PSYC 3506 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Categorical Perception, Habituation, Phoneme
Document Summary
Perception of language: young infants can distinguish between language families, by 2 months, infants distinguish /pa/ from /ba/ Starting around 10 months, sensitivity begins to be lost (cannot distinguish sounds outside their linguistic environment) Infants enjoy listening to speech, especially infant-directed speech- babies learn sounds from parents. Newborns can, 2 - 3 months olds can"t, by 4 - 5 months, they can do it again (they are better than new born at this task) Explanation for u-shaped curve: newborns abilities are merely reflex, 2-3 months can"t because brain region responsible for task is developed but develops around 4-5 month. What is language": language has a structure, language is arbitrary = no connection a thing"s name and the thing itself = ex the. Is it special: some argue that it is because language is innate while others say it not special because it is not completely innate. What are the properties of human language: creative: