Question 1

Based on the results of Mehler et al.'s 1988 study of language recognition patterns in newborns, you would expect to find that
A) Arabic babies can differentiate German and French sounds.
B) Russian babies can differentiate Russian and French sounds.
C) French babies cannot differentiate Russian and French sounds.
D) Russian babies cannot differentiate Russian and French sounds.

Accepted Answer

Mehler et al.'s 1988 study found that newborns can differentiate between their native language and a foreign language, indicating that Russian babies can differentiate between Russian (their native language) and French (a foreign language).

Question 2

In a head-turn preference experiment, researchers alert the child that a sound will emanate from a particular direction by
A) turning on a light in that location.
B) pointing to that location.
C) having the parent, on who's lap the child is positioned, point to that location.
D) increasing and decreasing the volume of the sounds until the child looks in that direction.

Accepted Answer

Turning on a light in the location where the sound will emanate is a common method used in head-turn preference experiments to alert the child to the direction of the sound. This visual cue helps to direct the child's attention to the appropriate location in anticipation of the auditory stimulus.

Question 3

What would be the most effective way to familiarize an infant with the head-turn preference for an experiment that investigates whether the child can differentiate between French and English words?
A) Allow the child to spend several minutes habituating to the experiment room while French and English words are presented at random from speakers in opposite corners of the room.
B) Allow the child to spend several minutes habituating to the experiment room while alternating red and green lights, but no sounds, are presented from opposite corners of the room.
C) Allow the child to spend several minutes habituating to the experiment room while a single light is presented simultaneously with a word in one or the other language from the same side of the room.
D) Allow the child to spend several minutes sitting silently on the parent's lap in the experiment room.

Accepted Answer

This option provides a clear pairing of a word with a visual stimulus (the light) and presents them simultaneously from the same side of the room, which may help the infant develop the head-turn preference. Option A may overload the infant with too much auditory input from both languages, making it difficult to establish a preference. Option B does not provide any meaningful stimuli for the infant to differentiate between. Option D does not provide any stimuli for the infant to develop a preference.

Question 4

In Jusczyk and Aslin's 1995 study, 7.5 month old babies could
A) distinguish between a word they previously heard in a sentence and a novel word.
B) not distinguish between a word they previously heard in a sentence and a novel word.
C) distinguish between a word they previously heard in the voice of their parent and a new word uttered by their parent.
D) not distinguish between a word they previously heard in the voice of their parent and a new word uttered by their parent.

Accepted Answer

The study shows that 7.5 month old babies can distinguish between a word they previously heard in a sentence and a novel word, indicating some recognition of familiar words and attention to the structure of the sentence.

Question 5

Based on the results of Bortfeld et al.'s 2005 study, you would predict that Julie, a 6-month-old, would show the most familiarity with which word in the following sentence?
Julie's hair was cut short by the stylist.
A) Hair
B) Cut
C) Short
D) Stylist

Accepted Answer

The study found that 6-month-old infants were more familiar with the beginning and end of words, and specifically with the first syllable. In the sentence given, "hair" is the first word and would therefore be the one Julie is most familiar with.

Question 6

Based on the phonotactic constraints of the English language, which nonsense word would elicit from English babies a different (longer or shorter) looking time than the others during a head-turn test?
A) Mfoenidg
B) Fsedoq
C) Fendstom
D) Eodzimdk

Accepted Answer

English has a constraint against consonant clusters at the end of syllables. "Fendstom" violates this constraint with the consonant cluster "ndst" at the end of the first syllable, which may make it sound less like a real word than the other options to English-speaking babies.

Question 7

Trochaic stress patterns _______ iambic patterns and place stress on the _______ syllable of a word.
A) are more rare than; first
B) greatly outnumber; last
C) are more rare than; last
D) greatly outnumber; first

Accepted Answer

Trochaic stress patterns greatly outnumber iambic patterns and place stress on the first syllable of a word.

Question 8

Which word would be easiest for 7.5-month-old babies of English-speaking parents to segment out of fluid speech? (Stress indicated by capital letters.)
A) WA-ter
B) be-GIN
C) po-TA-to
D) dis-CUSS

Accepted Answer

At 7.5 months, babies are most likely able to segment words with strong syllable stress, like "WA-ter," but may struggle with less stressed words, like "dis-CUSS."

