Language development

Question 1

what is language

Answer 1

a communication system that involves using words and systematic rules to organize those words to transmit information from one individual to another

Question 2

what is the pragmatic system

Answer 2

cognitive and social skills needed to communciate effectively e.g turn taking; pp take turns responding to statements

• mother infant interactions

Question 3

what is proto-conversations

Answer 3

interactions between adults and infants in which the adults tend to vocalise when the infants are not vocalising, or after the infant has finished vocalising.

Question 4

what does ‘language is discrete’ mean

Answer 4

each word is a category, even if describing continuous events

Question 5

what is proto-imperative

Answer 5

occurs when infants point to an object and then alternate their gaze between the object and the adult until they obtain the desired object.

Question 6

what is proto-declarative

Answer 6

occurs when infants use pointing or looking to direct an adult’s attention toward an object

Question 7

what is ‘language is combinatorial’

Answer 7

we combine sounds to make words and words to make sentences

• infinte combinations

Question 8

give an example of other representations of language

Answer 8

analog and holistic e.g gestures and maps

Question 9

what order to infants learn

Answer 9

1. learn words
2. then learn rules
3. then use them abstractly to describe things that aren’t visible e.g feelings, past, future etc

Question 10

outline the stages of language development in infants

Answer 10

1. 0-2 months; crying (express hunger and discomfort)
2. 2-4 months; cooing (pleasure)
3. 4-9 months; babbling
4. 9-18 months; one word utterances; refer to people and objects
5. 18 months to 2 years; vocabulary spurt, questioning

Question 11

what are communication systems

Answer 11

vocalisations and gestures

Question 12

why do babies cry

Answer 12

communication

Lummaa et al; intentional, manipulative signal

Question 13

what did Bowlby say about the function of crying

Answer 13

keeps mother close to baby

• food, warmth, protection from predators, social development.
• Crying has a functional impact on mother’s behaviour and brain responses

Question 14

who disagreed that crying isn’t communication

Answer 14

Barr 2004

• early crying is merely a response to physiological states

Question 15

what is the stages of babbling

Answer 15

1st stage; vocal play

2nd; canonical babbling; repetiion of same sounds, sound like words

3rd; modulated babbling; includes play with intonation, pitch, tone, and stress

• sounds like nonsense speech

Question 16

how does babbling relate to later language development

Answer 16

• Development due to anatomical changes in vocal tract
• Attempt to imitate- Kuhl & Meltzoff (1996)
• But tends to be adult imitating baby, not the other way around

Question 17

what did Goldstein and Schwade discover

Answer 17

Goldstein and Schwade (2008) investigated how infant vocal learning is influenced by social feedback from caregivers.

• focused on how infant babbling is shaped by interactions with adults

They found that when caregivers imitate or respond to an infant’s babbling in a meaningful way rather than just vowels , infants are more likely to develop more complex and mature vocalizations.

• showed social shapes language

Question 18

explain pointing onset time

Answer 18

large onset time

• 7-15 months (average 11-12)
• can consent 6-13 months according to neural correlates

Question 19

explain how pointing begins as individual and becomes joint

Answer 19

• starts of non communicative (pointing for self), develops into communicative (pointing for other)

Question 20

provide an advantage and disadvantage of this theory

Answer 20

+ infants point when alone (Delgado 2009)

• communicative pointing emerges before non communicative

Question 21

another theory is pointing is joint from the start, explain

Answer 21

Even at first onset, pointing is referential and symbolic - as is language

Question 22

how does pointing relate to later language development

Answer 22

• Aids transition from one- to two-word utterances?
• Goldin-Meadow & Butcher (2003); Two-word utterances only at 18months, but one-word utterance + pointing from 12 months
• often convey different information

Question 23

what are iconic gestures

Answer 23

hand shape represents object/event being described

• Iverson and golden-meadow 2005 identified that these gestures are closely related to two word combinations

Question 24

is sign language a language

Answer 24

• uses manual symbols but still follow same rules as spoken language
• discrete and combinatorial

Question 25

what was the study of Nicaraguan sign language (Senghas 2004)

Answer 25

- deaf people were kept at home and didnt go to school - if they have a deaf parent, not exposed to developed language - lead to a deaf school opening in Managua - allowed a new sign language to develop

Question 26

what is separating manner and path

Answer 26

the linguistic concept where a language expresses the "how" (manner) of an action separately from the "where" (path) of the movement,

Question 27

we gain infinite combinations when we lose info by separating manner and path

Answer 27

- Children demonstrate early mechanisms for learning discrete, combinatorial systems. - Children drive the evolution of languages, through this preference.

