Studied by 1 person
Language
A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.
Phonology
the sound system of a language
Lexicon
the vocabulary of a language
Morphology
structure of words
Syntax
Sentence structure
pragmatics
the appropriate use of language in different contexts
Literacy
the ability to read and write
What language development happens prior to one year old?
-intentional communication
vocal play
canonical babbling
recognition of name
What language development happens between one and two years old?
-First word
-distinguishable communication
-recognition of phonology
50 words
word spurt
-first combination
conversational initiation
What language development happens between second and third years?
-phonetic inventory completion
500 word vocab
increase in word length
adding grammatical morphemes
negatives and questions
What language development happens between from third year and beyond?
Narrative skills
phonological awareness
increase vocab
complex utterances
Behaviorism
behavior occurs in response to a consequence of a prior action
Cognitivism
the belief that much of human behavior can be understood in terms of how people think
baby biographies
detailed, systematic observations of individual children
Langauge socialization
language is a social behavior
language acquisition device
Chomsky's concept of an innate, prewired mechanism in the brain that allows children to acquire language naturally
Five approaches to langauge development
Biology - language is a biological process
Linguistic - Language is innate
Social - language is a social phenomena
Domain general - language is a learning problem
Dynamic system theory - language comes from the continuous interaction of components of the system
universal grammar
Noam Chomsky's theory that all the world's languages share a similar underlying structure
learnability approach
Focuses on explaining how language can be learned
Developmental Approach
Focus on earlier developing sounds first
Empiricism (Language)
mind is blank at birth
Nativism (language)
mind has pre-existing structure
interactivist view
language input impact the rate and course of language development
social interactionist theory
explains language acquisition as being caused by a motivation to communicate and interact with others
Constructivist Theory
Piaget's theory, in which cognitive development results from children's active construction of reality, based on their experiences with the world
Emergentist Theory
language learning involves
genetic make up
learning environment
connectionist approach
mechanism of pattern learning and seeks to explain language and learned patterns
Developmental systems approach
language = genetics + interactions + environment
modularity thesis
The cognitive theory that holds that the ability to develop language is a self-contained module in the mind, separate from other aspects of mental functioning.
Formalism
acquisition of language has nothing to do with communication
functionlism
language acquisition is formed by communication
Generativist Theory
The theory that language acquisition and use are supported by an innate Universal Grammar. Language experience triggers innate knowledge and sets language-specific parameters. The language-learning mechanism is specific to language.
social interactionist theory
explains language acquisition as being caused by a motivation to communicate and interact with others
Usage-Based Theory
children attend to and understand other people's intentions and then imitate other persons' intentional communicative actions to learn language
Connectionist Theory
children learn language by creating neural connections in the brain
Behavioralist Theory
assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli
speech sample
A segment of speech used to assess a client's stuttering. A sample may be limited to 300 syllables. It may be spontaneous conversation or written work that is read aloud. It is meant to be representative of a client's speech in general.
LENA system
records data for speech sample collection
CHILDES
Child Language Data Exchange System. A computer program for the analysis of transcripts, and an archive of previously collected transcripts of children's speech.
2 ways to access child's language development
Speech Sample
Standardized test
CDI
communicative development inventory
PPVT
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
pidgin language
language formed by combining parts of several different languages
Creole language
a language that began as a pidgin language but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in a place of the mother tongue
language bioprogram hypothesis
Children are innately predisposed to acquire the syntax of language
How is speech produced?
The air enters lungs, vocal cords vibrate
functional architecture
how the brain is organized to serve the functions it performs
Neurolinguistics
the study of the relationship between language and the brain
cerbral cortex
outer layer of the cerbrum of a mammal's brain; center of thinking and other complex behaviors
subcortical structures
parts of the brain located under the cerebral cortex
contralateral control
each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite side of the body
Ipsilateral
on the same side of the body
neural circuits
groups of interconnected neurons
lesion method
damage or remove section of brain and observe the effects
split brain patients
corpus collosum is severed, two hemispheres of the brain don't communicate as effectively
dichotic listening task
A task in which a person hears two or more different, specially recorded messages over earphones and is asked to attend to one of them.
functional brain imaging
provides information about the activity of the brain when people perform various kinds of cognitive or motor tasks
EEG/ERP
good temporal resolution, cheap, poor spatial resolution; uses electroencephalography to record electrical activity of the brain during cognitive processing
MEG (magnetoencephalography)
measures magnetic fields from the brain's natural electrical activity
fMRI
A technique for revealing blood flow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans.
