions is paralleled by an increase in sensitivity to native-language phonetic units
True
At what age can infants segment words from
their language?
7.5 months
Describe Jusczyk & Aslin’s experiment investigating whether infants can segment words from their language
List 3 things
1) 6 m/o and 7.5 m/o went through a familiarisation phase where they were presented with the target word repetitively
2) The infants were then presented with a sentence that includes the target word in the test phase
3) The experimenters measured whether the infants listened longer to the sentence with their target word
Describe the results of Jusczyk & Aslin’s experiment investigating whether infants can segment words from their language
Infants can segment words from their language at ~ 7.5 months, but not 6 months
Simply = They can distinguish individual words from the sentence
How do infants learn that certain sounds that co-occur together are likely to be part of the same word?
They use statistics and track the co-occurence of syllables
Syllables that co-occur often are likely part of the same word
Give and example of how infants learn that certain sounds that co-occur together are likely to be part of the same word?
Consider the phrase ‘pretty baby’
Among English words, the probability that ‘ty’ will follow ‘pre’ is higher than the probability that ‘bay’ will follow ‘ty’
If infants are sensitive to adjacent transitional probabilities in continuous speech, they might be able to parse speech and discover that pretty is a potential word, even before they understand its meaning.
How do infants identify word boundaries?
Infants can use both transitional probabilities between syllables, and prosodic cues, which relate to linguistic stress
Describe the experiment by Saffran et al. with 8-month-olds using highly controlled made-up language
List 4 points
1) 8 m/os were presented with made up words
e.g. lamipe, nubefe, duvoca, telugo
2) They listened to the words in a randomised order for a few minutes
e.g. nubefe, lamipe, nubefe, duvoca
3) They were then presented with the made up words again as well as part-words
e.g. mipenu, befedu, vocate, lugola
4) The experimenters measured how long the infants listed to the words
Describe the results of the experiment by Saffran et al. with 8-month-olds using highly controlled made-up language
8 m/o infants listen longer to part-words, suggesting they found the words in the stream
Simply = The infants were aware that sounds that occur more often together are more likely to be part of the same word and sounds occurring less often together signify word boundaries
Describe the 4 characteristics of infant directed speech
1) Higher pitched
2) Slower speaking rate.
3) Important words are generally at the end and are exaggerated more.
4) The boundaries between phrases are enhanced, making it easier to segment speech
True or False?
Infants prefer to listen to Infant Directed Speech (IDS) and interact with people who use IDS
True
Are children more or less attentive when an adult uses infant directed speech with them?
More attentive
Which is better for infant segment speech?
a. Adult directed speech (ADS)
b. Infant directed speech (IDS)
b. Infant directed speech (IDS)
What 2 types of words act as anchors for infants when they listen to a speech stream?
1) Highly frequent salient words (e.g., Mummy, child’s name)
Simply = Socially important words
2) Highly frequent linguistic words (e.g., the, he/she)
True or False?
If you can identify a word in the speech stream you cannot identify one boundary of the adjacent words
False
If you can identify a word in the speech stream you can identify one boundary of the adjacent words
True or False?
Highly familiar words (own name, “Mommy”) help 6-month-olds segment words
True
Describe the experiment by Bortfeld et al. investigating whether 6 m/o infants can use highly familiar words to help segment words
List 3 points
1) Baby Maggie and Hanna were presented with their respective target word repetitively
e.g. bike…bike…bike or cup…cup…cup…
2) They were then presented with a sentence that included the name Maggie or a sentence with the name Hanna along with their target words
e.g. The bell on Maggie’s bike was really loud or Hanna’s cup was bright and shiny
3) The experimenters measured whether the infants recognised the words next to their name
Describe the results of the experiment by Bortfeld et al. investigating whether 6 m/o infants can use highly familiar words to help segment words
Baby Maggie recognized words next to the name “Maggie”
Baby Hanna recognized words next to the name “Hanna”
Recall that 6-month-olds fail in the Jusczyk & Aslin (1995) study
Simply = Highly familiar words (own name, “Mommy”) help 6-month-olds segment words
At what age can infants use “the” to segment nouns
At 8 months
Do infants listened longer to an isolated word that was taught with a real function word or without it?
An isolated word that was taught with a real function word
e.g. Infant was taught “An apple”
When “apple” was mention without the function word “An”, the infant listened longer, because they were unfamiliar with it/found it unusual
In English, function words tend to go to before (articles, pronouns, prepositions):
- An apple
- The dog
What must infants do in order to learn syntax?
Infants need to learn the word order
In Japanese, the order is switched
Articles are after the noun,
postposition rather than prepositions
At what age are infants sensitive to this?
8 months
Italian is a frequent-first
language whereas Japanese is a frequent-final language
Which infant is more likely to listen longer to frequent-first sentences
a. Italian 8 m/o
b. Japanese 8 m/o
a. Japanese 8 m/o
Italian is a frequent-first
language whereas Japanese is a frequent-final language
Which infant is more likely to listen longer to frequent-final sentences
a. Italian 8 m/o
b. Japanese 8 m/o
b. Italian 8 m/o
At what age have infants started to learn some of the ordering rules for their language?
By 8 months
True or False?
By 2 months, infants have started to learn some of the ordering rules for their language
False
By 8 months
At what age can infants track the syntactic organisation of sounds/words?
8 months old
Syntax requires learning the abstract rules of a language
What does this mean?
Syntax requires having knowledge on which word goes in which position
At what age can infants learn abstract rules of a language?
6 months old
What were the results of the experiment investigating whether 6-month-olds could learn an abstract rule with linguistic stimuli?
List 2 points
1) Those familiarised to ABA word pattern listened longer to new ABB words
2) Those familiarised to ABB word pattern listened longer to new ABA words
e.g. Infants familiarised to ABA word pattern listened longer to the word ‘gatiti’ in comparison to ‘gatiga’
e.g. Infants familiarised to ABB word pattern listened longer to the word ‘linali’ in comparison to ‘linana’
Infants make rapid strides in language acquisition over the ____ year
a. Second
b. First
c. Third
b. First
In their first year, infants identify: ____, ____, ____ and ____
- sounds
- statistics
- patterns
- word boundaries
True or False?
Infants develop early preferences and skills for starting to crack language complexities
True
True or False?
Infants tune the specifics of their language (sounds, order) well before they begin to speak
True
To learn language infants must be able to…? List 3 things
1) Identify the sounds the make up their language
2) Segment speech into smaller units (words)
3) Figure out how those smaller units are organised to convey specific meanings
