Midterm 1 Lecture Notes

Speech perception definition Ability to hear and categorize speech sounds.

Infants prefer speech over non-speech Speech is biologically special.

Infants prefer mother’s voice Heard in womb.

Infants prefer native language Rhythm recognized.

Fetus hears by ~30 weeks.

Low frequency sounds heard best <400 Hz.

Phoneme definition Smallest sound unit changing meaning.

Phonemic contrast Sound difference that changes word.

Example phonemic contrast /ba/ vs /pa/.

Infants detect contrasts at 1–4 months.

Bimodal perception Two response peaks.

Language-general sensitivities Born with broad abilities.

Universal listener Early infant stage.

Experimental method purpose Learn what infants know.

Habituation Boredom to repeated stimulus.

Dishabituation Attention to new stimulus.

High-amplitude sucking Infants suck more when interested.

Head-turn procedure Turn head to new sound.

Preferential looking Look longer at matching picture.

Preferential looking tests Word and sentence learning.

Werker et al. 1981 finding Infants hear non-native contrasts.

English adults fail Hindi contrasts Yes.

Hindi speakers succeed Hear both.

Universal to language-specific shift Occurs in first year.

Werker & Tees 1984 age of loss 10–12 months.

Consonant narrowing 10–12 months.

Vowel narrowing Earlier (~6 months).

Perceptual reorganization Tuning to native sounds.

Neural commitment Brain commits to native language.

Speech perception precedes production Hearing first.

Children detect distinctions they can’t say mouse vs mouth.

Pre-babbling stage 0–5 months.

Babbling stage CV syllables.

Canonical babbling bababa.

First words around 12 months.

Two-word stage 18–24 months.

Telegraphic speech Content words only.

Regularities in child speech Systematic patterns.

Omission Leaving out sounds.

Cluster reduction store→tor.

Syllable reduction computer→puter.

Reduplication water→wawa.

Substitution rabbit→wabbit.

Assimilation tub→bub.

Errors are rule-based Not random.

By age 3 Most sounds present.

Late acquired sounds r, l, th.

Complex clusters late spr-, -lps.

Child Directed Speech (CDS) Special caregiver speech.

CDS pitch Higher.

CDS tempo Slower.

CDS repetition High.

CDS exaggerated stress Yes.

CDS helps segmentation Yes.

Children prefer CDS Yes.

CDS varies cross-culturally Yes.

Tseltal infants Rare direct CDS.

Back-carrying advantage Hear adult talk.

Other-directed speech works Yes.

Joint attention Shared focus.

Encouraging object attention Faster vocab.

Parental correction helps grammar? No.

Parents focus on meaning Not form.

18-month intelligibility 25%.

24-month intelligibility 50–75%.

36-month intelligibility 75–100%.

Morphology definition Word endings.

Inflections appear with two-word stage.

English morphology predictable order Yes.

Brown morpheme first -ing.

Plural -s acquired early.

Past irregular acquired before past regular.

Past regular -ed acquired later.

3rd person singular -s later.

Overregularization goed, falled.

U-shaped learning Correct→wrong→correct.

Wug test Pseudoword test.

Wug result Children apply rules.

Three -ed pronunciations [t], [d], [id].

Rule after voiceless Add [t].

Rule after voiced Add [d].

Rule after t/d Add [id].

Dual-mechanism model Rules + memory.

Rule component Add -ed.

Memory component Irregulars.

Blocking principle Irregular blocks rule.

Retrieval failure Causes overregularization.

Why children say goed Couldn’t retrieve went.

Connectionist model Single network.

Network learns patterns By analogy.

Rumelhart & McClelland model Learned U-shape.

Connectionist strength Irregular similarity.

Connectionist weakness Produces odd errors.

Past tense depends on phonology sleep-slept.

Semantics can matter Meaning affects tense.

Impoverished input definition Poor language model.

Homesign system Self-created gestures.

Homesign has structure Yes.

Homesign not full language Yes.

Children of immigrants develop full language.

Pidgin exposure Children create grammar.

Simon case study ASL learner.

Simon’s parents late learners.

Simon surpassed parents Yes.

Simon regularizes input Yes.

Motion/location easier than handshape Yes.

Handshape morphology hardest Yes.

Children search consistency form-meaning.

Frequent but inconsistent forms not learned.

Forms absent in input not learned.

Bilingualism definition Using two languages.

Simultaneous bilingual from birth.

Sequential bilingual later.

Bilingual milestones on time.

Total vocabulary comparable Yes.

Bilingual brain handles two systems Yes.

One-person-one-language strategy Common.

One-language-one-environment strategy Common.

Non-dominant home language risk Less community support.

Mixed input households Code-switching.

Early bilingual exposure best outcomes.

Bilingual advantage executive control.

No IQ harm from bilingualism.

Language differentiation gradual Lexicon then grammar.

Early mixing not confusion.

Interference more in similar languages.

Order of acquisition similar to monolinguals Yes.