Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code

These flashcards cover key terms and concepts from the lecture on early language acquisition, focusing on processes like statistical learning, neural commitment, and social influences in language learning.

Statistical Learning

Acquisition of knowledge through the computation of information about the distributional frequency with which certain items occur in relation to others.

Neural Commitment

Learning results in a commitment of the brain's neural networks to the patterns of variation that describe a particular language.

Phonemes

Elements of a language that distinguish words by forming contrasting elements in pairs of words in a given language.

Phonetic Units

The set of specific articulatory gestures that constitute vowels and consonants in a particular language.

Categorization

The ability to group perceptually distinct sounds into the same category in speech perception.

Critical Period

A specific time frame in which language acquisition occurs more easily and beyond which learning becomes significantly more difficult.

Prosodic Cues

Pitch, tempo, stress, and intonation that convey differences in meaning, word stress, and emotional state.

Phonotactic Patterns

Rules governing the sequences of phonemes that can be used to compose words in a language.

Perceptual Magnet Effect

The phenomenon where infants show a preference for prototypical sounds in their native language.

Motherese

A special speech register that caregivers use when talking to infants, characterized by a higher pitch and exaggerated intonation.

Categorial Perception

The tendency for listeners of a particular language to classify sounds in their languages as one phoneme or another, showing no sensitivity to intermediate sounds.

Foreign Language Learning

The process of acquiring a language that is not one's native language and is often associated with increased cognitive challenges.