Deck 8: Language Development

Question 1

Dr.Sparks is interested in sound patterns of a language and the rules for combining sounds into words.Dr.Sparks is focused on:

A) phonology
B) pragmatics
C) semantics
D) syntax

Answer 1

phonology

Question 2

Kathy has just celebrated her third birthday.It is likely that in the next few months there will be:

A) rapid growth in the length of her utterances
B) rapid growth in her use of embedded clauses
C) rapid growth in both the length of her utterances and use of embedded clauses
D) no change in her length of utterances or use of embedded clauses

Answer 2

rapid growth in the length of her utterances

Question 3

Which of the following statements is true about preschoolers' understanding of the rules of pluralization?

A) Preschoolers do not yet have an understanding of the rules of pluralization.
B) Preschoolers can apply different noun endings to make plurals of only familiar words.
C) Preschoolers will attempt to apply known pluralizations to novel words.
D) Preschoolers may overregularize past tense but do not overregularize plurals.

Answer 3

Preschoolers will attempt to apply known pluralizations to novel words.

Question 4

Which of the following statements is true about deaf infants exposed to sign language?

A) Deaf infants cannot babble aloud or with their hands.
B) Deaf infants can only babble aloud, not with their hands.
C) Deaf infants can only babble with their hands.
D) Deaf infants can babble aloud and with their hands.

Question 5

Gabriel is a 1-year-old who utters the word "milk" whenever he is hungry to indicate he would like to eat.He also says "up" whenever he wants his grandfather to pick him up.These are examples of:

A) child-directed speech
B) holophrases
C) overregularizations
D) telegraphic speech

Question 6

Darius is a toddler who knows 200 words.These words he knows are referred to as his:

A) lexicon
B) morphemes
C) natural language
D) phonemes

Question 7

The sentence "Bill was surprised by how quickly he finished the exam" has two possible meanings in that "Bill" and "he" could refer to the same person or different people.The sentence, "He was surprised by how quickly Bill finished the exam" has only one potential meaning as "he" and "Bill" are different people.This pattern of relating pronouns to noun phrases is found in all known languages making it a:

A) common language guideline
B) global syntax
C) pragmatic rule
D) universal constraint

Question 8

Researchers typically distinguish four common components of language.These include all the following EXCEPT:

A) prelinguistics
B) pragmatics
C) semantics
D) syntax

Question 9

All of the following statements about the overregularization of past tense verb endings are true EXCEPT:

A) children of all ages are hearing essentially the same distributions of verbs and tenses
B) when they start to overregularize the past tense "-ed" rule, children are taking a pattern observed in a majority of instances and applying it to all cases
C) parents frequently provide feedback to children about the incorrect nature of overregularized forms
D) children usually have never heard these incorrect overregularizations in the speech of others

Question 10

Rachel, a preschooler, told her mother than she "runned" at school instead of saying that she "ran." This illustrates:

A) overextension
B) overregularization
C) underextension
D) underregularization

Question 11

________ constraints take the form of consistent rule patterns across all languages, which result in specific structural features all languages share.

A) Generative
B) Global
C) Pragmatic
D) Universal

Question 12

All of the following are examples of prelinguistic vocalizations EXCEPT:

A) babbling
B) cooing
C) holophrases
D) lip smacking

Question 13

What are the smallest units of sound that create differences in meaning?

A) holophrases
B) morphemes
C) phonemes
D) prosodies

Question 14

A researcher wants to learn whether children understand the difference between two sentences: "Jack pushed Jill" and "Jill pushed Jack." This researcher is focused on:

A) phonology
B) pragmatics
C) semantics
D) syntax

Question 15

Mat and cat are words that differ in their initial sounds.The "m" and "c" represent different:

A) holophrases
B) lexicons
C) phonemes
D) universal constraints

Question 16

"Dog," "s," and "pre" are all examples of:

A) holophrases
B) morphemes
C) phonemes
D) telegraphic speech

Question 17

Vanessa has a newborn son.At what age can she expect her son to start putting together strings of words in utterances of two or more words?

