Author: Caterina Marino
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The purpose of this work is to explore how infants perceive surface features of language at different levels of processing. Specifically, in both typical and atypical populations, we examined 1) the processing of low-level auditory cues and its relationship with later language outcomes and 2) the sensitivity to word frequency to create abstract linguistic representations of lexical categories and their relative word order. Accordingly to bootstrapping models learners are able to extract abstract, structural and hence directly unobservable properties of the target language from perceptually available surface cues in the input that correlate with the underlying structure. Indeed, infants are sensitive to certain acoustic and phonological properties of the speech input, which in turn correlate with specific grammatical/syntactic structures. In order to map the link between the perception of these low-level, surface cues and more abstract grammatical knowledge, this work is organized in two main parts. In the first part, two longitudinal studies are reported. Each infant received an auditory discrimination threshold task (using the rapid auditory processing paradigm) followed by a habituation/visual novelty detection task used as a control for general cognitive skills. The auditory discrimination threshold was evaluated using non-linguistic (tones) sounds in one cohort of infants and linguistic sounds (syllables) in another cohort of infants at 9 months in order to investigate the language-specificity of the process within the auditory modality. Subsequently, infants' vocabulary was assessed at 12-14-18 and 24 months and a cognitive test (Mullen scale) was performed at 18-20 months as another control measure for early processing competence. Results show that early processing abilities are predictive of later vocabulary size in typical infants. Importantly, atypical participants exhibited slower and less efficient processing abilities in both visual and acoustic modality. In the second part, the role of word frequency in bootstrapping the basic lexical categories of function and content words and their relative order is explored. The two lexical categories differ in their linguistic functions, phonological makeup and frequency of occurrence. Thus, their frequency-based discrimination could constitute a powerful initial mechanism for infants to acquire the basic building blocks of language. As functors constitute closed classes, while content words come in open classes, we examined whether 8 month-old French monolinguals relied on word frequency to categorize and track functors as non-replaceable items in a closed class, and content words as freely replaceable items in open classes. In five artificial grammar-learning experiments we have found that infants treat frequent words as belonging to closed classes, and infrequent words as belonging to open classes and they map the relative order of these categories onto the basic word order of their native language, French, a functor-initial language. Importantly, atypical participants showed lower ability of discrimination, encoding and memory when compared to typically developing peers. Overall this work contributes to a better understanding of the perceptual abilities that directly contribute to language development. Moreover, it proposes possible behavioural markers that can be potentially useful in the early identification of atypical learners.
Author: Dan Isaac Slobin
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317768868
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 973
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Book Description
An essential handbook for professionals and advanced students in the field. Volume 1 contains comprehensive studies on the acquisition of 15 different languages (from ASL to Samoan) -- written by top researchers on each topic. Volume 2 concentrates on theoretical issues, emphasizing current linguistic and psycholinguistic research. Unique in its approach toward individual languages and in its comparative perspective, this book is a hallmark of a rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary, international research.
Author: Patricia J. Brooks
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483346439
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 785
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Book Description
The progression from newborn to sophisticated language user in just a few short years is often described as wonderful and miraculous. What are the biological, cognitive, and social underpinnings of this miracle? What major language development milestones occur in infancy? What methodologies do researchers employ in studying this progression? Why do some become adept at multiple languages while others face a lifelong struggle with just one? What accounts for declines in language proficiency, and how might such declines be moderated? Despite an abundance of textbooks, specialized monographs, and a couple of academic handbooks, there has been no encyclopedic reference work in this area--until now. The Encyclopedia of Language Development covers the breadth of theory and research on language development from birth through adulthood, as well as their practical application. Features: This affordable A-to-Z reference includes 200 articles that address such topic areas as theories and research tradition; biological perspectives; cognitive perspectives; family, peer, and social influences; bilingualism; special populations and disorders; and more. All articles (signed and authored by key figures in the field) conclude with cross reference links and suggestions for further reading. Appendices include a Resource Guide with annotated lists of classic books and articles, journals, associations, and web sites; a Glossary of specialized terms; and a Chronology offering an overview and history of the field. A thematic Reader’s Guide groups related articles by broad topic areas as one handy search feature on the e-Reference platform, which includes a comprehensive index of search terms. Available in both print and electronic formats, Encyclopedia of Language Development is a must-have reference for researchers and is ideal for library reference or circulating collections.