NIRS (near infrared spectroscopy)
brain activity measured by using infrared light to determine changes in blood oxygen levels in the brain
developmental cognitive neuroscience
brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person's cognitive processing and behavior patterns
aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).
Broca's area
speech production
Wernicke's area
language comprehension
Damage to right hemisphere
difficulty perceiving other's emotions, failure to understand humor and sarcasm, and a monotone voice
Childhood Aphasia
Children with left-hemisphere (but not right hemisphere) damage are likely to develop aphasia, recover better than adults, but may show residual problems (role of neuroplasticity and redundancy of the neural architecture)
Brain damage prior to langauge on right side
language delay
equipotentiality hypothesis
some parts of the brain can take over for damaged parts in forming and storing memories
invarience hypothesis
left side is specialized for language since birth
neural plasticity
the ability of the brain to change in response to experience
Critical Period Hypothesis
Erick Lenneberg - theory of language development that states language must be learned by a certain age, otherwise, we will experience continual difficulty learning language
"Proof" of the Critical-period Hypothesis
wild children
late signers of ASL can never do it as well as once doing it from infancy
2nd acquisition of 1st language in adopted children
age of exposure effects
Effects of age of first exposure to a language on the success of language acquisition. Typically, the earlier one is exposed to a second language, the higher the level of proficiency one is likely to ultimately achieve.
Lenneberg argues
that puberty ends language acquisition
Underlying age effects to language development
time of exposure
age of exposure
early exposure effect
changes in domain general (kids remember less than adults )
opprotunity to learn language
social/motivational factors
FOXP2
mutations of this gene impede ability to make mouth and jaw sequences required for speech; accompanied by difficulties for written language
examples of language in animals
vervet monkeys = warning sounds
bees = waggle dance
birds = songs/subsongs
Why was couldn't primates learn human language?
speech was mostly repetition and imitation
mean length of utterances never changes
no role of meaning
lack culture
lack domain-specific mental mechanisms
Language in Baboons
Kanzi learned langauge due to accompanying his mother to learn lexigram, learned up to a 2 year old vocab
Language as an evolved capacity
natural selection, developed with modification
Langauge as a by product of evolution
other changes allowed language to evolve
social gating hypothesis
the hypothesis that the social brain "gates" mechanisms that are responsible for language learning
joint attention
the ability to focus on what another person is focused on
secondary intersubjectivity
a form of interaction between infant and caregiver with communication and emotional sharing focused not just on the interaction but on the world beyond
gaze following
`looking where another person has just looked
intention reading
child's ability to recognize the intentions and mental states of others
gesture is a _____ of language
predictor
possible explanations for gestures in language development
shows communication development
communication interaction supports langauge development
relationship between content of gestures and content of language
habituation process
a neural process that produces decreases in responsiveness
Non-nutritive nipple
frequency and strength of sucking gives info on preference of infants
conditional head turn procedure
present sound and when sound changes, there is a visual reward = teaches association with sound and picture
intermodal preferential looking paradigm
A procedure that assesses language comprehension by showing infants side-by-side slides or videos, as the infant hears an audio presentation that matches only one of the videos. If infants consistently look longer at the matching video, it is taken as evidence that they understand the language of the audio.
looking while listening procedure
infants are presented with side-by-side videos and a paired audio, as in the preferential looking procedure, but in this procedure, the time course of the infants' eye movements toward the pictures is measured
prenatal hearing
Measurement: Fetal heart rate changes
30 weeks gestational age (GA) detect white noise
Mom's voice (Kisilevsky et al., 2003)
Familiar story (DeCasper & Spence, 1986)
early attention in infants
prefer speech sounds and faces, find an association between them
Infant Speech Perception
Infants learning language must be able to segment the speech they hear into meaningful phrases and words
catagorical perception
range of stimuli that differ continuously are perceived as belonging to different catagories
voice onset time
the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating
tuning of speech perception
Changes in infants' speech perception that occur as a result of exposure to the target language. Infants decline in their abilities to hear contrasts their language does not use, and in some cases, they improve in their abilities to hear contrasts their language does use.
Note
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