developmental 6 - language acquisition

When does hearing begin in fetuses?

Hearing develops at 29-31 weeks and is stronger by 32-36 weeks (lecanuet et al 1995).

What is translational learning?

Translational learning occurs prenatally and is remembered postnatally.

What did De Casper and Spence 1986 find about babies' responses to familiar passages (translational learning)?

read cat in the hat prenatally, Babies altered their sucking pattern to hear familiar passages, regardless of who read them.

At what age can infants tell apart different languages based on prosody (chrisophe and moron 1998)?

Infants as young as 2 months can differentiate between English and Japanese based on prosody (stress, rhythm)

What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest sound unit that carries distinctions in language.

What did Eimas et al., 1971 discover about early speech discrimination?

see if could discriminate phoneme, high amplitude sucking, sucked more when heard new phoneme

What is perceptual narrowing in speech perception?

Initially universal language perceivers become language-specific as they gain experience.

What did Kuhl et al., 2003 find regarding non-native phonetic discrimination?

Experience with one's own language → decline in non-native phonetic discrimination.

What change occurs in infants' phonetic discrimination by 10-12 months?

Infants' perception becomes specialized for sounds from their native language.

what did werker and tees 1984 find about development change in language in infants?

infants can initially discriminate phonemes from many languages, use head turn paradigm, 10-12mths = perception is specialised for sounds from native language

What is speech segmentation?

Speech segmentation is the ability to determine where one word ends and another begins.

What did Jusczyk and Aslin 1995 find regarding infants' listening preferences?

7-month-olds recognised words (target) embedded in speech

How does syllable stress help infants?

Syllable stress helps infants identify the start of words.

What did Saffran et al. 1996 discover about word boundary detection in infants in statistical learning?

8-month-olds can detect word boundaries using transitional probabilities/probability patterns

how do you measure comprehension in infants?

parental reports, home observation/recording, in lab - looking paradigm

What is fast mapping in language development?

Fast mapping is the ability to rapidly acquire a word based on minimal information.

At what age do infants begin to understand their first words?

Infants begin to understand their first words between 6-9 months.

What did Tincoff and Jusczyk 1999 find about infants' recognition of socially salient words?

6-month-olds looked more at videos matching the words 'mum' or 'dad' they heard.

What did Bergelson and Swingley 2015 find about infants' understanding of common nouns and objects?

6-9 month-olds know the meanings of common nouns and look toward matching objects.

What is the range of words for developing children at 16 months?

At 16 months, developing children may have a vocabulary of 7-270 words.