CH 7 NOTES- Intro to Dev. Psych

Perceptual scaffolding

the way in which a familiar word serves as an anchor for learning new words that come immediately before or after it

Babbling

a form of vocalizing, beginning at around 7 months, in which infants utter strings of syllables that combine a consonant sound and a vowel sound

Broca’s aphasia

a condition in which speech is either absent or severely disrupted 

Wernicke’s aphasia

patients often produce long sentences that include unnecessary words and even nonsense words 

Cochlear implant

a device that transforms sounds into electrical impulses that directly stimulate the auditory nerve, bypassing the malfunctioning inner ear that ordinarily processes sound

Phonological development

the process of learning to segment speech into meaningful units of sound

Semantic development

the process of learning meanings of words and combinations of words

Grammar

the rules of a given language for the sequencing of words in a sentence and the ordering of parts of words

Pragmatic development

the process of learning the conventions that govern the use of language in particular social contexts

Morpheme

the smallest unit of meaning in the words of a language

Fast mapping

the way in which children quickly form an idea of the meaning of an unfamiliar word they hear in a familiar and highly structured social interaction; rapidly learning a new word after just one exposure

Syntactic bootstrapping

use of knowledge of grammar to figure out the meaning of new words

Protoimperatives

early conversational acts whose purpose is to get another person to do something

Protodeclaratives

early conversational acts whose purpose is to establish joint attention and sustain a dialogue

Chronology

a simple story structure used by young children, in which they present a sequence of concrete events

Language acquisition device (LAD)

“mental organ” programmed to recognize the universal structures of language

Formats

recurrent socially patterned activities in which adult and child do things together

ex: peekaboo

Language acquisition support system (LASS)

Bruner’s term for the patterned behaviors and formatted events within which children acquire language. It’s the environmental complement to the innate, biologically constituted LAD.

Collective monologues

communications in which young children each voice their own thoughts without attending to what the others are saying

True dialogue

a communication in which each person’s utterances take into account the utterances of others

Inner speech

internal mental “talk” that we all engage in as we think about our experiences, plan our daily activities, and solve problems

behaviorist perspective (Skinner)

language acquisition is driven by properties of the language environment

nativist perspective (Chomsky)

language acquisition is driven by innate properties of the child

underextensions

applying verbal labels too narrowly

overextensions

applying verbal labels too broadly

ex: doggie —> cats, pigs, horses, etc.

joint attention

use social cues to help figure out meaning of new word