Developmental Psychology: Language, Categorization & Memory

What are social attention cues?

Social attention cues are strategies used by adults to engage a child's attention, such as using a high-pitched voice, touching the child, or using their name.

How do social attention cues help children?

They help children segment speech and create distinct representations of words by speaking slowly, using extra pauses, and repeating instructions.

What is required for early language learning?

Early language learning requires social engagement.

What was the outcome of infants learning Mandarin from a DVD?

Infants exposed to Mandarin through a DVD learned nothing, as shown by brain scans and language testing.

What is joint attention?

Joint attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object, which is crucial for social interaction and learning.

At what age do infants begin to follow an adult's gaze?

At 9 months, infants begin to pay attention to the object that the adult is focused on.

What cues do children use to learn a word's meaning?

Children use cues such as the gaze or pointing of an adult, the adult's emotion, and the novelty of the object.

What did Behne, Carpenter, and Tomasello (2005) find about infants and pointing?

Fourteen-month-old infants could infer the location of an object based on adult pointing, unlike great apes.

How does emotion influence word learning in infants?

When an adult expresses emotion towards an object, infants are more likely to select that object later.

What is the significance of novelty in word learning?

A novel name is associated with a novel object, as shown when children give a novel toy to an adult who expressed excitement about it.

What happens to vocabulary growth around 18 months?

There is a cumulative vocabulary surge, with children learning more words per day.

What is the correlation between nonword repetition and vocabulary in children?

There is a correlation of 0.5 between nonword repetition and vocabulary for children aged 4-5 years.

What are the stages of early sentence learning?

The stages include repetition of previously heard utterances, modification of those utterances, and combination of constituents from them.

What is over-regularization in language learning?

Over-regularization occurs when children incorrectly apply regular grammatical rules to irregular words, such as saying 'comed' instead of 'came.'

What are salient characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?

Impaired social relationships and impaired language development.

How do infants learn multiple languages?

Infants can distinguish stress patterns of each language they know and inhibit other languages when comprehending or producing one.

What effect does multilingualism have on the brain?

Multilingualism positively affects the development of the prefrontal cortex and results in less severe effects from brain damage.

How is reading initially learned?

Reading is initially learned through letter-sound conversion before transitioning to a direct vision-to-meaning route.

What is the relationship between reading and vocabulary growth?

Reading significantly contributes to vocabulary growth, grammar development, and general cognitive functioning.

What is categorization in language learning?

Categorization allows individuals to group objects based on shared characteristics and is made explicit through verbal labeling.

What is the basic level category in categorization?

Basic level categories are the broadest categories where members share many perceptual features and are among the first learned.

What did Gelman & Markman (1986) study about children's categorization?

They found that children categorized objects by function and extended kinship terms to other domains.

What is the significance of the wug test in language learning?

The wug test demonstrates how children generalize grammatical rules to new examples.

What is the bootstrap effect in learning generalizations?

The bootstrap effect occurs when the number of targets of an action increases the likelihood that a novel input will match the target set.

How does language facilitate explicit categorization?

Language allows for explicit categorization through verbal labeling, enhancing knowledge of the world.

What term do experts use to name pictures of objects in their area of expertise?

Subordinate term

How do people with expertise categorize objects outside their area of expertise?

They use the same category term as others.

What influences category membership according to perceptual similarity?

Some features are weighted more heavily by the perceptual system.

What is the difference between natural and artificial categories?

Natural categories have functional significance, while artificial categories do not.

What did Smith et al. (2004) find about human performance in learning artificial categories?

There was a jump in performance indicating a verbal rule had been learned.

What is the relationship between the complexity of verbal descriptions and category learning?

Shorter logical expressions are easier to learn than longer, more complex ones.

What is Theory of Mind?

The ability to represent the beliefs of another, or mind-reading.

At what age can children typically understand another person's state of knowledge?

By four years of age.

What is the significance of encoding causal episodes in learning?

It helps individuals learn the consequences of their actions.

What do children imitate when the causal effect of an action is obvious?

Causally relevant actions.

What do adults accept regarding unintentional consequences?

They are willing to accept unintentional consequences that they would not intentionally cause.

What is a mnemonic?

An action whose purpose is to remember something.

What is the purpose of rehearsal in memory?

To aid in long-term or short-term memory retention.

What is the difference between shadowing and rehearsal?

Shadowing creates a fragile phonemic representation, while rehearsal creates a more permanent articulatory representation.