Question 9

In Saffran and colleagues' 1996 study, 8-month-olds who were habituated to streams of multi-syllabic artificial words and later tested for recognition of those "words"
A) could distinguish between strings of syllables that made up a word and strings of syllables that did not.
B) could not distinguish between words and non-words.
C) used parental cues to distinguish words from non-words.
D) could distinguish between words and non-words if a researcher pointed, orienting the child.

Accepted Answer

The study found that 8-month-olds who were habituated to streams of multi-syllabic artificial words were able to distinguish between strings of syllables that made up a word and strings of syllables that did not. This suggests that infants as young as 8 months old have the ability to recognize and differentiate between linguistic units like individual words.

Question 10

Based on the findings of Saffran et al. (1996), an 8-month-old infant would be capable of segmenting language sounds presented in a continuous stream, without intonation to represent word breaks,
A) only if the stream was presented in her native language.
B) only if he was seated on his parent's lap.
C) in any language, including an artificial language, as long as the streams contained multiple repetitions of the same words in varied order.
D) in any language except artificial languages.

Accepted Answer

Saffran et al. (1996) found that infants were able to segment language sounds presented in a continuous stream, without intonation, as long as the stream contained multiple repetitions of the same words in varied order. This ability was demonstrated in infants as young as 8 months, regardless of the language presented, including artificial languages. Therefore, option C is the correct answer.

Question 11

According to Saffran et al. (1996), which of the following is true?
A) At 8 months of age, babies show sensitivity to transitional probabilities in their own language, but not one they are unfamiliar with.
B) Transitional probabilities help babies to group syllables into word-like units in the absence of any other cues.
C) Transitional probabilities are useful for identifying the most frequent words but not for predicting which syllables are likely to occur together.
D) Transitional probabilities become uninformative when combined with other cues, such as phonotactic information.

Accepted Answer

According to Saffran et al. (1996), transitional probabilities help babies to group syllables into word-like units in the absence of any other cues. Choice A is incorrect because the study found that babies showed sensitivity to transitional probabilities in both known and unknown languages. Choice C is incorrect because the study found that transitional probabilities are useful for predicting which syllables are likely to occur together, not just identifying the most frequent words. Choice D is incorrect because the study did not investigate the combination of transitional probabilities with other cues like phonotactic information.

Question 12

To investigate whether an infant is using transitional probability to cluster groups of syllables into word-like units, a researcher would present the infant with a string of _______ during the familiarization phase, and then record their gaze direction and time for words versus non-words in the test phase.
A) familiar words from their native language
B) words and non-words from a novel language
C) continuous sequences of words from a novel language appearing in various orders
D) sequences of syllables in any language that contain intonation and tonal cues

Accepted Answer

The researcher would use continuous sequences of words from a novel language to see if the infant can detect patterns and cluster syllables into word-like units based on transitional probabilities.

Question 13

Implicit knowledge is to explicit knowledge as _______ experience is to _______ experience.
A) unconscious; unconscious
B) conscious; conscious
C) conscious; unconscious
D) unconscious; conscious

Accepted Answer

Implicit knowledge is knowledge that one may not be able to articulate, while explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be easily articulated. Similarly, unconscious experiences are experiences that one may not be able to fully articulate, while conscious experiences are experiences that can be articulated. Therefore, the best choice is D, as it equates implicit knowledge with unconscious experience and explicit knowledge with conscious experience.

Question 14

Babies' seemingly miraculous ability to make sense of undifferentiated speech and segmentation of language is best characterized by their _______ ability to extract meaningful information out of what they hear.
A) conscious
B) unconscious
C) explicit
D) learned

Accepted Answer

Babies' ability to make sense of undifferentiated speech and segment language is not a conscious effort, as they lack the cognitive capacity for deliberate attention and analysis of language. Rather, it is an automatic and unconscious ability that is present from birth and develops over time. The other options (explicit and learned) imply some level of conscious effort or deliberate instruction, which is not applicable to this situation.

Question 15

In an experiment evaluating human and non-human organisms' ability to use statistical cues in environmental stimuli, you would expect to find that _______ can pick out language-specific cues from streaming speech.
A) human infants and monkeys, but not rats,
B) rats and monkeys, but not human infants,
C) only human infants
D) human infants, monkeys, and rats

Accepted Answer

Human infants, monkeys, and rats have all been shown in various studies to have the ability to pick out statistical cues from their environment, including from streams of speech or sounds. This ability is not exclusive to humans and demonstrates a broader cognitive skill across species in recognizing patterns and making predictions based on statistical regularities.

