Exam 10: Language

Participants are asked to view a scene in which there are two napkins (napkin A and napkin B) and a box. A frog sits on napkin A. When the participants are simply instructed "Put the frog on the napkin into the box," how do they usually respond?

Genie is perhaps the most well-known "isolated child." After years of rehabilitation, her language is similar to that of young children in some ways, but more sophisticated than young children's in other ways. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

What does evidence regarding language learning in isolated children show?

Your text describes recent brain-imaging work examining the influence of color-labeling systems on brain processing. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

Which issue poses a problem for the definitional theory of meaning?

Quianna is 1 month old. Which alternative below CORRECTLY describes her ability to distinguish sounds?

Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that a word's case is indicated in a sentence?

Which of the following clues is a youngster most likely to use to discover the meaning of the question "Can you see me fiffining?"

Your text describes a study in which eye-movement data revealed that participants looked at a cake rather than at an inedible object immediately on hearing the word eat and before the word cake was heard. The results of this study __________.

Why are garden path sentences so difficult to comprehend?

Does the relationship between language and the external environment accord with the Whorfian hypothesis? Why or why not?

What characterizes a person with Williams syndrome?

In the introduction to the "Language" chapter in your text, the authors report that the German language distinguishes between 30 different kinds of kisses. You hypothesize that German speakers can tell the difference between one kiss and another with greater accuracy than can English speakers. Is such a result consistent with the Whorfian hypothesis? Is such a hypothesis likely to be confirmed by empirical research?

What did the anthropologist Benjamin Whorf argue?

How does the evidence concerning blind children's ability to learn language align with that regarding deaf children's language acquisition with respect to the nature vs. nurture issue?

What is the name for the smallest language unit that carries meaning?

Which of the following concepts is most consistent with the basic ideas of the prototype theory of meaning?

Speech occurs at a rate of approximately __________ word(s) per second.

Your text describes a study in which eye-movement data revealed that participants looked at a cake rather than at an inedible object immediately on hearing the word eat and before the word cake was heard. The results of this study suggest an influence of language on __________.

Your text describes a study in which Korean, Japanese, and English speakers viewed pictures of objects in various configurations. Did the study find any differences between the speakers of the three languages in their perception of the pictures? Were the results consistent or inconsistent with the Whorfian hypothesis?