The Social Side of Language - Week 12

Question 1

Describe the study that tested whether babies can learn sound contrasts outside of their native languages + social interactions

Answer 1

10-12 month old monolingual English babies
4 groups: live language, control, audiovisual, audio only
Tested to see if babies can discriminate sound contrasts in mandarin

Question 2

Describe the results of the study that tested whether babies can learn sound contrasts outside of their native languages + social interactions

Answer 2

If have social interaction, increases sensitivity to other language native sounds
Audio groups did not increase discrimination
Social interaction significantly enhances infants learning of sounds contrasting of a non-native language

Question 3

Why is social interaction helpful for learning?

Answer 3

Social gating
Attention
Rich set of social cues
A highly receptive mindset

Question 4

Define social gating

Answer 4

Learners are especially attuned to information presented in a social context

Question 5

Describe Piaget’s three mountain task

Answer 5

Theory of mind: ability to take other peoples perspectives into account
Kids before 7 cannot understand others point of view

Question 6

What is a criticism to Piaget’s three mountain task?

Answer 6

People believe that it was not a suitable task for the age, too challenging
If given an age appropriate task they would show theory of mind

Question 7

Describe the false belief task

Answer 7

Ability to understand that others can have beliefs that differ from reality

Question 8

Describe the referential communication task

Answer 8

Speakers exchange information by referring to objects, people, or actions, ensuring the listener can understand the speaker’s intended meaning

Question 9

What were some challenges children faced in the referential communication task?

Answer 9

By age 9, kids were still producing ambiguous expressions compared to adults, if two balls they wouldn’t try to differentiate

Question 10

Describe the adults referential communication task

Answer 10

Used three conditions, non-linguistic ambiguity (two bats), linguistic ambiguity (baseball bat and bat), no ambiguity

Question 11

Describe the results of the adults referential communication task

Answer 11

In the non-linguistic group they rarely use bare nouns

Question 12

Describe the study testing are speakers sensitive to hearers demands (Brown & Dell, 1987)

Answer 12

Had people describe one of two pictures, a typical and an atypical one
Wanted to see if the atypical would be described more
Also conditioned where both could see the picture or only speaker could hear

Question 13

Describe the results for the study testing are speakers sensitive to hearers demands (Brown & Dell, 1987)

Answer 13

Speakers were not sensitive to the hearers comprehension demands
Did not describe more in the conditions or typical vs atypical

Question 14

Describe the retested version of the study testing are speakers sensitive to hearers demands (Lockridge and Brennan, 2002)

Answer 14

The hearers were also participants
Showed the differences between atypical and typical, and conditions

Question 15

Define back-channel responses

Answer 15

Behavioural cues produced by the hearer

Question 16

What are the ways that we use ‘you’?

Answer 16

Use it to address an individual
Use it to address people in general

Question 17

When do we use generic you?

Answer 17

Experimenters believe that people use generic you when describing norms/rules, more often than expressing preferences

Question 18

Describe the generic you study

Answer 18

Writing task where they randomly assigned participants to either write about norms, rules, or preference

Question 19

Describe the results from the generic you study

Answer 19

People use the generic you for rules and norms
Use 1st person singular when referring to preferences

Question 20

Describe the negative experiences generic you study

Answer 20

Writing task, had people write either a negative or a neutral autobiographic experience

Question 21

Describe the results from the negative experiences generic you study

Answer 21

Use generic you more when writing about negative experiences vs neutral

Question 22

What was the hypothesis about the negative use of generic you?

Answer 22

Generic you usage would promote psychological distance
Coping strategy

Question 23

Define psychological distance

Answer 23

The degree to which people feel removed from a phenomenon

Question 24

Describe the study that tests psychological distance on generic you

Answer 24

Writing tasks with different conditions, lesson learned from negative experience, share emotions from the negative experience, or neutral
Then asked to rate psychological distance

Question 25

Describe the results from the study that tests psychological distance on generic you

Answer 25

People use more generic you when you're in the meaning making conditions, leads to increased psychological distance Like a triangle

Question 26

Do children also use the generic you?

Answer 26

Yes, used a similar task but with speaking, shows the same patterns as adults Also use other generic pronouns

Question 27

Describe the generic pronouns study

Answer 27

Had children listen to people give instructions using either generic you, we, or I

Question 28

Describe the results of the generic pronoun study

Answer 28

You and we showed the same results overall, better understanding compared to using I

Question 29

Define pragmatic reasoning/inferencing

Answer 29

When the message of a speaker goes beyond the literal or logical meaning of the sentences used

Question 30

Describe the generic language and stereotype study

Answer 30

Introduce a reader who talks about two made up groups and familiarize them Then say that they are good at making pizza or just this person is good at making pizza Then pull a random member from the group and ask if they are good at making pizza

Question 31

Describe the results for the generic language and stereotype study

Answer 31

If you just say them are, then they will think that everyone in the group is good and people in the other group are bad If you specific this one then they just think that one is

Question 32

At what age do children start to generalize with generic language?

Answer 32

Around age 4-5

Question 33

Describe the study testing the speakers influence on generic language and stereotype

Answer 33

Introduced the speaker as either knowledgeable or unknowledgeable and conducted the same study as previously

Question 34

Describe the results on the study testing the speakers influence on generic language and stereotype

Answer 34

The knowledgable speaker showed the same results The unknowledgeable speaker was not as trusted

Question 35

What influence does parents generic statements have on children's toy preference?

Answer 35

The more generic statements, the more likely a child is to only want their gender toys and not accept other gender toys

Question 36

Define psychological essentialism

Answer 36

The belief that observable similarities between members of categories arise due to innate, hidden properties that are fixed at birth

Question 37

Describe the psychological essentialism study

Answer 37

They had an image of a white child, white male, and black male The child and black spoke English, the white adult spoke French

Question 38

Describe the results of the psychological essentialism study

Answer 38

American 5-6 year olds matched the child on language (to the black), bias to language over skin colour American 9-10 year olds and African 5-6 year olds matched white to white, bias to skin colour over language