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Year 2: Psychology of Thinking and Communication > Week 1: How Do we Acquire Language? > Flashcards

Week 1: How Do we Acquire Language? Flashcards

1
Q

Can babies hear in the womb?

A

Yes

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2
Q

When do babies begin to hear in the womb?

A

24 weeks

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3
Q

What growth do foetuses suddenly have?

A
  • Thumb and cortical axons in the solar sensory
  • The auditory visual
  • Front cortex
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4
Q

When foetuses have growth, what is this called?

A

Cortical development

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5
Q

What is cortical development?

A

The process which the cerebral cortex is formed in mammals.

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6
Q

What happens when the cerebral cortex is formed in the foetus?

A

The foetus can process input from sensory organs.

E.g. Hearing

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7
Q

Can foetuses hear better at low frequency sounds or higher frequency sounds?

A

Lower frequency sounds.

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8
Q

Why can foetuses hear better at low frequency sounds?

A

the cochlea, which is the ear is not fully developed (still immature).

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9
Q

What is it like being in the womb?

A

Foetus is wrapped around in amniotic fluid.

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10
Q

What can babies hear in the womb?

A
  • Maternal heartbeat
  • Blood flow in the mother’s arteries
  • Intestinal movements
  • Mother’s voice
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11
Q

What did Descasper & Fifer (1980) do?

A

They did a study using a non-nutritive dummy.

They found babies sucked faster when they recognised their mothers voice.

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12
Q

What did Decasper & Spencer (1986) do?

A

The researchers conducted a study using the Cat in the Hat book.

Mother’s had to read this story six weeks prior to birth and three days after birth the researchers played the sound of their mother reading and another person reading.

The baby recognised their mother’s voice.

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13
Q

What did Bertoncini et al (1989) find out?

A

Infants respond to speech in left hemisphere.

Infants respond to music in right hemisphere.

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14
Q

What do infants respond to in their left hempishere?

A

Speech

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15
Q

What do infants respond to in their right hemisphere?

A

Music

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16
Q

What is a phoneme?

A
  • The smallest speech sound.

- The relationship between sounds and letters used to represent them.

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17
Q

What does a phoneme allow us to do?

A

It allows us to distinguish meaning

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18
Q

What is a morpheme?

A

The smallest unit of speech WITH semantic meaning.

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19
Q

How many phonemes does the English alphabet have?

A

44

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20
Q

From 1-4 months what sound are babies fixated on?

A

/pa/

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21
Q

Can adults discriminate phonemes

A

In their native language.

NOT in other languages.

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22
Q

Can babies discriminate phonemes?

A

YES.

They can distinguish between phonemes from their native language and other languages.

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23
Q

When can babies stop distinguishing between all phonemes?

A

8 months

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24
Q

Why do babies stop distinguishing phonemes?

A

By 8 months a baby’s own language has now been hard wired.