Question 28

what is Keitel et al 2013 ways of detecting conversation turn

Answer 28

semantic content; tested pre linguistic v linguistic children intonational form; presented normal/flattened intonation

Question 29

what is motherese

Answer 29

infant-directed speech. - high pitch - slower - exaggerated prosody

Question 30

why do adults talk to infants even before they can understand

Answer 30

1. aids speech perception; Infants sensitive to word/clause boundaries in IDS but not ADS Thiessen et al. (2005). Significant correlation between degree of exaggeration in IDS and infant's phonetic discrimination aged 6-12 months Liu et al. (2003) 2. facilitates adult-infant social interaction - Infants prefer IDS Werker & McLeod (1989) even from 2 days old Cooper and Aslin, 1990 - Increases likelihood of interaction occurring and therefore language learning taking place?

Question 31

what is phonological development

Answer 31

discriminating and producing sounds - eimas 1977; presented 1 and 4 month olds with diff categories of phonemes presented with different VOTs - same phoneme category - different phoneme category

Question 32

sounds are categorised different in diff cultures

Answer 32

Hindi speakers can discriminate between sounds that sound identical to English-speakers

Question 33

what is head turn procedure

Answer 33

werker; 7 month olds - children start out being very good at discriminating sounds from any language - they then learn which sounds they need to be able to discriminate between in their own language

Question 34

what is semantic development

Answer 34

understanding the meaning of words - children must learn massive number of words in short space of time - we can understand how they learn from the errors they make

Question 35

what is under extension

Answer 35

fail to use a word to describe all the members of the category.

Question 36

what is overextension

Answer 36

Applying word to members of a broader category

Question 37

what us overlap

Answer 37

Mixture of underextension and overextension

Question 38

what is naming insight

Answer 38

realising that everything has a name, and that every name refers to an object à "What's that?"

Question 39

what is understanding semantic relations

Answer 39

words can be grouped together into categories - Gopnik & Meltzoff (1987): Age at which children started to sort objects into two categories correlated with age of vocab spurt. All participants showed spurt after this kind of categorisation ability.

Question 40

what is syntactic development

Answer 40

children's internalization of the rules of language that govern how words are organized into sentences e.g learning that it is sheep not sheeps

Question 41

what is the one word period

Answer 41

acquisition of syntax; begin to use one word utterances

Question 42

what is the two word period

Answer 42

between 18 and 24 months children tend to produce two words at a time

Question 43

when learning children may use overextension and under extension

Answer 43

over; extending meaning on a word too broadly e.g bird might also mean aeroplane and hot air balloon under; might restrict use of word e.g duck might be the toy in the bath but not the actual animal

Question 44

what is comprehension when learning to speak

Answer 44

language children understand, distinguish from production, which is the language they can produce.

Question 45

what is pragmatic development

Answer 45

appropriate use of language depending on needs of the listener

Question 46

autistic people have problems with pragmatics

Answer 46

E.g. literal interpretations of irony/metaphors Happe, (1993, 1995) - improve around 3-4 years

Question 47

learning theory

Answer 47

- Language is like any other behaviour that we learn. - We use domain general learning mechanisms, not special domain specific modules. - infants are surrounded by language, even in utero.

Question 48

what is nativism (Chomsky 1959)

Answer 48

- Learning can't explain all aspects of language development. - Cultures vary in many ways (e.g. use of motherese), but language milestones are similar. - Learning only should lead to more cross-cultural variation. - Errors (e.g. "mouses") are unlikely to be learned. - Humans require innate capacities for language in order to learn correct linguistic structure.

Question 49

what is language acquisition device

Answer 49

Cognitive mechanism predisposing children to learning language rules - Generates theories about rules by studying regularities in speech. - Sometimes these theories are wrong, and need to be tweaked.

Question 50

where is the LAD

Answer 50

*Left lateralised Hahn (1987) - Broca's area: production of speech - Wernicke's area: comprehension of speech

Question 51

what is the nativism critical period

Answer 51

between the ages of 2 and 7; during which a child is optimally equipped to learn their first language naturally and effortlessly due to an innate ability to acquire language

Question 52

what is interactionist accounts

Answer 52

- Learning can't explain language entirely, but neither can innate biological structures. - Underline the interaction between language and cognitive development.

Question 53

what is speech stream

Answer 53

the undifferentiated series of words that are produced when we communicate. e.g wheredidyougowithgrandpa this uninterrupted string is relatively easy to separate into its component words.

Question 54

language is innate, explain

Answer 54

Chomsky information processing skills specific to the acquisition of language and knowledge about certain aspects of language are believed to be passed from generation to generation via the genes. According to this view, knowledge of d-structures is not learned but innate.

Question 55

language is influenced by innate information processing dispositions (Tomasello)

Answer 55

children are born with the ability to discriminate phonemes but must learn which phonemes are important in the language they are acquiring.

Question 56

children acquire language-specific concepts and representations because of their experiences with language rather than because the concepts and representations are innately specified

Answer 56

children must learn that nouns are used to refer to objects, and so acquire the notion of noun from this sort of learning.

Question 57

children acquire aspects of language because of more general abilities that play a role in cognitive development itself (Barrett)

Answer 57

language development occurs in much the same way that other aspects of cognitive development do, and so minimises the notion that language development is a unique aspect of children's development.