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Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

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Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Infants adapt to speaking rate differences in word segmentation.

Yuanyuan Wang¹, Fernando Llanos², Amanda Seidl³

¹Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43202, USA.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

|May 4, 2017

Summary

Fourteen-month-old infants can recognize words in fast-paced speech, suggesting they use context to adapt to varying speaking rates. This developmental ability is not present in younger, 11-month-old infants.

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

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Published on: April 19, 2017

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Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Speech Perception
Cognitive Science

Background:

Infants encounter diverse speaking rates during language acquisition.
Understanding word recognition across variable speech rates is crucial for development.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate infants' ability to recognize words in continuous speech despite variations in speaking rate.
To explore the mechanisms infants use to cope with different speaking rates.

Main Methods:

Four experiments utilized the Headturn Preference procedure.
Infants were familiarized with passages at normal, fast, or slow speaking rates.
Word recognition was tested using familiar and unfamiliar trisyllabic words.

Main Results:

Fourteen-month-olds, but not 11-month-olds, successfully recognized target words in fast-rate passages.
Infants demonstrated an ability to normalize speech across different speaking rates.
Contextual information appears to aid in processing variable speech rates.

Conclusions:

Speech perception in infants is adaptable to speaking rate variations by 14 months of age.
Infants employ contextual cues to overcome challenges posed by different speaking rates.
This study highlights a key developmental milestone in early language processing.