A) 1 year
B) years
C) 2 years
D) years

Question 18

Dr.Diener studies how different cultures use language to convey meaning.Dr.Diener is focused on:

A) phonology
B) pragmatics
C) semantics
D) syntax

Question 19

Dr.Ha is interested in discovering whether children understand the difference between the following sentences: "Roy gave Lisa a cookie" and "Lisa gave Roy a cookie." Dr.Ha's research question focuses on:

A) morphology
B) phonology
C) semantics
D) syntax

Question 20

Baby Summer says "gagagaga." This illustrates:

A) babbling
B) cooing
C) lip smacking
D) squealing

Question 21

All of the following are claims of the connectionist approach to language learning EXCEPT:

A) like a computer, the human brain processes vast amounts of information and is made up of separate processing units
B) computer simulations will only be able to mimic what looks like the use of a rule if the rule is explicitly stated in the simulation
C) language acquisition depends on the brain's massive capacity for parallel processing or handling many kinds of information simultaneously
D) there are hidden layers of processing that go beyond overt associations learned through reinforcement

Question 22

Which of the following would be considered a pragmatic constraint?

A) mutual exclusivity
B) poverty of the stimulus
C) shape bias
D) whole-object bias

Question 23

All of the following are true of vocabulary growth for most children EXCEPT:

A) the child's vocabulary initially grows at a slow rate
B) the actual vocabulary size can vary considerably across children
C) there are usually sharp spurts in vocabulary growth rather than gradual increases
D) by age 5, many children have vocabularies as large as 10,000 words

Question 24

Using a relatively small number of basic linguistic components and rules, we can create a boundless variety of unique expressions.This characteristic of language is known as:

A) creativity
B) generativity
C) naturality
D) phonology

Question 25

Linda, a toddler, says "I don't like about broccoli." Her mother responds, "You don't like broccoli but you like carrots." This is an example of:

A) motherese
B) recasting
C) rephrasing
D) semantic rephrasing

Question 26

Jane, a toddler, frequently hears imperfect speech full of false starts, interruptions, and unfinished sentences.Because she is hearing imperfect speech, some researchers would argue that this is not a sufficient basis for Jane to learn language.These researchers support the ________ argument.

A) linguistic determinism
B) poverty of the stimulus
C) principles and parameters
D) telegraphic speech

Question 27

Which of the following would be considered a conceptual constraint?

A) mutual exclusivity
B) shape bias
C) speaker's gaze
D) whole-object bias

Question 28

Which of the following statements is true about child-directed speech?

A) There is little cultural variation in the use of child-directed speech, with parents across cultures using this as the predominant style of communication.
B) Infants in all cultures prefer to listen to speech that has the characteristics of child-directed speech.
C) There is strong empirical evidence that children who hear more child-directed speech than others learn language faster.
D) There is strong empirical evidence that children who hear more child-directed speech as infants have better language skills as toddlers.

Question 29

Which of these words is a child likely to learn first?

A) dog
B) fluffy
C) poodle
D) mammal

Question 30

Researchers presented 8-month-olds with uninterrupted strings of phonemes in which particular sets of sound patterns were repeated.After listening, infants heard either familiar or unfamiliar sound sequences.The infants in this study:

A) looked longer toward the speakers when the familiar sequences played
B) looked longer toward the speakers when the novel sequences played
C) looked toward the speakers for similar amounts of time when they heard familiar and novel sequences
D) did not look toward the speakers after they had habituated to hearing strings of phonemes

Question 31

All of the following are claims of the behaviorist approach to language learning EXCEPT:

A) parents and other caregivers gradually shape infants' linguistic response patterns, which gradually become more like adult language
B) parents should respond more positively to babbles that resemble adult speech sound and more negatively to those that do not
C) parents should respond more positively as children utter strings of words that come closer and closer to adult grammatical patterns
D) bilingual and even trilingual children should acquire all their languages together at about the same time as monolingual children

Question 32

Owen is 18 months old.Which of these two-word utterances is Owen LEAST likely to make?

