Deck 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use

Question 1

Learning _______is considered part of semantic development.

A)how to produce the "r" sound
B)the rules of negation
C)how to take turns during conversations with others
D)the contrast between the meanings of the words "table" and "desk"

Answer 1

the contrast between the meanings of the words "table" and "desk"

Question 2

Children's semantic development refers to their learning of the:

A)meaning system and words of their language.
B)cultural rules for how their language is used.
C)rules for combining the words in their language.
D)sound system of their language.

Answer 2

meaning system and words of their language.

Question 3

Which of the following statements about nonhuman primates' ability to learn language is true?

A)Nonhuman primates have essentially no ability to learn how to use words to communicate.
B)Nonhuman primates can learn vocabulary and simple sentence structure, but the communicative system they can acquire is not generally considered to be a language.
C)Nonhuman primates naturally use language to communicate with other members of their species,although their languages are not as complex as humanlanguages.
D)Nonhuman primates do not have the vocal apparatus for producing speech, but when they are taught a sign language, they are able to learn a complex language.

Answer 3

Nonhuman primates can learn vocabulary and simple sentence structure, but the communicative system they can acquire is not generally considered to be a language.

Question 4

Learning ________is considered part of pragmatic development.

A)how to produce the "r" sound
B)the rules of negation
C)how to take turns during conversations with others
D)the contrast between the meanings of the words "table" and "desk"

Question 5

In the English language, /d/ and /k/ are examples of:

A)words.
B)morphemes.
C)phonemes.
D)syntax.

Question 6

Which of the following statements about the effect of brain damage on language for a right-handed individual is true?

A)Damage to the left hemisphere does not result in any language impairments.
B)Damage to any part of the left hemisphere results in similar language impairments.
C)Left-hemisphere damage does not cause impairment for individuals whose language is a sign language.
D)Damage to Broca's area results in a language-
production impairment.

Question 7

Which of the following types of language development is NOT necessary for a person learning a sign language?

A)syntactic
B)semantic
C)pragmatic
D)metalinguistic
E)All of the listed types of language development are necessary.

Question 8

The average 6-year-old child is ____the average college student at the basic grammatical structure of his or her native language.

A)much less competent than
B)slightly less competent than
C)as competent as
D)more competent than

Question 9

In the English language, "walked" contains "walk" and "ed," which are both:

A)words.
B)morphemes.
C)phonemes.
D)syntax.

Question 10

Children's syntactic development refers to their learning of the:

A)meaning system and words of their language.
B)cultural rules for how their language is used.
C)rules for combining the words in their language.
D)sound system of their language.

Question 11

In the English language, syntactic development involves learning the difference between:

A)"tree" and "grass."
B)"tree" and "trees."
C)"tree" and "bee."
D)"The tree is growing in the grass" and "The grass is growing in the tree."
E)"The bees are in the tree" and "The bees are in the grass."

Question 12

For the majority of people who are right-handed, language is primarily represented in:

A)the left hemisphere of the brain.
B)the right hemisphere of the brain.
C)the left and right hemispheres of the brain equally.
D)either hemisphere of the brain, as individuals differ greatly as to which part of their brain controls language.

Question 13

Morphemes refer to the:

A)rules for combining words of a language.
B)elementary units of sound.
C)pairs of words in a language that have the same
sound but different meanings.
D)smallest units of meaning.

Question 14

Language is:

A)neither species-specific nor species-universal.
B)species-specific.
C)species-universal.
D)both species-specific and species-universal.

Question 15

_______is NOT a symbol.

A)Spoken language
B)Picture
C)Map
D)Facial expression
E)Written alphabet

Question 16

The cultural practice of referring to ships as female is an example of something an individual would learn with_________ development.

A)semantic
B)phonological
C)metalinguistic
D)pragmatic
E)syntactic

Question 17

Erin knows that languages generally have a way to express numbers, that sentences generally contain multiple words, and that some languages use sounds that are not part of her native language. Clearly, Erin has _______knowledge.

A)metalinguistic
B)comprehension
C)pragmatic
D)semantic

Question 18

The notion that an infinite number of sentences and ideas can be expressed through language is referred to as:

A)production.
B)generativity.
C)construction.
D)infinitivity.

Question 19

Children's phonological development refers to their learning of the:

A)meaning system and words of their language.
B)cultural rules for how their language is used.
C)rules for combining the words in their language.
D)sound system of their language.

Question 20

Understanding what other people say is referred to as language:

A)comprehension.
B)knowledge.
C)construction.
D)production.

Question 21

Which of the following statements about infants' ability to distinguish between speech sounds is true?

A)Newborns can discriminate only between speech sounds they have heard before.
B)Newborns possess an innate ability to discriminate between speech sounds they have never heard before.
C)Babies must learn to distinguish between speech sounds as they learn which contrasts are important for their native language.
D)Babies gain the ability to distinguish between speech sounds that are not used in their native language as they mature.

Question 22

The period before approximately age 5 is considered the________ period for language development.

A)critical
B)acceptable
C)exclusive
D)suitable

Question 23

The characteristic intonation patterns, tempo, rhythm, and cadence with which a language is spoken are referred to as:

A)harmony.
B)melody.
C)accent.
D)prosody.

Question 24

Of behavioral tests and measurements of ERPs, ____have demonstrated that infants are able to discriminate among sounds not found in their native language.

A)only behavioral tests
B)only measurements of ERPs
C)neither behavioral tests nor measurements of ERPs
D)both behavioral tests and measurements of ERPs

Question 25

Which of the following statements about children who are exposed to two languages from birth is NOT true?

A)Children exposed to two languages often confuse the grammar of the two languages.
B)Children exposed to two languages often initially lag behind monolingual children on some language measures.
C)Children exposed to two languages tend to perform better than monolingual children on cognitive measures.
D)Children exposed to two languages correctly use the phonological systems of each language to pronounce words in that language and not words in the other language.

Question 26

Adults perceive speech sounds:

A)continuously.
B)in their native language categorically; they experience speech sounds not in their native language continuously.
C)categorically, perceiving all phonemic categories
used in human language.
D)categorically, perceiving only phonemic contrasts used in their native language.

Question 27

Liana, a 6-month-old infant, Joshua, a 9-month-old infant, and Sadie, an 11-month-old infant, all live in English-speaking homes in English-speaking communities. Which of the babies is likely to be best at discriminating among sounds that are found in Mandarin Chinese but are not found in English?

A)Liana
B)Joshua
C)Sadie
D)Liana and Joshua are likely to be equally able to discriminate among Mandarin Chinese sounds, and
they will both be more able than Sadie.
•Joshua and Sadie are likely to be equally able to discriminate among Mandarin Chinese sounds, and
they will both be more able than Liana.
•The three babies are likely to be equally able to discriminate among Mandarin Chinese sounds.

Question 28

Research has demonstrated that 7-month-old infants who were less able to detect differences not important in their native language in comparison to the differences important in their native language scored ______on some tests of language skills at later ages than did infants whose detection ability was equal for both sets of differences.

A)similarly
B)higher
C)slightly lower
D)a great deal lower

Question 29

Which of the following statements is an indicator that babbling by older infants depends on experience?

A)Babies babble sounds that are not in their native language.
B)Deaf infants babble vocally and manually.
C)French adults were able to distinguish between babbling by babies from French-speaking families and babbling by babies from Arabic- and Cantonese- speaking families.
D)All of the answers are indicators that babbling by older infants depends on experience.

Question 30

Infants' sensitivity to the distributional properties of the speech they hear helps them:

A)pick words out of speech streams.
B)differentiate between speech sounds and nonspeech sounds.
C)pay more attention to their mothers' speech than to other people's speech.
D)All of the answers are correct.

Question 31

Infants are sensitive to which of the following properties of their native language?

A)stress pattern
B)distributional properties
C)distinctions between speech sounds
D)All of the answers are correct.

Question 32

Experiments conducted by Anne Fernald on 8-month- olds' comprehension of the meaning of the emotional tone of their mothers' speech indicated that:

A)infants this age cannot differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech.
B)although infants this age can differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech, they do not behave as if they comprehend the meaning of the emotional tone.
C)infants this age behave as if they comprehend the meaning of the emotional tone of their mothers' speech.
D)infants this age can adapt their behavior to the emotional tone of their mothers' speech only if the content of the speech is consistent with the emotional tone.

Question 33

Which of the following statements about the results of Janet Werker's research on 6- to 12-month-old infants' ability to distinguish between speech sounds that are not important in their native language is true?

A)Infants of all ages were able to distinguish between the speech sounds.
B)Infants of all ages were unable to distinguish between the speech sounds.
C)Infants 6 to 8 months old were unable to distinguish between the speech sounds, but 10- to 12-month-olds were able to make the distinctions.
D)Infants 6 to 8 months old were able to distinguish between the speech sounds, but 10- to 12-month-olds were unable to make the distinctions.

Question 34

Which of the following statements is the best advice for parents who want their child to learn a second language?

