Deck 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use

Question 1

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

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

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Infants likely learn _____ from the distributional properties of language.

A)that the distinction between /ba/ and /pa/ is important in their language
B)the meaning of the sound produced by "ed" as in "walked"
C)that the sound /ch/ frequently comes before the sound /oo/ but never before the sound /b/
D)the meaning of the sound produced by "s" in "runs"

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The average 5-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

Answer 3

C

Question 4

David is drawing a picture of a house. Which skill is NOT necessary for him to have in order to draw a house?

A)the ability to symbolize
B)planning
C)spatial coordination
D)gross motor skills

Question 5

Which of these would NOT be considered a symbol?

A)spoken language
B)a picture
C)a map
D)a facial expression

Question 6

_____ is a way in which parents play a role in their children's grammatical development.

A)Explicit instruction of grammar
B)Filling in missing parts of incomplete utterances
C)Correcting grammatical errors
D)Direct teaching of the native language

Question 7

Research conducted by Fernald on infants' comprehension of the meaning of the emotional tone of infant-directed speech indicated that

A)infants cannot differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech.
B)although infants 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 exhibit appropriate facial emotion when listening to positively toned and negatively toned speech.
D)infants can differentiate between positively toned and negatively toned speech only in their native language.

Question 8

Language is

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

Question 9

Which word is one of the first words spoken in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese?

A)daddy
B)hi
C)milk
D)no

Question 10

Which factor is NOT involved in learning language?

A)phonological development
B)semantic development
C)pragmatic development
D)production development

Question 11

The period before approximately age 5 is considered to be the _____ period for language development.

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

Question 12

Which statement 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 with less-educated mothers.

Question 13

Dual representation refers to the notion that a symbolic artifact must be represented as both

A)a real object and something useful.
B)something useful and a depiction of something other than itself.
C)a depiction of something other than itself and a real object.
D)a communicative device and a real object.

Question 14

Infants' preparations for speaking do NOT include

A)practice producing sounds.
B)games like peekaboo.
C)following an adult's gaze when the adult is talking.
D)discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech.

Question 15

Using the distributional properties of language is an example of what type of learning?

A)statistical learning
B)habituation
C)perceptual learning
D)instrumental conditioning

Question 16

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

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

Question 17

An overly narrow interpretation of the meaning of a word is called

A)overextension.
B)underextension.
C)babbling.
D)pragmatics.

Question 18

In regard to their ability to learn language, nonhuman primates

A)have essentially no ability to learn how to use words to communicate.
B)can learn vocabulary and symbol combinations, but the communicative system they can acquire is not generally considered to be a language.
C)naturally use language to communicate with other members of their species, although their languages are not as complex as human languages.
D)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.

Question 19

Which statement about infant-directed speech is NOT true?

A)Infant-directed speech affects infants' attention to language.
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)Infants prefer infant-directed speech to adult-directed speech, even when it is in an unfamiliar language.

Question 20

Children's first sentences can often be described as _____ speech.

A)holophrastic
B)telegraphic
C)overregulated
D)pragmatic

Question 21

Which child is demonstrating overextension?

A)Mandi uses the word "cup" for any container that holds liquid, including vases and birdbaths.
B)Carla 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 22

Nate is 2 years old and is talking to his mother. Which statement is his mother MOST likely to correct?

A)"I maded this picture for you."
B)"No do that."
C)"Gooses have four legs."
D)"I wuv you."

Question 23

The distinctive mode of speech used when speaking to infants and toddlers is referred to as

A)infant-directed speech.
B)prosody.
C)pragmatics.
D)syntax.

Question 24

Which statement 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)Infants and toddlers who babble do so in their native language.

Question 25

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 26

Based on the research reviewed in the text, which statement is the BEST advice one could give new parents regarding viewing of educational videos by their infants?

A)Keep viewing under 1 hour per day.
B)There is no amount of video viewing that has been demonstrated to be valuable.
C)View educational videos with your baby.
D)Ensure that your baby watches only educational videos.

Question 27

Which statement 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 28

_____ is NOT a symbolic artifact.

A)A map
B)A scale model
C)The written word "tree"
D)A phone

Question 29

In the study by Brown cited in the text in which preschool children were shown hands kneading material in a container, young children tended to interpret "some sib" as the

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

Question 30

Which phrase 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 31

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 the

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

Question 32

Bergelson and Swingley demonstrated that when 6-month-old infants were shown pictures of common items and researchers named one item, infants

A)could point to the named item.
B)behaved the same whether the word was in their native language or not.
C)did not recognize the label.
D)looked at the correct picture more often than at the other pictures.

