PSYC 205 Lecture Notes - Pacifier, 18 Months, Empiricism
What is involved in language learning?
How we pair sounds with things and events in our world (phonological development
using phonemes)
Learning rules of grammar to combine words into sentences (semantic development
using morphemes)
Learning how words and morphemes are combined (syntactic development)
Knowledge about the culture and how a language is typically used (pragmatic
development)
Adults have a metalinguistic knowledge - knowledge about language
Language use requires comprehension and production.
Generativity - using finite set of words, we can generate infinite number of sentences
Speech to infants
Adult directed speech is more continuous with low pitch and low range, whereas, infant
directed speech is slower and has a lot of pauses. Pitch is higher and the range is bigger with
smooth changes in pitch contours (very connected which makes it so melodic)
Same phenomenon noticed across cultures (to a slight level at least) and moms have
higher pitch than dads
American English has the highest difference in adult directed speech vs infant directed
speech
Do infants prefer infant directed speech?
o4 month old infants - made to listen to 4 strangers' speech to either an infant or
an adult
oInfants prefer infant directed speech
oLights on either side of the room with either infant speech or adult speech
playing on speaker - infants looked longer at infant directed speech speaker/light
oAlso found that infants prefer infant directed speech more even if it is of a
different language
Researchers predicted that infant directed speech has more usefulness - probably to learn language
High pitched - tend to be easier to hear
Smooth and connected - could be easier to track (easier to follow from one part to
another)
Exaggerated contours express emotion - soothe an infant, attract their attention
High pitch and melodic sound for approval - reinforcing the behavior - infants can predict that they
are doing a good thing
More adult like speech with low pitch for prohibition - so they can understand what they are doing
is not appreciated
Do infants get this message? - do they understand the words or the tone
9 month olds - task was infants were made to sit on the table and an attractive object
rolls into reach and then they hear 1 of 4 things - good with approval/prohibition or bad with
approval/prohibition
Regardless of words, approval tune - played longer with toy and prohibition tune -
played less
9 month olds "get the message" from the tune
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
When followed up with older infants (13 months) - start being influenced with both tune
and words (would be confused) but by 18 months - they know exactly what to behave like
depending on words
Infant Speech Perception: Sound Categorization
Children show preference for their mother's voice and her language - prosody - the
characteristic rhythmic and intonation patterns with which a language is spoken
Speech sounds:
Acoustic signals used to express meaning
200 sounds used for languages of the world
English uses 45 different sounds
Some sounds, not in English, are used in other languages - difficulties with accent arise
from this
Speech sounds come in categories - defined by how produced (IN ADULTS)
Eg. Place and voicing
oB and P = place is bilabial (use both lips) but the voicing is where the vocal
chords is (with b, vocal chords vibrate before air is released and with p, vocal chords
vibrate after air is released)
But there is variation in categories - due to context, speaker's voice
oSpread across a continuum - BA and PA vary depending on when the vocal
chords release air - category change (usually sound different)
oWe hear differences in sounds within categories - PA can be either at 40 or 80
(depending on the speaker) even though air is released after the vibration of chords.
This is called an acoustic change (usually sound the same)
BUT FOR INFANTS - do they perceive speech sounds categorically or do they have to build these
category boundaries
1 and 4 yr old infants
Habituation task - 1 sound plays repeatedly when baby sucks on pacifier
After a few mins, baby gets bored and response rate decreases - shows baby has been
habituated
Present NEW sound and see if baby responds again (either with in-category or out-
category changed sound)
Infants too (even newborns) just like adults - if it was category change, they were
dishabituated and if it was acoustic change, they were habituated
Could adult sound categories be built in?
Not exactly because they are not the same across languages
R and L are not different consonants in Japanese
Article 4
Werker with 6 - 12 months infants
Used conditioned headturn procedure - when they hear a sound and it changes, a
clapping toy will appear to the side of them
If they cant hear the difference - no toy will appear indicating no changes
Tested with Hindi and Nthlakapmx contrasts that aren't used in English
Shows that infants can distinguish between non native categorical contrasts
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
How we pair sounds with things and events in our world (phonological development using phonemes) Learning rules of grammar to combine words into sentences (semantic development using morphemes) Learning how words and morphemes are combined (syntactic development) Knowledge about the culture and how a language is typically used (pragmatic development) Adults have a metalinguistic knowledge - knowledge about language. Generativity - using finite set of words, we can generate infinite number of sentences. Adult directed speech is more continuous with low pitch and low range, whereas, infant directed speech is slower and has a lot of pauses. Pitch is higher and the range is bigger with smooth changes in pitch contours (very connected which makes it so melodic) Same phenomenon noticed across cultures (to a slight level at least) and moms have higher pitch than dads. American english has the highest difference in adult directed speech vs infant directed speech.