A)As long as the child is exposed to the second language for an extended period of time, it does not matter when exposure to the language begins.
B)Wait to expose the child to a second language until he or she is old enough to be motivated to learn the language.
C)Expose the child to the second language as early as possible.
D)Begin exposure to the second language well after you are sure the child has learned the native language completely and proficiently.

Question 35

Johnson and Newport's study of the English proficiency of Korean and Chinese immigrants in the United States demonstrated that knowledge of English grammar was associated with:

A)the length of time individuals had lived in the United States.
B)the age at which individuals began learning English.
C)the individuals' motivation to learn English.
D)the length of time individuals had lived in the United States and the age at which individuals began learning English.

Question 36

Which of the following phrases does NOT describe a characteristic of babbling by older infants?

A)independent of experience
B)repeated simple consonant-vowel combinations
C)can be vocal or manual
D)similar rhythm and intonation patterns as native
language

Question 37

Which of the following speech sounds is least likely to be uttered by an infant who has not yet begun to babble?

A)goo
B)gaga
C)aaah
D)oooh

Question 38

Which of the following statements about infant- directed speech is NOT true?

A)Infant-directed speech affects the speed of early language development.
B)Infant-directed speech is necessary for language mastery.
C)Infants learn new words better when the words are presented in infant-directed speech.
D)Adults learn new words in a foreign language better when the words are presented in infant-directed speech.
E)All of the statements are true.

Question 39

Which of the following statements about infant- directed talk is true?

A)Infant-directed talk is used in all cultures.
B)Infant-directed talk is only used by mothers.
C)American mothers tend to use more extreme infant- directed talk than do mothers in other cultures.
D)Infant-directed talk applies only to spoken languages; sign language by deaf mothers does not have any characteristics of infant-directed talk.
E)All of the statements about infant-directed talk are true.

Question 40

Which of the following statements is evidence of a critical period for language development?

A)Deaf adults who learned ASL as their native language are more proficient than those who learned ASL as a second language.
B)The "wild child," Genie, eventually learned to comprehend and speak English after intensive training.
C)Adults are more likely than children to suffer permanent language impairment from brain damage.
D)The length of time Chinese and Korean immigrants had been in the United States was more strongly associated with their English proficiency than was the age at which they had come to the United States.

Question 41

The mother of 9-month-old Kara is pointing at an object while she talks about it. What is Kara MOST likely to do while her mother speaks?

A)look all around the room
B)look at her mother's mouth
C)look at her mother's pointed finger
D)look in the direction in which her mother's finger is pointing
E)point in the same direction as her mother is pointing

Question 42

Which of the following words is the least likely first word for an American English-speaking child?

A)dada
B)run
C)kitty
D)car

Question 43

Which type of word is generally the most prominent among the first words American English-speaking children learn?

A)noun
B)verb
C)adjective
D)preposition

Question 44

______is NOT an example of a way in which adults help toddlers learn words.

A)Putting vocal stress on new words
B)Repeating new words
C)Saying new words in the first position in a sentence
D)Labeling objects when the child is attending to them

Question 45

Which of the following utterances is an example of holophrastic speech?

A)"Milk"
B)"Need milk."
C)"Got milk?"
D)"Can I please have some milk?"

Question 46

Generally, the first word infants can recognize is:

A)mama.
B)dada.
C)bottle.
D)their own name.

Question 47

Which of the following statements about infants' early word production is NOT true?

A)The proportion of nouns in very young children's vocabulary is related to the proportion of nouns in their mothers' speech to them.
B)The rate of vocabulary development is associated with the amount of speech infants hear.
C)One-word utterances typically have the same meaning as adults' single words.
D)Highly educated mothers have children with larger vocabularies than those of children of less-educated mothers.

Question 48

A study by Baldwin in which an experimenter showed18-month-olds two novel objects and then concealed them in containers demonstrated that children:

A)use adults' focus of attention as a cue to word meaning.
B)are influenced by the grammatical category of new words.
C)often make assumptions about the meaning of new words.
D)are unable to use intentionality when interpreting the meaning of novel words.

Question 49

Infants generally begin to associate words with their referents:

A)at 2 months of age.
B)at 18 months of age.
C)by trial-and-error babbling.
D)well before they can produce any words.
•with explicit instruction by their caregivers.

Question 50

The period in which infants use one word at a time is referred to as the:

A)pragmatic period.
B)period of telegraphic speech.
C)period of overextension.
D)holophrastic period.
E)period of nouncentric speech.

Question 51

Which of the following statements about the vocalizations and babbling of deaf infants is true?