Question 16

Teinonen et al. (2009) exposed 2-day old infants to 15 minutes of speech and measured their ERP activity. Based on the findings of this study, you might predict that
A) newborns would be unable to detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables in a native language.
B) newborns would be able to detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables in a non-native language.
C) newborns would be unable to detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables in any language.
D) ERP is not an appropriate measure to use with infants to detect differences in transitional probabilities to auditory stimuli.

Accepted Answer

Teinonen et al. (2009) found that newborns can detect differences in transitional probabilities of syllables, indicating an innate ability to process aspects of language, including in non-native languages. This suggests that even at a very young age, infants are sensitive to statistical regularities in auditory stimuli.

Question 17

The [l] sound in the words let and slate would be referred to as a(n)
A) phoneme because it sounds significantly different across the two words.
B) allophone because it is a variant of the same phoneme in the two words.
C) allophone because it sounds significantly different across the two words.
D) bilabial because it is produced by obstructing airflow.

Accepted Answer

The [l] sound in let and slate is a variant of the same phoneme because it represents the same sound in slightly different contexts within the English language. It can be considered an allophone, which is a variant of a phoneme that does not significantly change the meaning of a word. The [l] sound is produced by placing the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge behind the teeth, not by obstructing airflow with the lips, so choice D is incorrect. Choice A is incorrect because the [l] sound does not have a significant impact on word meaning in this context.

Question 18

A fricative, labiodental, and voiced sound would most likely be made by a
A) p.
B) k.
C) v.
D) t.

Accepted Answer

The description "fricative, labiodental, and voiced" best matches the sound of the letter V.

Question 19

_______ contains a fricative, whereas _______ contains an affricate.
A) Mole; cola
B) Xylophone; jury
C) Ripe; dole
D) Male; female

Accepted Answer

In option B, "xylophone" contains the fricative sound /ks/ while "jury" contains the affricate sound /dʒ/. All the other options contain no fricative or affricate sounds.

Question 20

The word stove contains which types of sounds?
A) Affricate and glide
B) Oral stop and nasal stop
C) Affricate and nasal stop
D) Fricative and glide

Accepted Answer

The word "stove" contains a fricative sound /s/ and a glide sound /oʊ/.

Quiz 3: Learning Sound Patterns

Based on the results of Mehler et al.'s 1988 study of language recognition patterns in newborns, you would expect to find that

In a head-turn preference experiment, researchers alert the child that a sound will emanate from a particular direction by

What would be the most effective way to familiarize an infant with the head-turn preference for an experiment that investigates whether the child can differentiate between French and English words?

In Jusczyk and Aslin's 1995 study, 7.5 month old babies could

Based on the results of Bortfeld et al.'s 2005 study, you would predict that Julie, a 6-month-old, would show the most familiarity with which word in the following sentence? Julie's hair was cut short by the stylist.

Based on the phonotactic constraints of the English language, which nonsense word would elicit from English babies a different (longer or shorter) looking time than the others during a head-turn test?

Trochaic stress patterns _ iambic patterns and place stress on the _ syllable of a word.

Which word would be easiest for 7.5-month-old babies of English-speaking parents to segment out of fluid speech? (Stress indicated by capital letters.)

In Saffran and colleagues' 1996 study, 8-month-olds who were habituated to streams of multi-syllabic artificial words and later tested for recognition of those "words"

Based on the findings of Saffran et al. (1996) , an 8-month-old infant would be capable of segmenting language sounds presented in a continuous stream, without intonation to represent word breaks,

According to Saffran et al. (1996) , which of the following is true?

Implicit knowledge is to explicit knowledge as _ experience is to _ experience.

Babies' seemingly miraculous ability to make sense of undifferentiated speech and segmentation of language is best characterized by their _______ ability to extract meaningful information out of what they hear.

In an experiment evaluating human and non-human organisms' ability to use statistical cues in environmental stimuli, you would expect to find that _______ can pick out language-specific cues from streaming speech.

Teinonen et al. (2009) exposed 2-day old infants to 15 minutes of speech and measured their ERP activity. Based on the findings of this study, you might predict that

The [l] sound in the words let and slate would be referred to as a(n)

A fricative, labiodental, and voiced sound would most likely be made by a

_ contains a fricative, whereas _ contains an affricate.

The word stove contains which types of sounds?