Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

Children need to understand that a map is both a physical object (a piece of paper) and a symbolic representation of real-world locations and features.

Question 2

Neural-network accounts of language development are also referred to as:

Accepted Answer

Neural-network accounts of language development are often referred to as connectionist models, which emphasize the role of neural connections and learning from environmental input.

Question 3

Imagine that the family of a friend of yours is planning a move to Japan. Your friend has three children-an infant, a 4-year-old, and a 10-year-old. Will the children become more or less proficient in Japanese than the adults in the family? Why? Will all the children become similarly proficient, or will the children's proficiency differ? If so, how will it differ among the children and why? Describe at least two pieces of evidence from research on language to support your answers.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Imagine that the family of a friend...

Question 4

Researchers with an interactionist view of language development would be most interested in:

Accepted Answer

Interactionists focus on how social interactions and context contribute to language development, making children's ability to use social context to interpret speech particularly relevant.

Question 5

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:

Accepted Answer

The study showed that young children struggle with scale models because they have trouble understanding that the model represents something else, which is a problem with dual representation.

Question 6

Describe three pieces of evidence supporting the notion of a critical period for language acquisition. What implications does this evidence have for exposing congenitally deaf children to a sign language?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe three pieces of evidence supporting the...

Question 7

Which of the following views of language development holds that only general-purpose cognitive mechanisms are necessary for language learning?

Accepted Answer

The connectionist view suggests that language learning can be explained by general cognitive processes and patterns of connections in the brain, without the need for specialized language-specific mechanisms.

Question 8

Which of the following skills is necessary for a child to draw a house?

Accepted Answer

All of these skills are needed because drawing a house requires the ability to symbolize (representing a house through drawing), planning (deciding how to structure the drawing), and spatial coordination (arranging elements in the drawing correctly).

Question 9

Researchers with a connectionist view of language development would be most interested in:

Accepted Answer

Connectionist researchers focus on how language is learned through patterns and connections in the brain, which relates to children's overregularization errors as they apply learned rules to new situations.

Question 10

The finding that infants pay attention to the speaker's intentions when interpreting the meaning of the speaker's words supports which of the______ view of language development.

Accepted Answer

The interactionist view suggests that language development is influenced by the interaction between biological and social factors, including the speaker's intentions.

Question 11

The most common drawing subject for young children is a:

Accepted Answer

Young children often draw people as their first subject because they are familiar and significant figures in their lives.

Question 12

Describe the concepts of intersubjectivity and joint attention, and explain how they relate to language development. Provide an example of each one and explain how it will be likely to help the development of language.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the concepts of intersubjectivity and joint...

Question 13

Describe the characteristics of older infants' babbling.
Are these characteristics independent of or dependent on experience? Explain and provide examples to support your position.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the characteristics of older infants' babbling.
Are...

Question 14

Individuals with autism who have extraordinary drawing abilities are interesting to researchers because of the support they lend to:

Accepted Answer

Individuals with autism who have extraordinary drawing abilities support the modularity hypothesis, which suggests that certain cognitive processes or abilities are localized in specific modules of the brain, functioning independently from other cognitive processes.

Question 15

Can nonhuman primates learn language? Provide a brief description of research done on this topic and what the general results have been. Discuss three differences between human and nonhuman communicators.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Can nonhuman primates learn language? Provide a...

Question 16

According to Tomasello's interactionist view of language development, language is:

Accepted Answer

Tomasello's interactionist view emphasizes that language is a social tool developed through interaction and communication, aligning with the idea of social conventions.

Question 17

_______is an example of a symbolic activity?

Accepted Answer

Drawing a picture involves using symbols to represent ideas or objects, making it a symbolic activity.

Question 18

________is NOT a symbolic artifact?

Accepted Answer

All the items listed are symbolic artifacts as they represent something beyond their literal form.

Question 19

Describe the differences in the ability to differentiate among speech sounds for an infant and a 5-year-old child. What is the evolutionary purpose of the initial ability, and how does the ability change or disappear?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the differences in the ability to...

Question 20

In studies by DeLoache and her colleagues, 2½-year- olds who cannot use the information from the scale model to find the large version of the toy in the large room are having trouble representing the model as:

Accepted Answer

The children are having trouble understanding the model as a symbol that represents something else, which is why they cannot use it to find the toy in the larger room.

Quiz 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use