PSYC1030 Language Development

what happens in utero in terms of lang development

pick up elements of lang

more sensitive to sound

preference for hearing language they are going to speak

what is the hypothesis for the overregularisation error pattern (i.e. correct usage high, then decreases, then high again)

they're just mapping word to referrent (younger children 2-3). Something happens in kids mind where grammatical rule is extracted and then overapplied to lots of words (i.e. "I know that to make past tense you add -ed, so I will add -ed to blow). This is unrelated to schooling.

what did dare baldwin 1991 find

in a lab, when baby looked at 1 (of 3) objects, parent uttered word

Did baby link word with what they were looking at?

No!

When they hear new word, they turn and look at where the speaker is looking and follow where speaker is looking. Basically what the speaker is looking at is what the baby assigns the word to

• Young as 16 months old

• Called joint attention

what is the nature explanation and what is the nurture explanation for the naming explosion

Nurture explanation- learns how reference works and importance of social situations and then tries to figure out what is what and when

Nature explanation: something happening in brain at ~18 mos which allows them to absorb all this info

what is the regular developmental progression for language

First words around first birthday--> start stringing words together--> follow grammatical rules (not explicitly taught)--> between 4-5y/o they can properly talk basically

Phonetic distinction between V and B are not picked up in what country

Spain

Baby's are born with a universal ear, what does this mean

Infants under 1 are sensitive to all phonetic distinctions between all languages, less sensitive as they approach 1

What's infant directed speech also known as

Motherese

What are the factors involved in motherese pattern of speech

-Talk slowly
-Repetitive
-High and low intonations

Benefits of infant directed speech opposed to adult directed speech

-Segments speech stream
-Begins to map meanings from words

What's the meaning of babbling

Closer to 12 months babbling tongue tuned in to consonant vowel pairings common in the language they will be speaking

What's the significance of pointing

-Drawing ones attention to something
-Just proceeds infants first word
-Can be done with finger and language
-Only humans point spontaneously

The problem with simple association ?

If speaker looking at something and baby looking at something else.

Just hearing language in order to learn is not sufficient, what's needed to effectively learn

Social context

Part of the social context of language includes what and an example

-Pragmatic functors (Meaning wanting to convey)

-Example: 'bye-bye' 'ta'

First word is usually by what age and what is the age limit when you should test for hearing impairment

12 months
By 3 y/o

First word is usually what

-Noun
-Usually "middle sized thing in the environment"

Language errors occur in what age range ?

12-18 months (1-1.5 y/o)

Two types of language errors that occur

-Overextension error
-Under extension errors

What is the one-word stage

-Pointing at and uttering single word nouns

-Referential errors in the first 50 words or so

What is the overextension error and an example

-Overextend the reference

-common error by most babies
-Parent "moon" reference to the moon
-Child independently (without social reference) calling other round things "moon"

What is the under extension error and an example

Common noun treated as proper name

-Baby knows the name of the family pet as dog

-Doesn't extend that word to any other dogs that she sees

How many words have baby's learned by 18 months

50-75 words

What age do baby's stop making the under extension and overextension error

18 to around 24 months

Why do babies make extension errors

Maybe over extension occurs bc have very limited vocab and use as 'placeholder' OR (theory 2) until ~18mos when children have acquired 50-75 words, bbies don’t actually understand how language works. Don’t understand that words refer to specific thing.

By 18 to around 24 months what's happening with baby's language

-Naming explosion 9 words per day via "what's that" game

-Combining words (telegraphic speech)

What game creates a "naming explosion"

The what's that game

At what age have baby's got a critical mass of beyond 50 to 75 words

From around 18 to around 24 months

The "what's that game" with the "naming explosion" is a nature or nurture view

Nurture

How many words in a child's vocabulary by age 6

12,000-14,000

How many words in a adult's vocabulary

25,000

What is word order error

Grammar

What is telegraphic speech and an example

-Two and three-word stage
-Baby's make very few word-order errors.

"Teddy eat," and, "Eat teddy."

A developmental psycholinguist studying language acquisition up until three-word stage is most interested in what aspect ?

Utterances and context.

A developmental psycholinguist studying language acquisition after three-word stage is most interested in what aspect ?

Context

What is over regularisation errors and what age range do these appear/disappear

* Grammatical mistake
* Grammatical rule extracted and overapplied
* <3 Correct usage
* >3 over regularisation
* From 8: Correct usage

An example of over regularisation errors

"blowed-up"

The nature argument for language acquisition and an example that supports this argument

-Innate
-Biological
-Noam Chomsky
-Over regularisation errors

-developmental regularity

-poverty of input: input heard by children isn't varied enough to explain through simple processes of association or social learning. e.g. where did she learn blowed up?

The nurture argument for language acquisition

-Association
-Imitation
-Shaping (Social learning) reward/punishment

Problems with nature rationale for language acquisition

-Variation in languages
-No underlying principles that apply to all languages
-No universal grammar
-Proven environmental influence
-Increased language input, increased rate of language acquisition

Difference between high socio-economic status homes compared to low with language acquisition

high SES homes who are read to regularly have twice as many words in their vocabularies

Is there a critical period for language acquisition

Yes. unclear how it is characterised

What is Language Acquisition Device

-Noam Chomsky's view
-We learn language by genetically coded Language Acquisition Device
-Input generates output

What is the problem with the critical period hypothesis

-Cant test it
-Only humans have language
-Ethically cant deprive human of language

What did Genie teach us about language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis

-Unable to learn grammar
-The importance of gramma in language
-Limited telegraphic speech with word-Order errors
-Evidence for "critical period" for language acquisition

-lends some support to nature view