Developmental Psychology
Language Development Game
Outline of Concepts in Game
Phonemes
Whole-Object Constraint
Word / Naming Explosion
Over-Extension & Under-Extension
Pragmatics
Developmental Theories of Language
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How the Game Works
Your goal is to form a language.
Since we only have a class period, your language will use
a very limited world (i.e., shapes of varying size and
color) and a very limited set of phonemes (i.e., 5).
To illustrate your competence as using your language,
one person should be able to describe a picture while
another person produces it. Though this world is far less
complicated then ours, communication is still
complicated.
Let’s try (in English).
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Your “World”
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Rules of the Game
During the game, you can only speak with your groups’
phonemes. During “time-outs” you can speak English
but you can not talk to your group-mates about the game.
You can take notes (with English) to help reduce the
working memory demands of the game. But do not show
anybody what you wrote.
At the end of class, we’ll have each group showcase their
ability to communicate in the same way we just did with
English.
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Your Phonemes
Your group gets to use 5 phonemes. Each group has a
unique set. Here’s a sample that does not match any
actual group:
ch
u
chair, beach, nature
soon, through, boot
affricate
monophthong
This means you get the sounds /ch/ and /u/. You do not
get the sound /t/ even though a ‘t” is in bold. The words
in the middle illustrate the use of the phoneme. The right
column tells you the type of phoneme; it’s how your
mouth, tongue, and vocal cords move. You can combine
your phonemes in any way. For example, you might
create a word that sounds like, “chooch.”
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What are Phonemes?
Phonemes are basic units of sound in a
language. Everybody says particular
phonemes slightly differently, but when you
say a different phoneme, you say a different
word. (e.g, “ch” is a different phoneme from
“th” as “chug” is different from “thug.”)
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Getting Ready to Play
Pull out your lists of phonemes. Remember these are
the only phonemes you can use in the game.
Now pull out a single item from your world.
When the game begins, say something using your
language before you take anything else out of the
envelope.
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and try to
communicate about the objects in your world.
The following chart helps you pace 45 minutes of game play,
including all time-in and time-out portions. With the instructions
before play and competition after play, the game can last one and
one-half hours. Remember your row & column in the chart below
for next time-in. The current time-in should last from:
#:00 to #:07
#:20 to #:27
#:40 to #:47
#:05 to #:12
#:25 to #:32
#:45 to #:52
#:10 to #:17
#:30 to #:37
#:50 to #:57
#:15 to #:22
#:35 to #:42
#:55 to #:02
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Whole Object Constraint
One thing that facilitates children’s word learning is
the biases (i.e., assumptions) they have when they
hear new words. We will see several examples of
this in our next class when we discuss fast mapping.
Children behave according a whole object
constraint. They assume that a novel word refers to
the entire object we are paying attention to, rather
than about a part or a quality of the object.
Did you follow the whole object constraint within
your group?
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your world.
The current time-in, from the same row and
column as before, should last from:
#:11 to #:18
#:31 to #:38
#:51 to #:57
#:16 to #:23
#:37 to #:43
#:56 to #:03
#:22 to #:28
#:41 to #:48
#:01 to #:08
#:27 to #:33
#:46 to #:53
#:06 to #:13
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Language Explosion
Between speaking our first words (about 12mo - 16mo)
and starting to put together sentences (about 20mo 30mo), we go through a period where we acquire a vast
number of words (15mo - 22mo).
As children approach 2 years of age, they experience
a language explosion. They learn about 10 to 20 new
words each week. Most of those words are nouns.
Did you experience a language explosion during the
game? Were most of the words you created nouns?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your world.
The current time-in, from the same row and
column as before, should last from:
#:22 to #:29
#:42 to #:49
#:02 to #:09
#:27 to #:34
#:47 to #:54
#:07 to #:14
#:32 to #:39
#:52 to #:59
#:12 to #:19
#:37 to #:44
#:57 to #:04
#:17 to #:24
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Over-Extension & Under Extension
An over-extension or under-extension of a word’s meaning, is a
particularly common error for children as they learn new words.
An over-extension is to use a word to refer to more than its
intended referent. For example, a child may say “ball” to refer to
balls, marbles, balloons, and eggs.
An under-extension is to use a word to refer to less than its
intended referent. For example, a child may only refer to her
teddy-bear as “bear” rather than recognizing that everybody
else’s teddy-bear and real bears are also “bears.”
Were over-extensions or under-extensions a particular common
error for you during the game? Or was another kind of error
more common?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your world.
The current time-in, from the same row and
column as before, should last from:
#:33 to #:40
#:53 to #:00
#:13 to #:20
#:38 to #:45
#:58 to #:05
#:18 to #:25
#:43 to #:50
#:03 to #:10
#:23 to #:30
#:48 to #:55
#:08 to #:15
#:28 to #:35
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Pragmatics
The spy sees the police officer with the gun.
The spy sees the police officer with the binoculars.
Who has the gun, the police officer or the spy?
Who has the binoculars, the police officer or the
spy?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
Pragmatics
The spy sees the police officer with the gun.
The spy sees the police officer with the binoculars.
Who has the gun, the police officer or the spy?
Who has the binoculars, the police officer or the
spy?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
Pragmatics
The spy sees the police officer with the gun.
The spy sees the police officer with the binoculars.
Notice how the grammar of the two sentences is
exactly the same. The ability to use background
knowledge and context to understand language is
called pragmatics.
Like children, did you eventually develop
pragmatics (in this game)?
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your world.
The current time-in, from the same row and
column as before, should last from:
#:44 to #:51
#:04 to #:11
#:24 to #:31
#:49 to #:56
#:09 to #:16
#:29 to #:36
#:54 to #:01
#:14 to #:21
#:34 to #:41
#:59 to #:06
#:19 to #:26
#:39 to #:46
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Language Development Theories
Three broad kinds of developmental theories explain language
acquisition.
Nativism: special innate abilities, that may include a language
module, where acquiring language is different from other learning
Interactionism: language is fundamentally a social experience
Connectionism: Language is acquired through the regularities in
our experience and exposure.
Did you experience in today’s language game illustrate to you
how one theory might be supported or refuted?
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Time to test
your Language
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Testing your Language Development
Divide your group into two sub-groups, talkers and listeners.
The “listeners” get an envelope of the shapes. They should
face away from the blackboard.
The “talkers” face the blackboard and tell the “listeners”
what to make, using their language.
No group should look at what the others are doing.
I’ll provide the drawing on the next slide.
Then we will compare how close each group was to
reproducing the picture.
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A Picture
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