A)Until approximately 6 months of age, the vocalizations of deaf infants are similar to those of hearing infants.
B)The vocal babbling of deaf infants begins at the same time as that of hearing babies.
C)Deaf infants exposed to ASL begin babbling
manually at about 12 months of age.
D)All of the statements are true.
E)None of the statements is true.

Question 52

The study demonstrating that French adults were able to distinguish between babbling by babies from French-speaking families and babbling by babies from Arabic- and Cantonese-speaking families supports the notion that:

A)babies babble a range of sounds that are in their own language, as well as sounds that are not in their own language.
B)babbling is independent of experience.
C)babbling eventually takes on the sounds and patterns of the language that infants hear daily.
D)babbling includes simplistic words from the babies' native language.

Question 53

Holistic style refers to:

A)tending to analyze the speech stream and first uttering isolated, monosyllabic words.
B)beginning to talk comparatively quite late, but then suddenly saying a large number of words,
C)joining in adult conversations with perfect intonational patterns but few recognizable words.
D)spending a great deal of time attempting to determine what adults are speaking about

Question 54

Parents of which of the following toddlers should be most concerned by their child's language development?

A)Ricky, who speaks only with isolated, monosyllabic utterances
B)Abigail, who comprehends few of her parents' utterances
C)Isaac, whose utterances have good intonation patterns but few recognizable words
D)Brenda, who is nearly silent but who understands much of her parents' speech

Question 55

Which of the following statements about word recognition and comprehension is true?

A)Infants can recognize words before they can comprehend them.
B)Infants can comprehend words before they can
recognize them.
C)Infants recognize words simultaneously to
comprehending them.
D)Infants differ in terms of the relative timing of word
recognition and comprehension.

Question 56

Referential style refers to:

A)tending to analyze the speech stream and first uttering isolated, monosyllabic words.
B)beginning to talk comparatively quite late but then suddenly saying a large number of words,
C)joining in adult conversations with perfect intonational patterns but few recognizable words.
D)spending a great deal of time attempting to determine what adults are speaking about

Question 57

Infants' preparation for speaking includes:

A)practice producing sounds.
B)games like peek-a-boo.
C)following an adult's gaze when the adult is talking.
D)All of the answers are correct.

Question 58

Which of the following lists represents the correct order in which infants acquire language?

A)recognize words, produce words, comprehend words
B)recognize words, comprehend words, produce words
C)comprehend words, produce words, recognize words
D)produce words, recognize words, comprehend words

Question 59

Intersubjectivity refers to:

A)judgments made across time periods.
B)the sharing of a common focus of attention by two individuals.
C)the ability of an infant to determine the meanings of words from the context.
D)the use of the grammatical structure of an entire sentence to figure out meaning.

Question 60

Baby Reginald is holding a new toy. As he holds it, his father says, "ball," repeatedly. Baby Reginald must figure out whether the word "ball" describes the object he is holding, the color of the object, the sound the object makes when it is squeezed, or the way the object moves on and off the floor when he drops it. Baby Reginald is encountering the problem of:

A)reference.
B)intersubjectivity.
C)orientation.
D)prosody.

Question 61

Which of the following statements about toddlers and word order is true?

A)Children in the telegraphic speech phase are as likely to say two words in the correct order for their native language as to say the two words in the wrong order.
B)Children know about the correct order for word combinations before they put two words together
themselves.
C)Children learn about word order through trial and error.
D)Word order is consistent across most languages of the world, so children's appropriate use of word order is experience-independent.

Question 62

Which of the following lists names the periods of language development in the correct chronological order?

A)telegraphic speech, holophrastic speech, three-word utterances, complex sentences
B)telegraphic speech, holophrastic speech, complex sentences, three-word utterances
C)holophrastic speech, telegraphic speech, complex sentences, three-word utterances
D)holophrastic speech, telegraphic speech, three-word utterances, complex sentences
E)holophrastic speech, complex sentences, telegraphic speech, three-word utterances

Question 63

Which of the following phrases is an example of overregularization?

A)referring to all four-legged animals as "doggie"
B)calling a rabbit "wabbit"
C)using the word "gooses"
D)using the word "elbow" to refer to a knee

Question 64

Toddler Arielle sees a baby being tickled by a boy and hears her mother say, "The boy is tickling the baby." Arielle has never heard anyone use the word "tickling." Arielle figures out that "tickling" is what the boy is doing to the baby, not what the baby is doing (laughing and waving her arms in delight), through: ______.

A)syntactic bootstrapping.
B)intersubjectivity.
C)fast mapping.
D)attending to the linguistic category of the novel word.

Question 65

Toddler Arielle sees a baby being tickled by a boy and hears her mother say, "The boy is tickling the baby."Arielle has never heard anyone use the word "tickling." What is Arielle's train of thought likely to be?

