Test Bank
Chapter 4: The Science and Theory of Language Development
Multiple Choice
1. Researchers who study ___________________________ typically present auditory stimuli to
participants and measure their response to the stimuli.
a. Language comprehension
b. Speech perception
c. Language production
d. Speech production
2. ______________________________ allow researchers to conduct direct, real-time
investigations of speech perception by identifying the exact areas of the brain where speech
perception occurs.
a. Tachistoscopic studies
b. Observational studies
c. Brain-imaging studies
d. Experimental studies
3. ______________________________ link brain areas to the type of auditory stimuli they
process.
a. Tonotopic maps
b. Neurologic maps
c. Audiological maps
d. Central auditory maps
4. In ______________________________, experts compile data from multiple individuals on a
certain aspect of language development and chart the ages by which children meet certain
milestones.
a. Experimental studies
b. Observational studies
c. Normative research
d. Ethnographic interviews
5. For prelinguistic infants, researchers generally use ____________________________ as a
measure of language comprehension.
a. Head-turn preference
b. Pointing
c. High amplitude nonnutritive sucking
d. Visual fixation
6. _____________________________ rest on the notion that humans gain all knowledge
through experience.
a. Modularity theories
b. Nurture-inspired theories
c. Nativist theories
d. Nature-inspired theories
7. _____________________________ generally hold that much knowledge is innate and
genetically transmitted rather than learned by experience.
a. Modularity theories
b. Nurture-inspired theories
c. Empiricist theories
d. Nature-inspired theories
8. ______________________________ theories lie somewhere between the nature and nurture
ends of the continuum.
a. Empiricist
b. Interactionist
c. Nativist
d. Modularity
9. In ______________________________, behaviors that are reinforced become strengthened,
and behaviors that are punished become suppressed.
a. Social-interactionist theory
b. The punishment-reward paradigm
c. Bootstrapping theories
d. Operant conditioning
10. _____________________________ describes the system of grammatical rules and
constraints consistent in all world languages, as proposed by Noam Chomsky.
a. Universal grammar
b. The language instinct
c. The language acquisition device
d. Linguistic performance
11. _____________________________ describes the process by which children use the
syntactic frames surrounding unknown verbs to successfully constrain or limit the possible
meanings of the verbs.
a. Syntactic bootstrapping
b. Semantic bootstrapping
c. Pragmatic bootstrapping
d. Prosodic bootstrapping
12. With ____________________________, children deduce grammatical structures by using
word meanings they acquire from observing events around them.
a. Syntactic bootstrapping
b. Semantic bootstrapping
c. Pragmatic bootstrapping
d. Prosodic bootstrapping
13. ______________________________ suggests infants use their sensitivity to the acoustic
properties of speech to make inferences about units of language.
a. Syntactic bootstrapping
b. Semantic bootstrapping
c. Pragmatic bootstrapping
d. Prosodic bootstrapping
14. The ____________________________ is the difference between a child’s actual
developmental level and his or her level of potential development.
a. Psychological plane
b. Social plane
c. Zone of proximal development
d. Social interactionist gap
15. According to the _____________________________, children must take strides to engage in
social interaction and then must put forth effort to construct linguistic representations for the
ideas they want to express and then act to express those ideas.
a. Intentionality model
b. Cognitive theory
c. Competition model
d. Connectionist model
16. Overgeneralization, as in when children learning language make an irregular past tense verb
regular by adding a past tense morpheme, illustrates how the
__________________________ works.
a. Usage-based theory
b. Competition model
c. Connectionist theory
d. Intentionality model
17. ________________________________ are related to an individual’s confidence with
language learning and his or her propensity to take risks with respect to language.
a. Cognitive principles
b. Affective principles
c. Linguistic principles
d. Executive principles
18. ________________________________ describe the role of a person’s native language in
simultaneously facilitating and interfering with second language acquisition.
a. Cognitive principles
b. Affective principles
c. Linguistic principles
d. Executive principles
19. The goal of __________________________ is to inhibit language difficulties from
emerging.
a. Prevention
b. Intervention
c. Screening
d. Treatment
20. ________________________________ is the process through which professionals provide
children, adolescents, and adults with an enhanced language-learning environment.
a. Intervention
b. Remediation
c. Enrichment
d. Therapy
Essay
1. What is the difference between basic research and applied research?
2. Name two human reflexes that researchers examining speech perception can take advantage
of.
3. What is the difference between observational studies conducted in naturalistic versus
semistructured settings.
4. Briefly discuss linguistic competence and linguistic performance in the context of Universal
Grammar.
5. Explain the cognition hypothesis as it relates to language develop.
6. Describe networks of nodes and connections in terms of the connectionist model.
7. Why is intention reading important?
8. How do the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology incorporate evidence-based
practice?
ANSWER KEY
Chapter 4: The Science and Theory of Language Development
Multiple Choice