What does the U-shaped serial position function indicate about recall?

Last items are recalled best (recency), followed by first items (primacy).

What happens to recency effects when a filled interval intervenes between list presentation and recall?

Recency disappears.

What did Vicki Bruce (1982) find regarding recognition of familiar versus novel faces?

Familiar faces were recognized better than novel faces.

What is the effect of strong emotion on memory retention?

It guarantees memory of important life events but can also lead to PTSD.

What is the role of verbal rehearsal in long-term encoding?

It requires retrieval from memory for effective long-term retention.

What is the primary effect in memory recall?

The tendency to recall the first items in a list better than those in the middle.

What is the recency effect in immediate recall?

The last few list items are recalled best.

What is the significance of encoding intentional episodes?

It allows for mind-reading by understanding the actor's intentions.

What is the relationship between prior knowledge and recognition performance?

Prior knowledge enhances recognition accuracy for familiar faces.

What is the impact of verbal labels on implicit visual similarities?

They encode implicit visual similarities and influence category membership.

What is the effect of linguistic complexity on category learning according to Feldman (2003)?

Longer logical expressions take more time to learn the category.

What are the components of encoding causal episodes?

Agent, action, target, result, context.

What is the Primacy effect in distributed rehearsal?

The Primacy effect refers to the phenomenon where the first few items in a list receive more rehearsals, making them more likely to be encoded and recalled.

Who demonstrated that the Primacy effect is a result of distributed rehearsals?

Modigliani (1980) showed that the Primacy effect is due to distributed rehearsals.

How does the rate of presentation affect the Primacy effect?

When list items are presented faster, there is insufficient time for the first items to receive extra rehearsals, reducing or eliminating the Primacy effect.

What is the Von Restorff effect?

The Von Restorff effect occurs when a distinctive item in a list receives more rehearsals, making it more likely to be encoded and recalled.

What conclusion was drawn from RSVP studies regarding memory?

Attending to input without rehearsal is not sufficient for transfer to long-term memory (LTM).

At what age do children typically begin to rehearse spontaneously?

Children under 5 or 6 do not spontaneously rehearse but can be induced to do so.

How does rehearsal improve recall in children?

Recall increases if children rehearse, but younger children often revert to not rehearsing.

What is Semantic Elaboration?

Semantic Elaboration involves integrating individual representations into an episode, such as creating a linking sentence.

What did Bobrow & Bower (1969) find about linking sentences?

They found that generating a linking sentence for oneself improves cued recall compared to simply reading one.

How does organizing words by semantic category affect recall?

Items organized by category are learned better than randomly organized lists.

What did Bransford & Johnson (1972) conclude about memory and comprehension?

Memory is a function of comprehension; recall improves when information is presented with a clear context.

What is the effect of visual imagery on learning?

Learning increases when students consciously generate visual images for study materials.

What is the Method of Loci?

A mnemonic technique where items to be remembered are imagined in a series of familiar locations.

What is the Peg word Rhyme mnemonic?

A mnemonic that uses a rhyme to remember ordered lists, linking peg words with items to be remembered.

What is the impact of interactive imagery compared to discrete imagery?

Interactive imagery is more effective than discrete imagery for pairs and lists of study items.

What is the significance of famous mnemonists in memory research?

Famous mnemonists often utilize rich visual memories and detailed verbal sequence knowledge to encode information.

How did Jill Price demonstrate detailed autobiographical memory?

Jill Price can recall specific events from her life on any given date, supported by extensive personal records.

What strategies do actors use to learn their lines?

Actors imagine themselves as the character and learn 'beats' that correspond to actions in the situation.

What is the relationship between knowledge and learning new information?

There is a strong bootstrapping effect; more knowledge about a topic makes it easier to learn new details.

What can happen when old and new information are combined?

Combining old and new information can lead to false memories.

What is the role of rehearsal in organizing information?

Rehearsal helps organize shorter sequences into longer ones, enhancing memory retention.

What is the effect of presenting lists in the same order on recall?

Learning is faster when the list is presented in the same order on each trial.

What is the impact of rehearsal on metamemory?

Improving metamemory reflects an understanding of one's own memory abilities, which develops with schooling.

How does the presentation rate affect memory recall?

A very fast presentation rate can lead to accurate detection but poor recall of what was seen.

What is the conclusion regarding rehearsal and long-term memory?

Rehearsal is essential for transferring information to long-term memory.