Week 3 Flashcards
Describe the actions of baby in utero and how it affects them after birth
Baby in utero respond to their mothers speech (ie by kicking) and have the ability to maintain info from utero. As well as that, babies prefer their mothers voices after birth.
Describe speech in newborns and young babies
Making many sounds but no words
Describe speech in 2 month olds
They begin to make vowel sounds
Describe the speech of 6 month olds
Babbling begins (speech like sounds)
Describe the speech of 10-12 month olds
Small words begin to be used
How is speech directed to infants
Speech is more higher pitched, has more intonation, and is slower to maintain of infants
What are phonemes
The smallest unit of sound one can make that are the basic blocks for language that consist of vowel and consonant sounds. Infants can distinguish these sounds, as early as 1 month old
What are morphemes
The smallest meaningful unit of language possible. Words, prefixes or suffixes all cound
What is deep structure
The meaning of a sentence
What is surface structure
How a sentence is worded
Why is it so difficult for infants to identify words
1) There aren’t silent gaps between words
2) They have to pay attention to stressed syllables and language sound patterns
What is fast mapping
Connecting a new word with its referents and not considering its actual meaning
Describe joint attention and how it helps in learning language
Parents will often label items when toddlers touch them, allowing the toddler to associate the word with that object. Learning is more likely to happen when eye contact is made with the object while describing it
What is a holophrase
A one word utterance a child uses that describes more than what that word means
What is underextension
Defining a word too narrowly
What is overextension
Defining a word too broadly
Describe grammatical development in 2 year olds
Multi-word utterances are made
Describe grammatical development from 2-5 year olds
Make a lot of progress in grammar
What is the best measure of syntactic development
A mean length of utterences
What comes before production for kids
Comprehension
What is the behaviorist explanation for language development
We learn through reinforcement, shaping, extinction, and other principles of operant conditioning
What are issues with the behaviorist explanation
Parents don’t teach kids grammar, kids generate more grammatical sentences than they hear, and it doesn’t account for overgeneralization
What is the nativist explanation for language development
Language learning capacities are built into the brain and we can acquire them through exposure
What is the interactionist explanation for language and its criticism of the nativist explanation
Infants are born with the ability to gain language and need exposure to learn. The nativist explanation doesn’t say how language develops, only why.
Describe areas of language development in the brain from infants and other ages.
Infants have language development that occurs in many places. The Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are in charge of language development later
Describe the broca’s area
Involved in language production (spoken or signed)
Describe the Wernicke’s area
Involved in speech comprehension
Describe how bilingualism affects the brain
It causes structural changes in the brain, changing the density of the grey matter in the left side of the left inferior parietal cortex
What are disadvantages of bilingualism
Bilinguals have lower vocabulary in each language sizes than monolinguals and have difficulties with lexical access.
What are advantages of bilingualism
Advantages on tasks that require executive control abilities throughout the lifespan
What is one thing executing functioning is responsible for
Inhibition
Why is inhibition important for bilinguals
Inhibitory control must be necessary, and because bilinguals use it more, theirs is stronger than monolinguals
What is the ventral occipitotemporal cortex in charge of
It is active during the visual processing of verbal stimuli
Why did early attempts in teaching chimpanzees to speak fail
Because they don’t have the correct vocal anatomy to communicate with us
What form of language worked with chimpanzees
Sign language
What is the study of Washo and Loulis showing
Washo and Loulis showed us that chimpanzees can teach each other language