Author: Judit Gervain
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889194159
Category : Child psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 119
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Book Description
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a novel and increasingly popular optical imaging technique that has revolutionarized brain research in the youngest developmental populations. After nearly a decade of technological development, NIRS has become a reliable, easy-to-use and efficient tool to explore the linguistic and cognitive abilities of neonates and young infants, opening new vistas for the investigation of language acquisition and cognitive development. This Research Topic covers the latest advances in these areas brought about by NIRS imaging. The main focus is to highlight innovative and foundational studies that go beyond methodological issues and advance our theoretical understanding of infant and child development. Contributions from the pioneers of this method are selected, illustrating how NIRS has allowed developmental researchers to ask theoretically relevant questions that more traditional methods couldn't address. These works further our understanding of language and cognitive development and bring us closer to bridging the gap between brain, mind and behavior at the very beginning of life
Author: Yonata Levy
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
Author: William Damon
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470050543
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1072
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Book Description
Part of the authoritative four-volume reference that spans the entire field of child development and has set the standard against which all other scholarly references are compared. Updated and revised to reflect the new developments in the field, the Handbook of Child Psychology, Sixth Edition contains new chapters on such topics as spirituality, social understanding, and non-verbal communication. Volume 2: Cognition, Perception, and Language, edited by Deanna Kuhn, Columbia University, and Robert S. Siegler, Carnegie Mellon University, covers mechanisms of cognitive and perceptual development in language acquisition. It includes new chapters devoted to neural bases of cognition, motor development, grammar and langauge rules, information processing, and problem solving skills.
Author: Carolyn Rovee-Collier
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135661596
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
The Progress in Infancy Research Series is dedicated to the presentation of innovative and exciting research on infants, both human and animal. Each volume in the series is designed to stand alone and contains autonomous chapters which are based on high quality programs of research with infants. These chapters integrate the work of the authors with that of other experts working in the same or related areas. The authors wish to present high quality critical syntheses bearing on infant perception and sensation, learning and memory processes, and other aspects of development. This series will be a forum for the presentation of technological breakthroughs, methodological advances, and new integrations that might create platforms for future programmatic work on the complexities of infant behavior and development. Each volume in the series is dedicated to an outstanding investigator whose research has illuminated the nature of infant behavior and development, and whose contributions to the field have been of seminal importance.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Computer vision
Languages : en
Pages : 952
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Book Description
Author: Mike Darnell
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027230447
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 520
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Book Description
The 23rd UWM Linguistics Symposium (1996) brought together linguists of opposing theoretical approaches functionalists and formalists in order to determine to what extent these approaches really differ from each other and to what extent the approaches complement each other. The two volumes of Functionalism and Formalism in Linguistics contain a careful selection of the papers originally presented at the symposium. Volume I includes papers discussing the two basic approaches to linguistics; with contributions by: Werner Abraham, Stephen R. Anderson, Joan L. Bybee, William Croft, Alice Davidson, Mark Durie, Ken Hale, Michael Hammond, Bruce P. Hayes, Nina Hyams, Howard Lasnik, Brian MacWhinney, Geoffrey S. Nathan, Daniell Nettle, Frederick J. Newmeyer, Edith A. Moravcsik, Doris Payne, Janet Pierrehumbert, Kathleen M. Wheatley. Volume II consists of case studies which draw upon the strengths of both approaches and thus help to bridge the gap between the two camps; with contributions by: Mira Ariel, Melissa Axelrod, Robbin Clamons, Bernard Comrie, Kees Hengeveld, Erika Hoff-Ginsberg, James Hurford, Lizanne Kaiser, Nicholas Kibre, Simon Kirby, Feng-hsi Liu, André Meinunger , Viola Miglio, Ann Mulkern, Waturu Nakamura, Maria Polinsky, Elizabeth Purnell, Gerald Sanders, Nancy Stenson, Maggie Tallerman, Ronnie Wilbur.
Author: Aditi Lahiri
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110422654
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
In this book, some of today’s leading neurolinguists and psycholinguists provide insight into the nature of phonological processing using behavioural measures, computational modeling, EEG and fMRI. The essays cover a range of topics including categorization, acoustic variability and invariance, underspecification, talker-specificity and machine learning, focusing on the acoustics, perception, acquisition and neural representation of speech.
