Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which certain stimuli trigger automatic sensations. Having synesthesia is linked to enhanced memory and language acquisition. Grapheme-color synesthesia...Show moreSynesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which certain stimuli trigger automatic sensations. Having synesthesia is linked to enhanced memory and language acquisition. Grapheme-color synesthesia is relatively rare: 1.5% of the population experiences letters in colors. However, recent evidence suggests that synesthesia can also be acquired through training (pseudo-synesthesia). It is an open question whether the benefits to language learning seen in synesthesia also apply to pseudo-synesthetes. As part of a larger study testing the effectiveness of synesthesia training for L2 learning, this paper strives to answer the novel question of whether the training is more beneficial for learning certain languages: either a similar (Greek) or a dissimilar alphabet (Arabic). In the current study, Native Dutch participants were trained to make letter-color associations for a subset of Latin graphemes and were afterward taught Greek or Arabic letters and their pronunciations through tasks with feedback. Some L2 letters could be linked via shape or sound to a Dutch letter that was trained in synesthetic color (“transfer possible”), whereas others were linked to a Dutch letter associated with no color (“transfer impossible”). Synesthesia training improved language learning if the L2 letters in the “transfer possible” condition were learned more quickly than those in the “transfer impossible” condition. The results suggest that synesthesia training improves language learning, but contrary to the initial prediction, it helped the participants who learned Arabic more than the ones who learned Greek. Possible reasons for this difference are discussed, and it is concluded that further research is needed. Can we then assume that similar alphabets are indeed not learned faster than dissimilar ones after being trained in pseudo-synesthesia?Show less
Word-final clusters have been reported to develop earlier than word-initial clusters for children learning English (Kirk & Demuth, 2005),German (Lleo & Prinz, 1996), and Dutch (Levelt, et...Show moreWord-final clusters have been reported to develop earlier than word-initial clusters for children learning English (Kirk & Demuth, 2005),German (Lleo & Prinz, 1996), and Dutch (Levelt, et al.,2000). This is opposite to the development of singleton consonants which generally develop in word-initial position first, e.g. /m, n, t/ (Mennen et al., 2006). In this study I investigated the possible role of frequency in the acquisition of consonant onset and coda clusters. The hypothesis was that the frequency of the input of adult child-directed speech which here was a child’s name (repeated by caregivers many times a day and directly to a child) influences the child’s ability to acquire certain type of consonant clusters. Ideally Floortje would acquire onset clusters before codas and Max would acquire coda clusters before onset ones. The evidence collected however, suggests that there is no immediate association between a child’s name and the acquisition of consonant clusters in words. So here, the frequency accounts do not seem to provide a satisfactory explanation for the two way developmental path of cluster acquisition. Nevertheless, the research may be treated as a pilot study and will hopefully stimulate further exploration of the problem.Show less
Personal pronouns are deictic terms which, unlike most other words, are characterized by the lack of a stable reference. They shift the referent with every change of speaker in a conversation. In...Show morePersonal pronouns are deictic terms which, unlike most other words, are characterized by the lack of a stable reference. They shift the referent with every change of speaker in a conversation. In the process of language acquisition, children have to discover how to comprehend and produce personal deixis correctly, which demands knowledge of speech roles. To study this process, researchers have focused mainly on pronoun analysis. In this thesis, we suggest that turn taking can also be used for this purpose, since this interactional system constitutes the context where language is learned. We analysed turn taking competence, role reversing competence and correct personal deixis production in typically developing and autistic children. Our results showed different performance between groups, and suggest that turn taking competence is positively correlated with correct deixis production. To sum up, this is the first study to point out the importance of children's competence in turn taking to measure and study personal deixis acquistion.Show less
Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) is a powerful experimental paradigm for testing specific hypotheses about language acquisition but is limited because of its reliance on meaningless grammatical...Show moreArtificial Grammar Learning (AGL) is a powerful experimental paradigm for testing specific hypotheses about language acquisition but is limited because of its reliance on meaningless grammatical structures. Meanwhile, formal and computational semantics provide rigorous ways to define and calculate meanings for formal languages, but are typically only used to describe or simulate the linguistic competence of adult speakers. This thesis attempts to connect these two fields by proposing a new type of AGL experiment that uses a language with both a context-free syntax and a formally defined semantics which can be used to express spatial relationships between objects. Moreover, using a computer simulation in which an Intelligent Agent (IA) acquires such a language, it shows how this new paradigm can be used to test psycholinguistic hypotheses about the acquisition of both syntax and semantics.Show less
When infants have two possible rules that they can discover in an artificial language, a prosodic rule and a structure rule, which one do they discover and does this change with development? Prior...Show moreWhen infants have two possible rules that they can discover in an artificial language, a prosodic rule and a structure rule, which one do they discover and does this change with development? Prior studies on infants’ cue weighing suggest a preference for prosodic cues for eight-month-old infants, and a preference for structure for ten-month-old infants when segmenting speech. Using a Headturn Preference Procedure with adapted stimuli from Spierings and ten Cate (2014), we compared looking times for a prosody and structure test condition. We found condition did not have a significant effect on looking time. However, ten-month-old infants had significantly longer looking times compared to the eight-month-old infants. We also found a significant difference for gender, suggesting that female infants have a preference for a different cue to discover underlying language patterns than males.Show less
Prosody and structure are important cues for infants when they are learning a language. In this thesis, I investigated which of these two cues infants of seven months old find more salient. A Head...Show moreProsody and structure are important cues for infants when they are learning a language. In this thesis, I investigated which of these two cues infants of seven months old find more salient. A Head-Turn Preference procedure was used in both Experiment 1a and Experiment 1b to see whether infants found an inconsistent prosody pattern or inconsistent structure pattern compared to a familiarized pattern more interesting. Results revealed that infants had a longer looking time for the inconsistent prosody pattern than for the inconsistent structure, which indicates a stronger interest for the inconsistent prosody. If infants have a novelty preference, which is commonly assumed, this would mean that infants rely more on prosodic cues than structural cues. Whether or not this is the case will be examined further in Experiment 2. Also the points of improvement for Experiment 1 and the design of how Experiment 2 is conducted are discussed.Show less