A) dessert eat
B) sweater chair
C) mommy read
D) more juice

Question 33

What approach to language learning is supported by Noam Chomsky?

A) behaviorist approach
B) connectionist approach
C) nativist approach
D) statistical learning approach

Question 34

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Preschoolers more often base their notions of word meanings on defining features, and elementary schoolchildren more often use characteristic features.
B) Preschoolers more often base their notions of word meanings on characteristic features, and elementary schoolchildren more often use defining features.
C) Both preschoolers and elementary schoolchildren more often base their notions of word meanings on defining features than on characteristic features.
D) Both preschoolers and elementary schoolchildren more often base their notions of word meanings on characteristic features than on defining features.

Question 35

Seven-month-olds were presented with phoneme sequences that follow a rule-based pattern, the ABA rule.The infant heard sounds like "ga ti ga." In the test phase, the infant heard new sound sequences that followed the old rule or violated the rule.The infants:

A) looked longer at speakers emitting novel patterns that followed the rule
B) looked longer at speakers emitting novel patterns that violated the rule
C) looked at the speakers for similar amounts of time if the rule was followed or violated
D) did not attend to either sequences following or violating the rule after they had habituated

Question 36

________ is a way of representing networks of associations based on computer simulations with multiple levels of associations.

A) Branching directions
B) Connectionism
C) Principles and parameters approach
D) Statistical learning

Question 37

________ argued that parents and other caregivers gradually shape infants' linguistic response patterns, which gradually become more like adult language.

A) Chomsky
B) Saffran
C) Skinner
D) Watson

Question 38

All of the following are three common types of constraints on word meaning EXCEPT:

A) conceptual
B) perceptual
C) pragmatic
D) semantic

Question 39

________ is learning based on the probability of events occurring both at the same time and in sequences over time.

A) Computational modeling
B) Fast mapping
C) Imitation
D) Statistical learning

Question 40

All of the following are characteristics of child-directed speech EXCEPT:

A) speaking at a higher pitch
B) speaking more slowly
C) speaking more quietly
D) using fewer words per sentence

Question 41

Grace is in the car with her mother.They drive by a cow in a pasture, and Grace says "horse." This is an example of:

A) connectionism
B) fast mapping
C) overextension
D) underextension

Question 42

Cindy described the rhythm and pitch of the audio recording she had just heard.She was focused on the ________ of the recording.

A) phonology
B) prosody
C) semantic organization
D) syntactical structure

Question 43

Dr.Itard studied Victor, "the wild boy of Aveyron" who was found at age 12.Which of the following is FALSE regarding Itard's findings?

A) Victor could not communicate in words when he was found.
B) Victor showed some progress in understanding language.
C) Victor, with practice, became able to speak clearly with Dr.Itard.
D) Victor appeared to have missed the critical period for language development.

Question 44

Gyms are places where individuals go to exercise.This is an example of a ________ property.

A) characteristic
B) defining
C) distinguishing
D) universal

Question 45

All of the following statements about Kanzi are true EXCEPT:

A) Kanzi was a bonobo, a rare species of primate that seems more capable of joint attention than other nonhuman primates
B) Kanzi learned language using American Sign Language
C) Kanzi's ability to understand syntax far surpassed primates in earlier studies
D) Kanzi appeared to be able to produce genuinely novel structures

Question 46

Tanay sees a ball and an object he has not previously seen before.His teacher asks Tanay to "bring me the hula hoop." Tanay will likely assume:

A) hula hoop is another name for ball
B) hula hoop refers to the new object
C) hula hoop refers to all toys including the ball and new object
D) hula hoop refers to neither the ball nor the new object

Question 47

Lucinda and her young daughter move from the United States to Germany.Lucinda's daughter quickly becomes fluent in German and many mistake her for a native speaker.Lucinda finds it more difficult to learn German and speaks with a strong accent.This suggests that:

A) children's focus on characteristic features enables them to acquire new languages more rapidly
B) children have better fast mapping skills than adults
C) there are critical periods for language acquisition
D) there is a decrease in activity of the language acquisition device

Question 48

Dr.Ladd is a linguist.She tells her class that in all languages all sentences must have a verb.This supports which principle of language development?

