Week 1 - Birth to Babble

Question 1

What makes up the Nature argument?

Answer 1

• Knowledge is innately programmed
• Our cognitive capacity will not change
• Infant model is deficient
• Chomsky and Halle 1968

Question 2

What makes up the Nurture argument?

Answer 2

• Knowledge is acquired through experience
• We are born as a blank slate
• Cognitive developments happens from bottom up
• Language learnt through use

Question 3

What is the linguistic position stage 1?

Answer 3

1. Pre-linguistic period: Babble is random and no concept of input speech as meaningful

NATURE

Question 4

What is the psychological position stage 1?

Answer 4

1. Sound approximation: Babble shaped to language sounds

Question 5

Language in the womb study:

Name
Date
Method
Conclusion

Answer 5

De Casper and Fifer 1980

High-amplitude sucking

Infants prefer mothers voice and alter behaviour to hear it

Question 6

What do infants show a preference for in the womb?

Answer 6

• Mothers voice over other females (DeCasper and Fifer 1980)
• Ambient language (Moon et al. 1993)
• Human voice over non-human sounds (Butterfield and Siperstein 1980)

Question 7

Study 1 on role of babble:

Motor

Answer 7

• Davis and MacNeilage 1995
• Consonant and vowel patterns found due to tongue position in mouth
• Motor reflex, not lingustic

Question 8

Study 2 on role of babble:

Linguistic

Answer 8

• Boysson-Bardies et al. 1989
• Vowels produced matched adult models
• Babble shaped by ambient language input

Question 9

Babble stage key points:

Answer 9

• Starts as a motor reflex but over time shapes to ambient language
• Bias to langauge over other auditory sounds
• Pay attention to what is familiar

Question 10

What is the linguistic position stage 2?

Answer 10

2. Silence: Infant develops awareness of input, begins to acquire distinction between speech and sounds

Question 11

What is the linguistic position stage 3?

Answer 11

3. Linguistic period: Speech sounds acquired in specific order, based on adult model

Question 12

What is the psycological position stage 2?

Answer 12

2. Word approximation: Babble shaped to approximate words

Question 13

What is the psycological position stage 3?

Answer 13

3. Word chaining: Words combine into short phrases

Question 14

What is the psycological position stage 4?

Answer 14

4. Sentence production: Phrases become sentences

Question 15

What babble matches the ambient language?

Answer 15

• Vowels NOT consonants