Week 2

Question 1

define word learning

Answer 1

learning that one thing (spoken word/syllable/symbol/hand gesture) is being used to refer to another thing.

Question 2

how do we know that language learning begins before birth?

Answer 2

previous studies have managed to test fetal hearing and learning (can be tested through high amplitude sucking)

Question 3

what evidence is there for pre-natal learning in auditory learning and memory?

Answer 3

Rhythmic information: the fetus is responsive to sound, recognising specific sounds (i.e., can distinguish /a/ and /e/).
(DeCasper & Spence, 1986):Infants prefer to listen to a story read to them in utero(i.e., before birth) vs. a novel story between 34 and 40 weeks.
-infants crying
-hearing a specific language in utero, shapes vocalizations.

Question 4

Explain how high amplitude sucking demonstrates language learning

Answer 4

-newborn can hear sounds we can’t so not fully aware of everything they’re being exposed to.
-when they suck on pacifier they hear sound
-they quickly learn by conditioning sucking=sound so can determine the level of motivation they have to learn sounds.

Question 5

Define IDS

Answer 5

-speech directed to human infants (2-day-olds prefer IDS Cooper & Aslin, 1990)
-higher pitch wider pitch range more rising contours and simplified where slower shorter utterances and more repetitive adult directed is lower and more monotone.
Infants’ hearing is not adultlike, but they can hear speech, and like to listen to it, especially speech directed to them.

Question 6

how does language experience shape an infant’s perception?

Answer 6

First 2 months at least, infants can distinguish between sounds from different phoneme categories (meaning different speech sounds)
– /r/ vs /l/(e.g., rake vs. lake)
– /p/ vs /b/ (e.g. big vs. pig)

Question 7

define the initial state in word learning

Answer 7

when infants can discriminate between phonemes belonging to unheard languages.

Question 8

Explain the process of conditioned head turn procedure (CHTP) used for 2-month-old infants

Answer 8

a repeating sound is played then a new sound is heard where a toy will start doing something which is seen by the infant. Trained this connection with the aim of the child turning their head with anticipation of the toy doing something even without sound (classical conditioning)

Question 9

When does infants’ discrimination become more tuned to their native language(s)?

Answer 9

about 10-12 months

Question 10

True or False: the ability to learn language decreases with age

Answer 10

True hence why babies are the best at mastering languages (also learn better with a fluent speaker in person rather than learning via audio/TV)

Question 11

Explain why changes in speech perception are important

Answer 11

Helps infants tune into the differences within their own language stronger than other languages i.e., helps them to perceive the words people are saying to them.

Question 12

When do infants produce their first words?

Answer 12

around 12 months, first spoken words are usually a key sign that language learning has begun. (can also be indicated by receptive language knowledge)

Question 13

How can we measure vocabulary size?

Answer 13

By asking parents (using a questionnaire/checklist of words they think their child understands)

Question 14

What is the general vocabulary size in infants?

Answer 14

-by 18 months the vocabulary size is generally over 200 words but can differ between individuals but some words clearly learnt earlier than others e.g. mummy
-direct link with the increase in age and no. of words understood

Question 15

What are the issues in obtaining vocabulary size in infants?

Answer 15

-parents could be underestimating/overestimating what the child knows (but can use lab-based measures to reduce this issue)

Question 16

Explain how Bergelson & Swingley (2012) tested word comprehension in the lab

Answer 16

-shows two different pictures to test word comprehension
-the purpose of language is to guide our attention to the world (if a picture of an apple is shown as adults, we involuntary look)
-picture of apple showed and word said babies look longer at it

Question 17

What were the findings of Bergelson & Swingley (2012)?

Answer 17

Evidence of comprehension of concrete words at 6-9 months
-proportion of trials looking at right picture 0.5=looking at it half of the time
-older tend to look at actual thing but younger don’t look at much but a slight increase in looking

Question 18

What were the findings of Bergelson & Swingley (2012): “abstract” words

Answer 18

not much evidence of comprehension of abstract words until 14-16 months
-choice/pointing/production tasks can be used for older kids.

Question 19

define referential ambiguity

Answer 19

when a word or phrase, in the context of a particular sentence, could. refer to two or more properties or things. (a big issue in word learning for infants)

Question 20

What are the solutions to referential ambiguity?

Answer 20

-Children use social knowledge or cues to solve referential ambiguity (looking at any indications from adults)

Question 21

Explain how infants are constrained by social understanding

Answer 21

-By 12 months, infants are starting to be able to identify others’ communicative and referential intentions (e.g., following gaze, points, joint attention)
-they use these cues to guide word learning from as young as 13 months (Woodward, 2004).
-Baldwin (1993)+Akhtar & Tomasello (1996):18-20 months, infants are skilled at determining WHAT an adult is referring to with a label, even if not directly seen.

Question 22

What are Some Challenges to the Social-Communicative Account?

Answer 22

infants start to UNDERSTAND words before they are good at following gaze and pointing gestures (Bergelson & Swingley, 2012).

Question 23

What’s Another Possible Solution to the Mapping problem?

Answer 23

Innate Word-Learning Constraints

Question 24

Define Innate Word-Learning Constraints

Answer 24

Markman (1990): children are innately constrained to consider only some possible word meanings.
■ The main two proposed constraints:
– Mutual Exclusivity/Principle of Contrast
– Whole-Object Constraint

Question 25

Define mutual exclusivity/principle of contrast

Answer 25

bias to accept one name per object
e.g., “Go into my garage and get me the bosu.”
*children are likely to pick the object that does not have a known label when learning new words.
* Usage starts around 1.5 years, consistent use increases.

Question 26

Define whole object constraint

Answer 26

-infants born with bias looking at whole part of object rather than little details of object e.g. type of material, handle etc.

-kids show evidence of mapping at around 1.5 years shape is a good cue to object type

Question 27

what’s a 1 to 1 mapping bias?

Answer 27

learning by exclusion may rely on simple learning biases that even dogs possess.
– Learning and remembering lots of individual label-object connections
– Having learned MANY 1-to-1 mappings, learners may develop a 1-to-1 mapping bias.

Question 28

Kaminski, Call, & Fisher (2004): What can Rico do?

Answer 28

2 familiar items: “tyrex” (the blue dinosaur) & “weihnachtsmann” (the little red doll).
■ Novel word (“sirikid”) used for the novel item, the white bunny
+Retention 4 weeks later
(learning by exclusion/1-to-1 mapping)

Question 29

Is the whole object bias innate, or is it also dependent on experience?

Answer 29

First words tend to be labelled for objects that apply to instances that have common shapes (possibly related to concreteness)

Question 30

What did Smith et al. 2002 hypothesise about word-learning biases?

Answer 30

Hypothesised that word-learning biases are built-up from experience with initial word-meaning associations, using general learning processes.

Question 31

Smith et al. 2002 procedure

Answer 31

17-month-olds not yet displaying the whole object bias (i.e. who did not systematically map words to object shape over object properties) were taught words that refer to object of the same shape (Experimental) or each word referred to a different property such as shape, color, texture (Control).

Question 32

Smith et al. (2002) findings

Answer 32

Experimental but not Control infants subsequently mapped words to objects vs. object properties, and even learned more object labels outside the lab!

Question 33

Limitations of the Innate Constraints Account

Answer 33

■ These constraints appear to exist but they may not be specific to humans.
■ And they don’t emerge until children (and dogs) have already learned a fair number of words.
■ This suggests that these constraints may be a product of learning, not a precondition for it.