A) generativity
B) linguistic determinism
C) principles and parameters approach
D) universal stimulus argument

Question 49

"Jackson saw the boy who was wearing red drink from the water fountain down the hall." This is an example of:

A) horizontal branching
B) left branching
C) right branching
D) vertical branching

Question 50

Ernesto learns the word "ball." He recognizes this word applies to his ball at home as well as other balls at school and at friends' houses.This process of linking the sounds that form the word "ball" onto the concept of what a ball represents is referred to as:

A) branching
B) mapping
C) overextension
D) recasting

Question 51

All the following are examples of critical-period effects EXCEPT:

A) adults pick up vocabulary in a second language more quickly than do children due to their fast mapping skills
B) adults learning a second language may speak with an accent, whereas children learning a second language may sound like a native
C) those who learned English later in life show poorer grammatical abilities than those who learned English before their fifth birthday
D) children who grow up without human communication struggle to learn the grammatical structure of any first language at a later age

Question 52

Which of the following is FALSE regarding the Genie case study?

A) Genie was unable to speak at all.
B) Genie rapidly acquired new words, and her vocabulary continued to expand throughout the time she was studied.
C) Genie slowly mastered the structures of negations, questions, and embedded sentences.
D) Genie could perform adequately when she could rely on pragmatic cues to understand a speaker's intentions.

Question 53

Classrooms often contain desks and chairs as well as a chalkboard.These are examples of ________ properties of schools.

A) characteristic
B) defining
C) distinguishing
D) universal

Question 54

All of the following are true characteristics associated with Williams syndrome EXCEPT:

A) small upturned noses, long upper lip lengths, and small chins
B) generally cheerful and extremely sociable nature
C) below normal intelligence
D) ability to convey meaningful content through speech

Question 55

All of the following statements are true of specific language impairment (SLI) EXCEPT:

A) SLI first came to light in a single family whose members were generally intelligent but demonstrated problems using particular syntactic structures
B) several genetic defects may contribute to SLI, including some that are language specific and others that have broader, more domain-general effects
C) individuals with SLI struggle to process rapid speech sounds and have this same problem with rapid visual stimuli
D) studies of language skills and deficits in those with SLI can help inform scientific knowledge on the extent to which language skills are domain specific

Question 56

Miles is on vacation in Iceland.He sees a native say "köttur" while pointing to a white, fluffy cat with a long tail.Miles will likely assume this novel word means:

A) cat
B) fluffy
C) tail
D) white

Question 57

Gina has experienced damage to a region in the posterior part of the temporal lobe.Her semantic abilities are impaired but her syntax seems to be largely intact.Gina has experienced damage to:

A) Aphasia's area
B) Broca's area
C) Wernicke's area
D) William's area

Question 58

Hailey is visiting a friend in Hungary.She has never been to Hungary and does not speak Hungarian.Someone says "kutya" and points to a dog.How can Hailey know what the native is talking about and translate the word "kutya" correctly? This illustrates the:

A) fast mapping principle
B) linguistic relativity hypothesis
C) referential communications task
D) riddle of reference

Question 59

Marsha is learning American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language in college.Jocelyn is learning ASL in her elementary school.Which of the following statements is true?

A) Marsha and Joceyln will use different brain regions for learning ASL, and both will quickly master its structure.
B) Marsha and Joceyln will use different brain regions for learning ASL, and Jocelyn will be at an advantage at mastering some aspects of its structure.
C) Marsha and Joceyln will use the same brain regions for learning ASL, and Jocelyn will be at an advantage at mastering some aspects of its structure.
D) Marsha and Joceyln will use the same brain regions for learning ASL, and both will quickly master its structure.

Question 60

A team of researchers is looking closely at neural dissociations between brain functions that support language and those involved in other areas of cognition.This will enable them to learn about:

A) branching direction
B) domain specificity
C) language acquisition devices
D) natural language

Question 61

Explain the concept of generativity and its importance for language.

