Language Learning
Language Learning - Related Videos
13:37
Language: The N400 in Semantic Incongruity
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2023
Source: Laboratories of Sarah I. Gimbel and Jonas T. Kaplan— University of Southern California Understanding language is one of the most complex cognitive tasks that humans are capable of. Given the incredible amount of possible choices when combining individual words to form meaning in sentences, it is crucial that the brain is able to identify when words form coherent combinations and when an anomaly appears that undermines meaning. Extensive research has shown that certain scalp-recorded...
06:02
Visual Statistical Learning
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2023
Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum—Johns Hopkins University The visual environment contains massive amounts of information involving the relations between objects in space and time; certain objects are more likely to appear in the vicinity of other objects. Learning these regularities can support a wide array of visual processing, including object recognition. Unsurprisingly, then, humans appear to learn these regularities automatically, quickly, and without conscious awareness. The name...
01:16
Language
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2025
Language is a unique communication system that uses words and systematic rules to organize and transmit information. Unlike other forms of communication, which may involve postures, movements, odors, or vocalizations, language relies on symbols and grammar. This makes human communication distinct from that of other species, who also communicate but do not use language in the same way humans do. Corballis and Suddendorf (2007) and Tomasello and Rakoczy (2003) highlight the role of language in...
10:11
Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism
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Cited by 32 •
2012
A reliable home-based way to assess the language comprehension of very young typically developing children, as well as those with autism, is described. The method analyzes children's eye gaze while viewing side-by-side images but hearing an audio that matches only one image. Stimuli are designed with young participants in mind.
05:18
Mutual Exclusivity: How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
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2023
Source: Laboratories of Nicholaus Noles and Judith Danovitch—University of Louisville Humans are different from other animals in many ways, but perhaps the most important differentiating factor is their ability to use language. Other animals can communicate and even understand and use language in limited ways, but trying to teach human language to a chimp or a dog takes a great deal of time and effort. In contrast, young humans acquire their native language easily, and they learn linguistic...
FAQs
Attention helps learners select relevant information from language input, such as a sound, word, grammatical form, or communicative pattern. This selection makes particular features more available for practice and later retrieval. In psychological research, attention is therefore considered alongside working memory and motivation when explaining why some aspects of input become integrated into developing language knowledge.
Working memory helps learners temporarily handle language information during exposure and use, while long-term memory preserves associations that repeated practice and retrieval can strengthen. Their interaction helps explain how initially effortful processing can support more stable knowledge. This memory perspective connects language learning with broader psychological theories of cognition and skill acquisition.
Repeated exposure can strengthen associations between language forms, but meaningful use helps learners connect those forms with meaning and communication. The distinction is important because familiarity alone does not describe how learners integrate language into usable knowledge. Psychological accounts therefore consider both the amount of input and the context in which learners practice using it.
Motivation influences learners’ engagement with input, practice, retrieval, and meaningful use, while feedback provides information during those activities. Together, they can shape how consistently learners participate and how they respond to language forms. Their inclusion in psychological research shows that language learning depends on more than memory alone, involving interacting cognitive and motivational processes.
A learning cycle can combine language input with focused attention, practice, retrieval, meaningful use, and feedback. Input provides material to process, practice and retrieval strengthen associations, and meaningful use connects forms with meaning. Feedback then informs subsequent learning activity. This sequence offers a framework for examining how cognitive processes contribute to developing language ability.
Research can guide teaching by showing how attention, working memory, motivation, long-term memory, input, practice, retrieval, and feedback interact. It can also inform assessment by identifying what learners can understand or use after these experiences. Such evidence supports approaches that examine language development through both cognitive processes and meaningful communicative performance.
Language learning provides a way to study how people acquire and use additional language systems, making it relevant to theories of bilingualism. Researchers can examine how attention, memory, motivation, and meaningful practice support developing knowledge across languages. This connection broadens the topic beyond instruction and links it to psychological questions about cognition and language use.
Psychological research identifies interacting factors that may shape how learners respond to language input and practice, including attention, working memory, motivation, and long-term memory. Considering these processes helps researchers and educators avoid treating all learners as identical. The resulting evidence can support assessments, teaching approaches, and interventions designed for differing learning needs.