Task 6 - From "ba..da" to good Flashcards
Phonology
sounds of a language
-/ui/, /r/–/sch/, /sr/
Semantics
meaning of words and sentences
- Dog, running, under, over
Basic components of language
- phonology
- semantics
- syntax
- pragmatics
Syntax
Grammatical rules that dictate how words can be combined
–> eat kitty vs kitty eat
Pragmatics
Rules for using language effectively within a social context
–> questions, parents, adults, children
Phoneme
smallest sound unit that changes the meaning of word
- Hat vs Cat
- minimal acoustic differences between phonemes
Behaviorist Perspective: “nurture” - Skinner
- operant conditioning
– Parents selectively reinforce sounds that are most like words–Gradual shaping: “successive approximations” - imitation
– reinforcement and generalization
—> passive role of child
But:
Parents do not only reinforce correct speech•Similar sequence of language development in different cultures
Nativist Perspective: “nature” – Chomsky
- language acquisition device
- Innate system, specific to the human brain–Contains universal rules of grammar
- -> Active role of child
- -> evidence
1. language learning in monkeys
2. invention of new language system - Nicaraguan sign language
Language and the brain
network for speech processing: left hemisphere
Language development in children with Williams Syndrome
- rare genetic disorder
- mentally impaired
- much better language skills (better vocabulary)
Language acquisition device
- innate system, specific to the human brain
- contains universal rules of grammar
BUT:
- No evidence for universal rules of grammar
- Acquisition of grammar is continuous and gradual
- Role of pragmatics and cognitive skills?
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
- brain development, perceptual learning and plasticity
- ‘Bootstrapping’
Bootstrapping
using existing knowledge to facilitate the acquisition of new abilities
Measuring behavioral responses
- listening preference: looking times
- Preferential looking: head-turning
- Non-nutritive pacifier response
- Direct testing of e.g. word knowledge
Measuring brain activity
- time course of brain activity (EEG)
2. localisation of brain activity (fMRI)
Development of speech perception
- Initial perceptual biases in infants
- perceptual changes due to experience
- word learning
Prenatal Development
- mother’s voice (her body tissue and bones are good conductors of sound)
- story reading by mother prior to birth
- rhyme learning
Initial perceptual biases in infants
- 0-6 months: infants discriminate phonemes of all languages
- 0-4 months: infants show categorical perception
Initial perceptual biases in infants
- categorical perception turned out
- not to be specific to humans
- not to be specific speech
thus: some early perceptual biases may be mediated by general auditory mechanisms
Perceptual changes due to experience
- learning the phonemes of your native language (0-12 months)
- recognition of relevant speech units (6-24 months)
Acquisition of native phonemes
- 0-6 months discrimination of a wide range of native and nonnative phonemes
- 6-12 months selective perception of native phonemes
Segmentation problem
no clear physical borders between phonemes, words or sentences
Difficulties about speech perception
- segmentation problem
- variability problem
Variability problem
- within and between speakers
- e.g. slow vs fast, or female vs male
- coarticulation between speech sounds
Speech segmentation
- around 7 months: successful segmentation of words from fluent speech
- around 24 months: adult-level speed and accuracy of word recognition in fluent speech
Segmentation cues
- prosody, intonation
- stress pattern of words
- statistical regularities of syllable co-occurence
- phonotactic contraints
- allophonic cues
(6. association with meaning)
Habituation-dishabituation paradigm
- familiarisation period
- test period, presentation of
- familiarised items
new items
measurement of
–> average looking times, headturning
- typical development experiment, e.g. visual object recognition
- longer looking times for novel items
- -> more interesting, not habituated
- speech perception experiments are special case
- longer looking times for familiar items within a sentence context
- -> more likely to convey relevant information
Infant’s segmentation of fluent speech
- measuring average listening times
1. familiarisation period: listening to words
2. tested on passages that either included or didn’t include these words
Stress pattern of words
- 6-9 months: infants become sensitive to predominant stress-pattern of words
Phonotactic constraints
- restrictions on possible combinations of sounds
- 6 months - equal listening to speech containing possible or impossible sound sequences
- 9 months - preference for words with possible sound combinations
- prosody, intonation
newborns
- stress pattern of words
6 - 9 months
- statistical regularities of syllable co-occurence
7 - 8 months
- phonotactic contraints
9 months
- allophonic cues
10.5 months
- association with meaning
continues at 24 months
Word learning
–12 to 18 months first 50 words
–1.5 to 3 yrs vocabulary spurt –3 yrs on: continued development & automatisation