Question 33

When young children talk with their peers, they generally

A)speak holophrastically.
B)listen to each other's narratives.
C)take turns talking in a series of non sequiturs.
D)engage in lengthy dialogues.

Question 34

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)attend to paternal speech patterns.

Question 35

In a study by Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff, when infants were shown two videotaped scenes, one with a woman kissing keys while holding a ball and the other with a woman kissing a ball while holding keys and hearing "She's kissing the keys," infants

A)were sensitive to word order.
B)learned from syntactic bootstrapping.
C)used intention to comprehend meaning.
D)did all of these.

Question 36

The words a child can say are referred to as the child's

A)distributional properties.
B)productive vocabulary.
C)categorical perception.
D)word segmentation.

Question 37

Which ability is subject to perceptual narrowing?

A)infant-directed talk
B)sound discrimination
C)word segmentation
D)metalinguistic knowledge

Question 38

Avi is 13 months old and has a large vocabulary for her age. The words she can say are referred to as her

A)distributional properties.
B)productive vocabulary.
C)categorical perception.
D)word segmentation.

Question 39

Which of these is the LEAST convincing piece of evidence for the sensitive-period hypothesis related to language development?

A)Genie's language ability never fully developed.
B)Different neural mechanisms are used to process a second language by individuals who learned the second language in infancy and those who learned a second language after puberty.
C)The most proficient English speakers amongst immigrants to the United States are those who began learning English before age 7.
D)Adults are more likely than are children to experience permanent language impairment from brain damage.

Question 40

The fact that language learning is achieved by typically developing infants across the globe indicates that language is

A)species-specific.
B)species-universal.
C)pragmatic.
D)syntactic.

Question 41

Which utterance is the MOST developmentally advanced?

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

Question 42

Determining word meanings by tracking the correlations between labels and meanings across scenes and contexts is known as

A)the mutual exclusivity assumption.
B)fast mapping.
C)the whole-object assumption.
D)cross-situational word learning.

Question 43

Which statement about infant-directed speech is TRUE?

A)Infant-directed speech is used in all cultures.
B)Infant-directed speech is used only by mothers.
C)Infant preference for infant-directed speech may be a result of its emotional tone.
D)Infant-directed speech applies only to spoken languages; sign language by deaf mothers does not have any characteristics of infant-directed speech.

Question 44

The notion that an infinite number of sentences and ideas can be expressed through a finite set of words is referred to as

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

Question 45

Toddler Arielle sees a baby being tickled by a boy and hears her mother say, "The boy is tickling the baby." Arielle, who has never heard anyone use the word "tickling," is MOST likely

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

Question 46

What is intersubjectivity?

A)judgments made across time periods
B)when two interacting partners share a mutual understanding
C)infants' ability to determine meanings of words from context
D)use of the grammatical structure of an entire sentence to figure out meaning

Question 47

Which speech sound 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 48

Which statement 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 49

The number of words children know is NOT related to

A)the number of words that they hear.
B)their caregivers' vocabularies.
C)their socioeconomic status.
D)their genetic predisposition to acquire language.

Question 50

The study by DeLoache and her colleagues that used a "shrinking room" demonstrated that young children's trouble with scale models is due to their

A)trouble dealing with dual representation.
B)inability to remember the location of a hidden toy.
C)poor imagination skills.
D)difficulty comprehending the meaning of maps.

Question 51

In the English language, the _____ is an example of a morpheme.

A)word "called"
B)plural "s"
C)sound /th/
D)/r/ sound

Question 52

According to Noam Chomsky, babies are born with

A)a learning module that controls language acquisition and other aspects of cognitive functioning.
B)knowledge of the specific sounds involved in language.
C)knowledge of the general grammatical rules of all languages.
D)a genetic predisposition to acquire non-native language.

Question 53

Which idea is NOT used as evidence to support nativist views of language development?

A)Children acquire language very rapidly and with no direct instruction.
B)Nonhumans are unable to learn language.
C)Children are motivated to use language to communicate with others.
D)Groups of deaf children not exposed to language invented their own sign language.

Question 54

Descriptions of past events that have the basic structure of a story are referred to as

A)collective monologues.
B)anecdotes.
C)cooperative dialogues.
D)narratives.

Question 55

A study by Baldwin in which an experimenter showed 18-month-olds two novel objects and then concealed those objects 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 incorrect assumptions about the meaning of new words.
D)are unable to use intentionality when interpreting the meaning of novel words.

