Psych of Language Final

ASL

American Sign Language — a real language with grammar and three building blocks: hand shape, placement, and movement

Parameters (ASL)

The three building blocks of ASL signs: hand configuration, place of articulation, and movement

How is ASL processed in the brain?

In the left hemisphere, just like spoken language

Slips of the hand

Signing errors (analogous to slips of the tongue) that show signed and spoken language share the same underlying mental processes

Homesign

A gestural communication system deaf children of hearing parents invent on their own when not exposed to sign language early

Reduplicated babbling

Early babbling where the same syllable is repeated (e.g., "bababa")

Variegated babbling

Later babbling where different sounds are mixed together (e.g., "bagidu")

Overextension

Using a word too broadly — e.g., calling every animal "doggy"

Underextension

Using a word too narrowly — e.g., only calling your own pet "doggy"

Fast mapping

A child's ability to quickly learn a new word's meaning from very little exposure

Holophrase

A single word used to express a whole idea — e.g., "milk!" meaning "I want milk"

Telegraphic speech

Short two-word phrases made mostly of content words — e.g., "daddy go," "more juice"

MLU

Mean Length of Utterance — the average number of morphemes per sentence; used to track growth in grammar ability. As MLU increases, so does grammar complexity.

By what age do children complete simple sentences?

Around 3 years old

By what age do children know most of their native language's grammar?

By age 5

How many words do children say/understand by age 6?

Say 2,600–7,000 words; understand more than 20,000

HAS

High Amplitude Sucking — a research method where babies suck a pacifier to signal they notice a new sound, used to study infant speech perception

Categorical perception in infants

Infants are born able to hear speech contrasts from any language; by 8–10 months they tune in to their native language and lose sensitivity to foreign-language sounds

Prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis

The idea that babies use rhythm, stress, and intonation patterns as clues to find word boundaries in speech

Statistical learning (infants)

Babies track how often sounds appear together to figure out likely word boundaries

Whole object bias

When learning a new word, children assume it refers to the whole object, not just a part

Taxonomic bias

Children assume a new word applies to similar objects, not unrelated things

Mutual exclusivity bias

Children assume each object has only one name — a new word must refer to something new

Syntactic bootstrapping

Children use the grammatical role of a word in a sentence to figure out its meaning (e.g., "a niss" = a noun/thing; "she is nissing" = a verb/action)

Original word game

The cooperative, social nature of communication that helps children figure out word meanings

Shared book reading

Reading with children boosts vocabulary and later literacy; books expose children to language beyond everyday conversation

Behaviorist view of language

Language is learned through reinforcement and imitation — but this is NOT sufficient because children produce novel sentences, overregularize, and learn too fast for conditioning alone

Lack of negative evidence

Children rarely get corrected for grammatical mistakes, yet still learn correct grammar — a problem for the behaviorist view

Syntactic overregularization

Applying grammar rules incorrectly to exceptions — e.g., saying "I goed" instead of "I went" — shows children are learning rules, not just imitating

Nativist view of language

Chomsky's view: children are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that expects language to have rules, making learning easier

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Chomsky's term for the innate mental system that prepares children to learn language and sets grammatical parameters

Universal grammar

The idea that all human languages share underlying rules that children are born knowing

Parameter setting

The process by which children adjust their innate language knowledge to fit their specific native language (e.g., word order rules)

Pidgin

A simplified language created when speakers of different languages need to communicate

Creole

A full language with grammar that develops when children grow up hearing only a pidgin — evidence for an innate language instinct

Bickerton's language bioprogram

The hypothesis that children have an innate grammar that activates when normal language input is missing (explains creole development)

Cognitive view of language

Language development follows general cognitive development — no special language organ; children need concepts like object permanence before related words

Critical period for language

The strict view that there is a fixed window in which language MUST be learned or it won't develop normally

Sensitive period for language

The supported view that there is a window during which language is easiest to learn, but learning is not impossible after it — especially important for complex grammar

Lateralization

The tendency for a cognitive function to be handled mainly by one side of the brain; language is lateralized to the left hemisphere

Left hemisphere role in language

Handles grammar, phonological processing, and most language functions

Right hemisphere role in language

Helps with pragmatics, prosody (tone of voice), and understanding ambiguous words

Dual stream model

A modern model where language travels along two brain pathways: a dorsal stream (phonology/sounds) and a ventral stream (semantics/meaning)

Broca's area

Brain area involved in speech production; damage causes Broca's aphasia — slow, effortful, ungrammatical speech

Wernicke's area

Brain area involved in language comprehension; damage causes Wernicke's aphasia — fluent but meaningless speech, poor comprehension

Broca's aphasia

Speech is slow, labored, and ungrammatical — the person struggles to get words out but generally understands

Wernicke's aphasia

Speech is fluent but meaningless; the person has poor comprehension and doesn't realize what they're saying is wrong

Primary auditory cortex

Receives incoming sounds — first stop when processing heard speech

Primary visual cortex

Receives visual information — first stop when processing written words

Primary motor cortex

Sends signals to the body to produce speech movements

Left arcuate fasciculus

The neural "cable" connecting Wernicke's area to Broca's area; damage causes conduction aphasia (can't repeat heard words)

Conduction aphasia

Difficulty repeating heard words, caused by damage to the left arcuate fasciculus

Left angular gyrus

Connects visual language input to phonology; damage causes alexia and agraphia

Alexia

Impaired ability to read, caused by damage to the left angular gyrus

Agraphia

Impaired ability to write, caused by damage to the left angular gyrus

Brain pathway: answering a heard question

Auditory cortex → Wernicke's area → Arcuate fasciculus → Broca's area → Motor cortex

Brain pathway: reading aloud

Visual cortex → Angular gyrus → Wernicke's area → Arcuate fasciculus → Broca's area → Motor cortex

Problems with the Wernicke-Geschwind model

Too localized and serial; brain damage effects aren't as clean as predicted; other brain areas are involved; both hemispheres play a role

Why is the W-G model still important?

It was the first organized framework for studying language in the brain and guided decades of research — the areas it identified ARE involved in language