A)Arielle will not consider what the word "tickling" refers to, as young children are unable to determine the meaning of a word after a single exposure.
B)Arielle will know that the word "tickling" is
relevant to the scene she has just witnessed, but she will not be able to determine whether "tickling" refers to what the boy did, what the baby did, or what the two of them did together.
C)Arielle will believe that "tickling" refers to what the baby did.
D)Arielle will believe that "tickling" refers to what the boy did.

Question 66

When preschool children were shown a picture of a catlike animal and an experimenter either simply labeled the animal "dog" (Group A) or said, "You're not going to believe this, but this is actually a dog" (Group B), how likely were the children to extend the word to other catlike stimuli?

A)Both groups of children readily extended the word.
B)Both groups of children were similarly reluctant to extend the word.
C)Group A was more reluctant than Group B to extend the word.
D)Group B was more reluctant than Group A to extend the word.

Question 67

Children's first sentences can often be described as:

A)holophrastic speech.
B)telegraphic speech.
C)overregulated speech.
D)narratives.
•pragmatic speech.

Question 68

Children are MOST likely to extend a novel noun to a novel object with the same:

A)texture.
B)shape.
C)color.
D)size.

Question 69

Which of the following cues would a young child be incapable of using when interpreting the meaning of a novel word used by an adult?

A)where the adult is looking or pointing
B)whether the novel word was used as a noun, an
adjective, or a verb
C)the intentionality of the adult using the novel word
D)Young children are capable of using all these cues to word meaning.

Question 70

Imagine that a young child is presented with a novel word, "encyclopedia," when her grandmother says, "Oh, look at the encyclopedia." In front of the child are two objects, a bright pink-covered book-"book" is a word the child already knows-and a green onion, an object the child has never seen before. The child is MOST likely to make the assumption that the novel word refers to the:

A)book.
B)pages of the book.
C)onion.
D)color of the onion.

Question 71

Which of the following expressions is an example of telegraphic speech?

A)"Mommy!"
B)"Want Mommy!"
C)"I need my Mommy!"
D)"Mommy, would you please come here?"

Question 72

The study by Brown in which preschool children were shown hands kneading material in a container demonstrated that young children tend to interpret "some sib" as:

A)the material.
B)the container.
C)the act of kneading.
D)any of the answers.

Question 73

Which of the following is the most developmentally advanced utterance?

A)"Read book"
B)"Am reading book"
C)"Book!"
D)"Me read book"

Question 74

Toddler Seth calls all his stuffed animals, including teddy bears, bunnies, dogs, and ducks, "bear." When shown pictures of a teddy bear and a toy stuffed rabbit and asked to point to the bear, which of the following behaviors is Seth's MOST likely response?

A)He will point to both the rabbit and the bear.
B)He will point to neither the rabbit nor the bear.
C)He will point to only the bear.
D)It is unclear whether he will point to the bear or the rabbit, but he will point to one and only one of the objects.

Question 75

Syntactic bootstrapping refers to children's use of the_______ as a cue to figure out the meaning of a novel word?

A)focus of adults' attention
B)linguistic category of the novel word
C)structure of the whole sentence
D)contrastive use of a familiar and unfamiliar word

Question 76

Which of the following statementsis an example of an overextension?

A)Julia uses the word "cup" for any container that holds liquid, including vases and birdbaths.
B)Elizabeth substitutes easier sounds for ones that are hard to say, such as "tuck" for "stuck."
C)Eddie expresses his desire for his parents to read to him by using a single word, "book."
D)Robbie leaves out difficult parts of words, as when he uses "tend" for the word "pretend."

Question 77

Children typically move from_______ -word utterances to forming complex sentences.

A)one
B)two
C)three
D)four

Question 78

Children's overregularization errors are an indicator that they:

A)use words they are able to produce in place of those they are not yet able to produce.
B)internalize grammatical rules.
C)are able to remove the nonessential elements of speech to reduce the number of words per utterance.
D)memorize the plural forms of individual nouns and the tenses of individual verbs.
E)make random guesses about the structures of words.

Question 79

The first time John hears the word "adults" is when his father explains to him that the locked cabinet is for "adults, not children." John uses the contrastive use of the familiar word "children" with the unfamiliar word "adults" to learn this new word. John has learned the new word by a process referred to as:

A)overextension.
B)fast mapping.
C)holophrastic learning.
D)referencing.

Question 80

Which of the following phrases is MOST likely to be spoken by a child in the telegraphic speech phase?

A)"More cup"
B)"A dog"
C)"Up me"
D)"Baby sleep"