week 5: Learning Language

Question 1

Which of the following provides evidence against a blank slate associate theory of language development?
A. Children are born with the ability to detect all speech contrast from non-native languages.
B. Infants look at an image of a target (r.g. a picture of an apple) when the name of the target is spoken (e.g. the word “apple is said out loud)
C. Children over-regularize grammar rules and say things that they have never heard adults say before (e.g., “sticked”) and are often not corrected by adults.
D. When infants get bored of hearing a language their sucking declines. They start sucking more when the language changes because they notice the difference.

Answer 1

C. Children over-regularize grammar rules and say things that they have never heard adults say before (e.g., “sticked”) and are often not corrected by adults.
Explanation: This provides evidence against the blank slate since someone with a blank slate would learn by imitating what they have heard before (not make up things they have never heard).

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of mutual exclusivity?
A. Upon seeing a duck and a novel object and hearing the word “blicket”, a child will learn that the novel object (and not the duck) is called a blicket.
B. A child understands an animal (e.g., “giraffe) could potentially be called something else (e.g., “caterpillar”) as long as everyone agreed.
C. After watching someone point to a novel animal and say “modi” a child will think “modi” is the word for the whole animal, not for its traits (e.g. horns) or its attributes (e.g. personaility).
D. Upon seeing a person look into a bucket and say “toma”, children learn that the word “toma” applies to whatever is in the bucket (and not to the bucket itself).

Answer 2

A. Upon seeing a duck and a novel object and hearing the word “blicket”, a child will learn that the novel object (and not the duck) is called a blicket.

Explanation: Yes- mutual exclusivity means that when one object is known, the novel label applies to the novel object.

Question 3

What were the main findings of Kuhl’s study on phoneme discrimination?
A. Training infants on a foreign language with videos is sufficient for them to discriminate non-native phonemes.
B. It is not possible for infants to discriminate non-native phonemes beyond the age of 6 months.
C. Any forms of exposure to a foreign language is enough to extend the window of time during which infants can discriminate non-native phonemes.
D. It is possible to extend the window during which infants can differentiate non-native phonemes, but only when infants have a social interaction with a non-native speaker.

Answer 3

D. It is possible to extend the window during which infants can differentiate non-native phonemes, but only when infants have a social interaction with a non-native speaker.

Explanation: Yes, social interaction matters!

Question 4

Which of the following is true regarding infant sucking and language processing?
A. Infants suck more (work harder) to hear a foreign language, because it is novel.
B. After being habituated to one language, infants suck less to a new language.
C. Infants are equally willing to suck to hear foreign or native languages.
D. Infants suck more (work harder) to hear their native language.

Answer 4

D. Infants suck more (work harder) to hear their native language.