Phonology, Speech Perception, and Language Development

A set of vocabulary flashcards based on the lecture notes about Phonology, Speech Perception, and Language Development, designed to aid in studying key concepts and findings.

Phonetic Categories

Categories that are formed by infants through tracking frequency distributions of sounds.

Distributional Learning

The process by which infants form phonetic categories based on statistical distributions of sounds.

Bimodal Distributions

Sound distributions that significantly differ in frequency, allowing infants to discriminate between categories.

Categorical Perception

The ability to perceive continuous speech sound differences as discrete categories.

Voice Onset Time (VOT)

A measure used to study categorical perception; indicates the time between the release of a stop consonant and the onset of vocal cord vibrations.

Statistical Learning

The process by which infants segment speech based on transitional probabilities among sounds.

Transitional Probabilities

The likelihood that one sound follows another within speech streams.

Word Segmentation

The process by which infants identify boundaries between words in continuous speech.

Prosodic Segmentation

The use of stress patterns in speech to identify word boundaries.

Taxonomic Grouping

A cognitive bias activated by labels where children group objects based on shared categories.

Thematic Grouping

A cognitive bias activated when no labels are present, grouping based on thematic or functional relationships.

Gesture Intervention

An approach to enhance vocabulary acquisition through encouraging children to use gestures.

Overregularization

A linguistic phenomenon where children apply grammatical rules incorrectly to irregular forms.

Wug Test

An experiment developed to assess children's application of morphological rules on novel words.

Syntactic Priming

The influence of previously encountered syntactic structures on the production of similar structures by children.

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)

A measure used to assess the complexity of a child's speech development.

Hemispheric Dominance

The tendency for one hemisphere of the brain, typically the left, to be more involved in language functions.

Split-Brain Research

Studies examining how language functions are divided between the two hemispheres of the brain.

Language Lateralization

The phenomenon where certain cognitive functions are more dominant in one hemisphere than the other.

Emerging Syntactic Knowledge

The development of an understanding of syntax as reflected in gesture and speech combinations.

Gesture + Speech Combinations

The integration of gestures with verbal communication that predicts language development stages.

Statistical Distribution Tracking

A method by which infants learn phonetic categories based on the frequency and co-occurrence of sounds.

Saffran et al. (1996)

A study that provided evidence that infants use transitional probabilities to segment words from speech.

Prosody

The rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech that aids in word segmentation.

Phonological Organization

The way sounds are categorized in a system, which appears early in infant development.

Vocal Cord Vibrations

The physical phenomenon that influences the perception of speech sounds and their categories.

Statistically Defined Words

Words that infants recognize based on statistical learning from speech streams.

Developmental Foundations for Language

Early skills, such as gesture, that predict later language abilities.

Gesture as a Cue

The role gestures play in triggering linguistic development and vocabulary acquisition.

Abstract Morphological Rules

The underlying principles governing the formation and structure of words as understood by children.

Causal Relationship in Language Learning

The concept that certain actions, such as gesture usage, positively influence language acquisition outcomes.

Left-Hemisphere Dominance

The characteristic of most adults whose language processing is primarily localized in the left hemisphere.

Child Language Development

The process by which children learn and refine their use of language, including phonetics, vocabulary, and syntax.

Categorical Boundaries

The distinct categories that arise from the perception and discrimination of sounds.

Continuous Speech Sound Differences

Variations in speech sounds that are perceived by individuals as distinct categories.

Frequency Distributions of Sounds

The varying rates at which different sounds occur in speech, which infants track to form categories.

Taxonomic and Whole-Object Biases

Cognitive biases influenced by the presence of labels during language learning.

Two-Word Stage

A developmental phase in language acquisition where children begin to combine words into simple phrases.

Left-Hemisphere Specialization

The specific dominance of the left hemisphere in processing language functions.

Statistical Learning Mechanism

The cognitive process through which infants learn to segment speech and make phonetic categorizations.

Regularization Errors

Mistakes made by children when applying grammatical rules to exceptions.

Morphological Development

The learning process of how children apply and refine the rules governing word formation.

Speech Perception in Infants

The ability of infants to detect and interpret the sounds of speech around them.

Infant Vocabulary Growth

The expansion of the words an infant can understand and use over time.

Statistical Learning Models

The theoretical frameworks that explain how beings learn patterns from their environment.

Syntactic Structures

Complex arrangements of words that convey grammatical meaning in language.

Developmental Language Research

The field of study focused on understanding how language skills develop from infancy.

Language Input Effects

The influence of the quality and quantity of language exposure on children's language development.

Strong Syllables

Syllables that carry stress and are used as cues by infants to identify word boundaries.

Gesture and Language Correlation

The relationship observed between the use of gestures and the development of language in children.

Statistical Estimation in Speech

The ability to infer linguistic patterns from the frequency of word occurrences in speech.

Cognitive Linguistics in Infants

The study of how infants use cognitive processes to learn and understand language.

Sound Discrimination

The ability to distinguish between different speech sounds.

Word Recognition

The capability of infants to identify and understand words based on auditory cues.

Lexicon Development

The process of acquiring a set of words and their meanings in a language.

Cognitive Development Milestones

Important stages in learning and refining language abilities during childhood.

Neural Systems for Language

The brain structures that support and facilitate language comprehension and production.

Categorical Sound Differences

The distinctions in sound perception that lead to the recognition of different phonetic categories.