Question 56

_____ refers to the fact that certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others in language.

A)Distributional properties
B)Voice onset time
C)Categorical perception
D)Word segmentation

Question 57

Research examining groups of deaf children who had no exposure to formal spoken or signed languages has demonstrated that

A)children rarely go beyond the linguistic input they receive.
B)although children sometimes go beyond the linguistic input they receive, their spontaneous language remains far from qualifying as a true language.
C)children do go beyond the linguistic input they receive, and their spontaneous language can develop into a true language.
D)children who are not exposed to a formal language are unable to comprehend or produce language.

Question 58

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

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

Question 59

The fact that only humans acquire language in the normal course of development indicates that language is

A)species-specific.
B)species-universal.
C)pragmatic.
D)syntactic.

Question 60

The study by Eimas and colleagues that examined infants' comprehension of speech sounds demonstrated that 1- and 4-month-old infants differentiated between

A)/pa/ with a VOT of 60 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 80 ms.
B)/ba/ with a VOT of 20 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 40 ms.
C)/pa/ with a VOT of 20 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 40 ms.
D)/ba/ with a VOT of 60 ms and /pa/ with a VOT of 80 ms.

Question 61

Which type of word is generally the MOST prominent amongst the first words English-speaking children learn?

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

Question 62

Which word is generally the first word spoken by infants who speak English?

A)daddy
B)hi
C)milk
D)no

Question 63

The length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating is referred to as

A)prosody.
B)voice onset time.
C)categorical perception.
D)word segmentation.

Question 64

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.

Question 65

To use a map, children must be able to understand it as

A)a piece of paper with lines and pictures.
B)a representation of real roads and buildings.
C)both a piece of paper and a representation of something real.
D)a valuable symbolic artifact.

Question 66

Branson and Amanda want to make sure that their child speaks both English and Spanish. Which statement is the BEST advice for these parents?

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 67

Imagine that a young child is presented with a novel word, "puppy," when her uncle says, "What a sweet puppy" In front of the child are two objects, a stuffed dog-"dog" is a word the child already knows-and a can opener, an object the child has never seen before. The child makes the assumption that the novel word refers to the can opener through an expectation referred to as

A)the mutual exclusivity assumption.
B)fast mapping.
C)the whole-object assumption.
D)cross-situational word learning.

Question 68

Which cue would a young child NOT be able to use 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 interpret word meaning.

Question 69

Samantha is experiencing a "vocabulary spurt." How old is she likely to be?

A)6 months
B)12 months
C)18 months
D)24 months

Question 70

Which bit of conversation is an example of a narrative?

A)"Grandma, please take me to the park.I want to go to the park and do the twisty slide."
B)"Daddy and I went to the park today.I went on the big twisty slide."
C)"Yay, I love the park.This twisty slide is so much fun."
D)"Kelsey said she will take me to the park tomorrow.I am going to go down the twisty slide."

Question 71

A broad interpretation of the meaning of a word is referred to as

A)overextension.
B)underextension.
C)babbling.
D)pragmatics.

Question 72

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

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

Question 73

Theorists who have disputed Chomsky's view of language development by pointing out that the communicative function of language is key to understanding language development would be MOST interested in

A)electrical activity in the brain taking place while speaking.
B)deaf children's development of their own sign language with a regular grammatical structure in the absence of language exposure.
C)children's ability to use social context to interpret others' speech.
D)the statistical regularities of speech.

Question 74

The phenomenon that in any language, certain sounds are more likely to occur together than are others is referred to as

A)prosody.
B)pragmatics.
C)word segmentation.
D)distributional properties.

Question 75

When caregivers follow the baby's lead, looking at and commenting on whatever the infant is looking at, _____ has occurred.

A)judgement
B)orientation
C)joint attention
D)prosody

Question 76

Steffy is a baby who uses "baby signs." It can be expected that she

A)may be deaf.
B)will experience delays in the development of spoken language.
C)is emotionally disturbed.
D)will have a larger spoken vocabulary at age 3.

Question 77

Which of these skills typically develops LATEST?

A)reciprocal conversation
B)comprehension of multiple meanings of words
C)ability to use information about others' perspectives in conversation
D)production of narratives

Question 78

Studies of congenitally deaf children who had never been exposed to any formal sign language demonstrated that the children

A)learned only a small number of "homesigns," and did so by modelling their parents.
B)invented only a small number of "homesigns" to communicate just their basic needs.
C)spontaneously imposed a rudimentary grammar using their "home signs."
D)combined their "home signs" in a structure similar to that of their parents' spoken language.

Question 79

Which of these has been established by studying people's response to speech sounds?

A)stress patterns
B)distributional properties
C)distinctions between speech sounds
D)all of these

Question 80

Which of these factors is NOT a pragmatic cue?

A)focus of the speaker's attention
B)grammatical category of the word
C)speaker's intention
D)speaker's emotional response