Chapter 1
For what 3 reasons do language communities emerge?
A language community is a group of people who use a common language. The numerous language of the world emerged from a single community of language users. Language communities emerge for GEOGRAPHIC reasons (e.g., Ukranian is spoken in the western region of the former Soviet Union), SOCIOLOGICAL reasons (e.g., ASL is used by the Deaf community), or ECONOMIC reasons (e.g., the World Trade Organization conducts business in English, French, and Spanish.)
Name three tasks that can be used to examine a child’s phonological awareness.
Syllable counting: How many syllables are in the target word.
Rhyme detection: Determining which words in a set rhyme.
Initial sound identification: Saying the first sound in a word.
Initial sound elision: Say the target word without the initial phoneme.
Phoneme counting: Saying how many sounds there are in a word.
What is CN X (vagus nerve) responsible for?
Vagus (X) – taste sensation; palatal, pharyngeal, laryngeal movement, including voicing
What is the difference between basic research and applied research?
Basic research focuses primarily on generating and refining the EXISTING KNOWLEDGE BASE. Basic research topics in language development include the ways children learn the meanings of words, the order in which children acquire the grammatical structures of their native language, and the ages by which children typically produce speech sounds. Applied research ADDRESSES SPECIFIC PROBLEMS in society and informs practices relevant to language development. Scientists who study language development for applied purposes respond to societal needs by determining why some individuals progress relatively slowing in language development.
Why is infants’ awareness of movement and understanding of the goals underlying actions important for language development?
Infants’ awareness of movement and understanding of the goals underlying actions are important precursors for language development because once they understand the intentions behind actions, THEY THEN CAN ENGAGE IN INTENTIONAL COMMUNICATION by pointing, gesturing, and eventually using language.
What is the difference between domain-specific modules and domain-general modules?
Modules are domain specific, meaning they can process only VERY SPECIFIC TYPES of information, such a depth perception within the visual system. Some contend that the brain consists of very large domain-general modules, which carry out VARIOUS TASKS such as memory and reasoning, as well as domain-specific modules.
What is the difference between bound morphemes and free morphemes?
Suffixes (and prefixes) are called bound morphemes because they MUST BE BOUND OR ATTACHED to other morphemes. Free morphemes CAN STAND ALONE; they include both words with clear semantic referents (e.g., dream, dog, walk), and words that serve primarily grammatical purposes (e.g., his, the, that).
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Explain the cognition hypothesis (Piaget) as it relates to language development.
Piaget's perspective on the subservience of language to cognition has been referred to as the cognition hypothesis because CERTAIN COGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENTS MUST BE IN PLACE FOR LANGUAGE ACHIEVEMENTS TO EMERGE.
What are the three levels of object category formation?
Research results support the idea that object category formation is hierarchical and includes three levels: SUPERORDINATE, SUBORDINATE, and BASIC.
Speech involves the precise activation of muscles in what four systems?
Respiration, phonation, resonation, and articulation.
What are the three earliest developing wh-words?
Many children’s earliest interrogatives include wh-words, such as WHAT, WHERE, and WHY.
How does the right hemisphere contribute to semantic processing?
The right hemisphere contributes to SEMANTIC processing, particularly the processing off FIGURATIVE AND ABSTRACT LANGUAGE.
Describe networks of nodes and connections in terms of the connectionist model.
Connectionist models are simulations of how nodes and connections are organized in larger networks. Nodes are simple processing units that can be likened to brain neurons. NODES RECEIVE INPUT FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES THROUGH CONNECTIONS. The connections between nodes vary in strength, depending on the connection weight. The network of nodes and connections adapts and transforms itself continually in response to the input it receives.
What are the three major developmental phases infants go through with respect to joint reference and attention?
Adamson and Chance (1998) proposed that infancy comprises three major developmental phases with respect to joint reference and attention: ATTENDANCE TO SOCIAL PARTNERS (birth to 6 mos), EMERGENCE AND COORDINATION OF JOINT ATTENTION (6 mos - 1 yr), TRANSITION TO LANGUAGE (1 yr+)
What are the four acoustic events involved in the transmission and reception of speech?
The CREATION OF SOUND SOURCE – a sound source creates a disturbance, or a set of vibrations, in surrounding air particles. The VIBRATION OF AIR PARTICLES – air particles are set in motion by the sound source, moving back and forth through the air or other medium. The speed of movement is the sound FREQUENCY, or pitch. The distance the particles move creates INTENSITY, or loudness. RECEPTION BY THE EAR – the outer ear captures the sound and channels it to the middle ear. The middle ear forwards the acoustic information to the innter ear, which contains the cochlea. From the cochlea, the auditory information travels up the auditory nerve to the auditory regions of the brain. COMPREHENSION BY THE BRAIN – The auditory centers of the brain in the left hemisphere translate the information sent through the ear. If it involves speech sounds, the speech and language centers facilitate the comprehension process. The human brain differentiates sound information as speech, and nonspeech.
What is complex syntax?
Children move from using simple syntax to complex syntax, which refers to the use of PHRASE AND CLAUSE STRUCTURES for organizing internal structures of sentences. (Phrase cluster examples: noun phrases, prepositional phrases, adjectival phrases, verb phrases)
Describe experience-expectant plasticity and experience-dependent plasticity.
Experience-expectant plasticity refers to the ongoing sculpting of brain structures that occur AS A RESULT OF NORMAL EXPERIENCES. As the infant develops, multitudes of synapses are present in the brain, expectantly waiting for certain normal experiences to occur for them to organize themselves into functioning circuits. Acquisition of language grammar occurs as a function of experience-expectant plasticity. Experience-dependent plasticity is unique to a given individual; this type of functional brain modification requires highly specific types of experiences for change. Learning new information (whether it is NOVEL INFORMATION OR INFORMATION RELEARNED AFTER A BRAIN INJURY) requires three mechanisms: the formation of new synaptic connections among neurons (dendritic sprouting), the generation of new neurons, and an increase in synaptic strength.
~TWIST~ You have 1 minute to ask another team a review question of your own. You must have the answer handy and provide feedback on their response.
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What criteria are necessary for an infant’s vocalization to be considered a true word?
First, infants must say true words with A CLEAR INTENTION. Second, infants must produce true words with RECOGNIZABLE PRONUNCIATION that approximates the adult form. Third, a true word is a word a child uses consistently and GENERALIZES ACROSS CONTEXTS to all appropriate exemplars.
For what three basic purposes do people share information?
–Maintain social relationships
–Meet personal basic needs
–Satisfy desires
What is the difference between a lead-in and a follow-in?
In a lead-in, an adult labels an object or event that is OUTSIDE OF THE CHILD'S ATTENTIONAL FOCUS. In a follow-in, an adult labels an object or event that is CURRENTLY THE CHILD'S ATTENTIONAL FOCUS. Researchers have long contended that the follow-in is more influential to children’s vocabulary growth than the lead-in, but it also seems that lead-ins are successful in shifting the child’s attention to the novel focus and can also support children’s word learning.
When this area of the brain is damaged, individuals exhibit significant difficulty with processing and producing coherent language in speech and writing. Such speech is fluent and intelligible but doesn’t make sense due to idioms, revisions, errors, and jargon.
Wernicke's Area
Briefly discuss linguistic competence and linguistic performance in the context of Universal Grammar.
In UG, the IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE children have about language is called linguistic competence, whereas the ACTUAL COMPREHENSION AND PRODUCTION of language in specific situations is called linguistic performance.
Briefly discuss the value of parent report measures in regard to infant language development.
Parent-report measures have shown to be a RELIABLE AND VALID MEASURE of a child's language ability when compared with other direct assessments.