Psych 216 Exam 3: Mechanisms for Language Learning

How do nativist and empiricist theories differ in their views on how children learn language?

• Nativist: language ability is innate (nature)

• Empiricist: language comes from experience/input (nurture)

➡ Both matter, but differ in emphasis

What evidence supports a sensitive period for language learning? (Johnson & Newport, Hartshorne et al., Newport & Supalla + key ideas)

Johnson & Newport (1989)

• Earlier arrival to U.S. → better English grammar

• Performance declines with later age of arrival

Hartshorne et al. (2018)

• Best grammar learning when exposure begins before ~age 10

• Ability stays strong through childhood

• Declines after ~age 17

Newport & Supalla (1990)

• Deaf individuals learning ASL:

  • Earlier exposure → better complex grammar

  • Simple grammar = similar across ages

Age of First Immersion

• Earlier exposure → near-native ability

• Later exposure → lower ultimate attainment (especially grammar)

Why study both first & second language learning?

• Helps separate:

  • Biological limits (maturation)

  • vs experience/interference from first language

➡ Strengthens evidence for a true sensitive period

How do individual differences in parental language use relate to children’s vocabulary development?

• Parents who use:

  • more child-directed speech

  • richer vocabulary

  • longer, more complex sentences

→ Children develop:

• larger vocabularies

• faster word recognition

• better language outcomes

Conclusion:
➡ More and higher-quality parental language input leads to stronger vocabulary development

How does the use of complex syntax in children’s environments influence grammar learning? Understand the findings of Huttenlocher et al. (2002) and why it is important to examine both maternal speech and teacher speech.

Findings (Huttenlocher et al., 2002):

• Children produce more complex sentences when:

  • their mothers use complex syntax

  • their teachers use complex syntax

• Children also improve comprehension of complex sentences when teachers use them more

Why examine both maternal & teacher speech?

• Children learn from multiple environments

• Shows language development is shaped by both home AND school input

Conclusion:
➡ Exposure to more complex syntax → better grammar learning and comprehension

What does Romeo et al. (2018) tell us about the relationship between language input and children’s language learning? What did they measure in the study, and what were their two main findings?

What they measured:

• Number of conversational turns per hour between child and adult

Findings:

1. More conversational turns → higher verbal/language scores

2. More conversational turns → greater brain activation (Broca’s area)

Conclusion:
➡ It’s not just exposure — interactive conversation drives language learning and brain development

What happens without exposure to a conventional language? (Home Sign) What are similarities to typical development + what do they show? Are parents or children responsible?

Back:

Home Sign:

• Deaf children with no language input create their own gesture system

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Similarities to typical language development

• First signs appear at same age as first words

• Use two types of signs (pointing + action/object)

• Combine signs like words (early sentences)

• Use consistent order to show meaning

• Can refer to things not present (displacement)

What this suggests

➡ Language development is not just learned from input
➡ Children have innate ability to create language structure

Are parents responsible?

No — children are

Evidence:

• Parents’ gestures:

  • simple, inconsistent

• Children’s home sign:

  • structured, rule-based, more complex

➡ Structure is invented by children, not copied

How does infants learn what types of words follow certain function words? Understand the syntactic bootstrapping idea and the findings from Barbir et al. (2023).

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Back:

Syntactic Bootstrapping

• Infants use grammar structure to figure out word meaning

• Function words (like “the”) signal what type of word comes next

  • “the ___” → noun

  • “she ___” → verb

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Barbir et al. (2023)

Method:

• 20-month-olds heard made-up function words:

  • “ko” → always before animate nouns

  • “ka” → always before inanimate nouns

• Tested with new words + pictures (animate vs inanimate)

Results:

• Infants looked more at:

  • animate object with “ko”

  • inanimate object with “ka”

Conclusion:

• Infants track patterns in language input

• Use function words + syntax to predict meaning of new words

➡ Evidence for syntactic bootstrapping