W8: Early words, observational & experimental techniques, speech perception, language acquisition theories Flashcards
At what age do infants begin to laugh?
16 weeks (4 months)
What does infant laughter boost?
Boosts parent-child interaction
What do infants engage in from 4-6 months?
Vocal play
What age do infants begin to babble?
6-12 months
What age do infants produce single-word utterances?
10-18 months
What age do infants produce two-word utterances?
18 months
What kind of speech does a 2 year old produce and what is it?
Telegraphic speech - meaning they leave out all of the little words, but we can understand it
At what age do infants produce full sentences?
2 and a half years
Why is it hard to test infants/young children’s speech production?
We can’t ask what they understand
Toddlers often won’t/don’t listen or respond
They may know but not say a word
Their answers do not always reflect knowledge
What are some problems experimenters may have when working with children?
Comprehension - does the child understand
Production - e.g the child may be shy
Why is it better for parents to collect data?
They have a better idea of what their child understands and know what words their children regularly use
What are the two types of parental reports for language study?
Diary studies
Checklists
What are diary studies?
Parents write down everything their child says
What are the downsides to diary studies?
It is time-consuming
May be more feasible to record at certain times of the day but may lead to missing data when parent is busy, so may be missing a section of ability due to the environment
At what developmental stage are diary studies best?
When child is only using one-word utterances and not too often
How do checklists work?
Checklists of words that are frequently used by toddlers, parents tick the words their child understands and says
Why are checklists helpful?
They help to remind parents of ordinary words their children may use
What is the most widely used checklist?
MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)
When it comes to checklists, what do parents over or underestimate?
They are good at estimating production but do overestimate how much their child can understand (comprehension)
What do token and type refer to in language development?
Token refers to the number of words child utters overall
Type refers to the number of different words child utters overall
Why is observational data useful in children’s language studies?
Children don’t always say what researcher asks - need to wait until they do
Observational data is difficult for…
Large samples
What should you note when recording observational data in children’s language?
Need to note context and assumed meaning
What are longitudinal studies?
They track individual development across time however they are expensive and take a long time
Give an example of the kind of question longitudinal studies can answer
Effects of early linguistic environment on later language development
What are cross-sectional studies?
Assess abilities in groups of children of various ages always comparing at least 2 age groups
What is a disadvantage to cross-sectional designs?
They may be subject to cohort effects
What are the two different settings for observational studies?
Naturalistic observation: real-life situations
Controlled observation: same setting for all (e.g. mothers vs. fathers playing with children using a set range of toys in a lab playroom)
What are the 3 ways of studying speech perception in infants?
Habituation
Preferential looking
Conditioned head turn
What are the different dependent variables that may be measured in habituation?
High amplitude sucking
Heart rate
Looking time
What is habituation?
A gradual decrease in response to/interest in a repeated stimulus (getting used to things)
Why is habituation important?
Otherwise we would be constantly alert to sensory information around us which uses up cognitive resources
What is novelty preference?
Humans prefer anything new or different
How can habituation and novelty preference be used in an experimental design?
Present infant with a stimulus - they are interested, which declines and the infant is said to be habituated
If you present something new and the infant is interested in it, it means the infant can discriminate between the two because of this novelty preference
Explain an experiment using habituation and high amplitude sucking
Testing early auditory ability (used even with newborns)
Dummy is wired to a computer to get a baseline sucking rate, a sound is played and as the infant habituates, sucking rate decreases.
Then, if they are presented with a different sound and sucking rate increases they can discriminate.
How can an infants heart rate tell us of they can discriminate between sounds?
Their heart rate accelerates when presented with novel stimuli so can be used to help determine whether they perceive a sound as new or as familiar
What is preferential looking?
Play a spoken word or sentence and present two stimuli - one matching, one not
Looking time for both stimuli is measured
longer looking at appropriate image = understanding of the word/sentence
What is a conditioned head-turn?
For older infants (6-18 months)
Present auditory stimulus repeatedly, then introduce a new sound accompanied by an exciting visual stimulus off to one side
If a child can distinguish between sounds they will learn that the new sound leads to a change in visual display
Child begins to turn head in anticipation when change in sound is heard
Can infants hear in the womb?
Yes they have some hearing but muffled as ears are full of amniotic fluid
6 month old infants can discriminate more what than adults?
More speech sounds
At birth, infants have an immediate preference for… (2)
Their mothers voice
Familiar stories
At what age can infants discriminate between their mothers main language vs. foreign language?
By 4 days old
Explain perceptual loss in infants
At 1 year, infants begin to only focus on sounds relevant to their language - they come into the world prepared to learn any language before it becomes more focussed.
We can also hear these sounds but we don’t notice them because they are not relevant to our language
Explain what a rationalist perspective is
Suggests we have some innate abilities when we are born
Nature view
What theories of language are from a rationalist perspective?
Nativist/innatist
Explain what an empiricist perspective is
We are a blank slate at birth and need to learn it all - knowledge is derived from experience
Nurture view
What theories of language are from an empiricist perspective?
Behaviourist, constructivist, social interactionist and connectionist
What are nativist/innatist theories?
Say that adults sometimes correct childrens mistakes but do not explicitly teach language
Claim it is impossible to deduce grammatical rules from spoken language simply from hearing it
Therefore children must have an innate language ability
What is some evidence for nativist theories (2)?
Spontaneous sign language - deaf children with no exposure to sign language developed their own
Hawaiian children who heard only pidgin makeshift languages were able to develop it into a creole (full language)
Why can’t children learn language from adults according to the nativist theory?
Cannot learn all rules from listening to adult models because adults make a lot of false starts, hesitations and mistakes (degenerate input)
Adults do not give feedback, not telling you when you are right and wrong
What do adults tend to correct more than grammar?
Truth
E.g. when a child says ‘I eated all my pasta’ adults are more likely to say ‘no you didnt there is still heaps left’ instead of ‘you should say ate, not eated’
What is a language acquisition device (LAD)?
Innate ability to learn language
Allows children to attend to the language around them, hypothesize about how it works and then derive the grammar for that language (to use it)
Needs input to work
What has been argued to be present instead of LAD’s?
Universal grammar
What is universal grammar?
Children are endowed with principles and parameters that they set once they hear the language around them
Children match the language they hear with the structures they already possess
What are some strengths of the nativist theories?
It explains the early rapid development of language
There is a similarity of progress across children in different languages (language development may follow brain development)
Brain areas are specialized for language (brocas area) suggests we are hardwired to learn language
What are some weaknesses of the nativist theories?
No answer for how we avoid setting parameters incorrectly - how do we learn things we hear are not correct?
Explain social interactionist theory of language
Interaction with others in a social context is important for language acquisition
Suggests biological endowment is necessary but not sufficient for development
Communication behaviour that develops via interaction with others
What is child-directed speech?
When you speak to a child it is not the same as speaking to an adult so instead of poor speech as the nativist theory suggests, children hear:
- slow rate
- exaggerated innotation
- high frequency
- many repetitions
- simple syntax
- simple vocab
Child directed speech is interesting and…
catches the infants attention
What other common interactions with children disagree with the no negative evidence claims of nativist theories?
May look puzzled or request the infant repeat themselves - this is not rewarding, they are rewarded when they are right
Ignore if too incoherent
We repeat what they have said in corrected form - emphasizing wrong phrase
What is joint attention?
It is essential for language learning
More JA, larger early vocab
Adult speech usually refers to what the child is attending to
How do we know social interaction is essential for language acquisition?
Seeing language on TV doesn’t teach speech
Twins often show delays in language than single children as they only receive 1/2 as many parental conversations as single infants