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25
What did Kuhl & Millar do?
- Did research using Chinchillas - They wanted to see whether non-humans can ALSO distinguish phonemes - Phonetic differences in language is SPECIFIC to humans
26
How many stages of Babbling is there?
3
27
When is the first stage of babbling?
Birth-2 months
28
What is the first stage of babbling called?
Reflexive Vocalisation
29
What happens during the first stage of babbling?
- This is when babies begin to make involuntarily sounds. E.g. Burping, Coughing - Baby is not deliberately making sounds
30
When is the second stage of babbling?
2-4 months
31
What is the second stage of babbling called?
During this stage sounds are used more for communication.
32
What happens during the second stage of babbling?
- Babies begin to coo Babies begin to show real joy Laughing occurs around 4 months
33
When is the third stage of babbling?
4-7 months
34
What is the third stage of babbling called?
During this stage babies begin to gain control of making sounds.
35
What happens during the third stage of babbling?
- Babies play with a position in their mouth and tongue to make sounds. - Practising their motor control.
36
What is neural maturation?
Neural pathways mature overtime allowing for greater motor control to make sounds.
37
When does neural maturation occur?
Between 3-9 months
38
What can babies do at 6 months?
They have their first recognisable sound. Usually /da/ or /ba/
39
What can babies do at 8 months?
They begin to repeat sounds. 'da-da' ' ba-ba'
40
What can babies do at 11 months?
They begin to combine sounds. 'da-ba'
41
What does Oller refer the combining sound phase as?
Variegated babbling This is when the child plays with different sounds and doesn’t repeat the same sound.
42
What does Stark refer the combining sound phase as?
Non-reduplicated babbling This is when the child plays with different sounds and doesn’t repeat the same sound.
43
What did Vihman discover?
Vihman found that there are 6 common syllables.
44
What are 6 common syllables?
da door ba bed wa wall de diamond ha hat he BOY
45
Can infants show an understanding of words before they can say them?
Yes
46
Can 16 months old females understand more words than 16 months old males?
Yes
47
What did Nelson (1973) argue?
That there are 2 styles in early language development
48
What are the 2 styles in early language development?
- Referential style | - Expressive language
49
What is referential style?
Infant knows more object names. E.g. ball, dog, bottle
50
What is the Expressive language?
More action words E.g. jump, cut, go Infant knows people's names, less object names
51
Does referential style allow for faster building vocabulary?
Liz Bates found that it does
52
Do girls use that referential style more than boys?
Liz Bates found girls do, that's why girls are building language faster rate than boys.
53
Do games help babies with language?
Yes
54
Does social exchange help babies with language?
Yes
55
What does morphology mean?
The rules of language. How words are put together to make a meaningful statement.
56
What does Syntax mean?
How words are combined to make phrases.
57
What are influences on language development?
- Joint attention between child and caregiver | - Reference
58
What is reference?
Understanding what the caregiver is referring to.
59
Is pointing an indicator of reference
Yes. Bates (1979) found that pointing is an indicator of reference.
60
Is pointing an indicator of reference which is predictive of early vocabulary development
Yes. Because the more a child points and the caregiver is engaged, this supports children's language development
61
What is a morpheme?
A morpheme is the smallest unit of speech with semantic meaning
62
What is morphological development?
When a child shows a high degree of creativity in applying morphological rules
63
How is morphological development measured?
By using the Mean Length Utterance MLU
64
What is another way to measure morphological development?
Maximum Sentence Length - Measures sentence complexity
65
What are Inside-Out Theories?
They argue that language develops through innate mechanisms.
66
Are Inside-Out theories domain-specific?
Yes
67
What is domain-specific?
Cognitive science argues that some cognitive functions are responsible for specific functions and not multiple ones.
68
Does Chomsky and Pinker support Inside-Out Theories?
Yes. They say the brain helps us throughout life and experience has minimal contribution
69
What are Outside-In Theories?
They argue that language develops through learning mechanisms. So we learn from outside experiences of the world
70
Are Outside-In theories domain-general?
Yes
71
What is domain general?
Cognitive ability, such as general intelligence or speed of information processing, that influences performance within tasks or situations.
72
At the age of 6 how many words have children learnt?
11,000 words
73
At the age of 10 how many words have children learnt?
40,000 words
74
At 2 years of age, how many words can baby acquire?
300 words
75
What is a phoneme?
The smallest speech sound
76
What distinctions can newborns make?
Between phonemes
77
Does laughing occur around 8 months?
No
78
Does laughing occur around 4 months?
Yes
79
Are there four stages in babbling?
Nope, only 3
80
Does one of the stages of babbling include 'reflexive vocalisation'?
Yes, it is the first stage
81
At what age do the first recognisable speech sounds occur?
6 months
82
When do babies begin to ‘da-da’ and ‘da-ba’ ?
8 and 11 months
83
Do males understand more words than females?
No
84
Do males produce more words than females?
No
85
Do females understand more words than males?
Yes
86
Do females produce more words than males?
Yes
87
What are the two styles in early language development?
Referential and Expressive
88
In language learning, what is morphology?
The rules such as how past tenses are derived
89
Is syntax how letters are combined to make words?
Yes
90
Is syntax how words are combined to make phrases?
No
91
Is syntax how sentences are combined to make paragraphs?
No
92
Is syntax the rules for putting words together?
Yes
93
What is a morpheme?
The smallest unit of speech with semantic meaning
94
What did Bates et al. (1979) find that is predictive of early vocal development?
Pointing
95
Who are the main theorists proposing the outside-in theories?
Bates & MacWhinney
96
Are inside-out theories domain specific?
Yes
97
What does inside-out theories propose?
They propose language development through innate mechanisms
98
In relation to adult correction of child language negative feedback is what?
The parent asking the child to repeat what s/he said
99
What is Stark's phonetic development table?
- Reflexive crying and vegetative sounds - Cooing and laughter - Vocal play - Reduplicated babble - Non reduplicated babble and expressive jargon
100
What is Oller's phonetic development table?
- Phonation - GOO stage - Expansion - Vocal play - Canonical babble - Non reduplicated babble and expressive jargon - Variegated babble
101
What is canonical babble?
- babies say words including consonants and vowels - Involves either strings of repeated syllables (e.g. “da da da”) or combinations of different syllables (e.g. “ma di da”).
102
Types of negative evidence when adults are correcting child-
- Child incorrect utterance followed by utterance in the correct form - When an adult questions the child’s utterance

Year 2: Psychology of Thinking and Communication (8 decks)

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