Question 62

Two children sit on opposite sides of a table, separated by a large vertical panel.One child is in charge of telling the other child how to stack a sequence of patterned blocks.This represents the ________ task.

A) egocentric speech
B) joint attention
C) referential communication
D) riddle of reference

Question 63

Joanna understands that her conversational partner is using irony in telling a story.Joanna is showing an awareness of the ________ aspects of language.

A) indirect
B) pragmatic
C) referential
D) semantic

Question 64

Describe the language acquisition device proposed by Chomsky.

Question 65

The ________ hypothesis holds that the language we speak actually controls the nature of our thoughts.

A) linguistic constraints
B) linguistic determinism
C) linguistic generativity
D) linguistic relativity

Question 66

The word "key" is masculine in German and feminine in Spanish.Franz is a native German speaker and Fernando is a native Spanish speaker.Which of these outcomes is most likely?

A) Both Franz and Fernando will tend to describe keys in feminine terms.
B) Franz will use more masculine terms to describe keys than Fernando.
C) Fernando will use more masculine terms to describe keys than Franz.
D) Both Franz and Fernando will tend to describe keys in masculine terms.

Question 67

How does child-directed speech differ from how adults talk to one another?

Question 68

Russian speakers use different words for dark blue and light blue, whereas English speakers simply use "blue" for both.Which of the following is true regarding how native English and native Russian speakers discriminate different hues of blue?

A) There is no difference in how native Russian and native English speakers discriminate blue.
B) Native Russian speakers have a subtle advantage over English speakers in the ability to discriminate between blues that take different labels in Russian.
C) Native Russian speakers have a subtle disadvantage compared to English speakers in the ability to discriminate between blues that take different labels in Russian.
D) Native Russian speakers need to constantly monitor different hues of blue to know which label to use and this weakens perceptual processes.

Question 69

All of the following are claims about language made by Vygotsky EXCEPT:

A) over the course of early development, the child internalizes her own language, making it the vehicle for thinking about the world
B) before language is internalized, the child's thoughts are entirely concrete and tied to the here and now
C) language liberates the child's thoughts by making them more abstract and therefore a more powerful way of understanding meanings and categories
D) language may facilitate thought in children by providing additional memory and attention support, but language does not affect thought in adults

Question 70

What are two limitations of behaviorist models of language learning?

Question 71

Sam sees a newspaper headline that says, "Children make nutritious snacks." He laughs because he recognizes this headline can have two different meanings.The use of double entendres is an example of:

A) indirect language
B) overextension
C) telegraphic speech
D) riddle of reference

Question 72

What are universal constraints? Provide an example.

Question 73

Piaget studied young children's ability to retell a story.His findings included all of the following EXCEPT:

A) young children did not always provide relevant background information
B) young children sometimes omitted key details from the retelling of the story
C) young children did not understand the original story and didn't know what had happened
D) young children thoroughly confused listeners who did not already know the story

Question 74

Distinguish between syntax and grammar.

Question 75

All of the following statements about bilingualism are true EXCEPT:

A) early studies tended to confound the effects of bilingualism with the effects of specific social disadvantages
B) monolingual children understand at earlier ages compared with bilingual children that words have fixed meanings
C) recent studies suggested that bilingual individuals show advantages in tasks that require a more objective understanding of language and its structures
D) several reports comparing bilingual education programs with English-immersion programs have shown little or no advantage of bilingual programs

Question 76

How does parental responsiveness affect language development?

Question 77

What is a U-shaped developmental curve and how does children's understanding of past tense forms demonstrate this pattern?

Question 78

All of the following are true of the development of narrative skills EXCEPT:

A) children do not have a sense that events should be described in temporal order until about 6 years of age
B) children younger than 6 years often omit key events from their narratives
C) five-year-olds often end their stories at the high points rather than continuing through to resolution
D) girls usually start to use context and make evaluative comments earlier than boys

Question 79

April, a toddler, is talking to her mother on the phone and points to a picture in her storybook and says "look at this." This illustrates:

A) egocentrism
B) overextension
C) telegraphic speech
D) underextension

Question 80

Differentiate between phonology and semantics.