Which of the following statements about language acquisition is correct?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question asks which statement about language acquisition is correct, but the provided data only includes one candidate statement and provides no list of alternative options to compare against.

Option presented: 'For both adults and children, word segmentation is achieved in part by tracking transitional probabilities.'

To evaluate this, consider what is known about word segmentation and statistical learning. In infancy research, learners (including infants) are shown to use statistical regularities, such as transitional probabilities between syllables, to segment continuous speech into words. This demonstrates that statistical learning supports word segmentation early in development.

Extending this idea to adults, research also indicates that adults can rely on transitional probabilities and other statistical cues to segment speech, especially in unfamiliar or continuous speech streams, though they may also rely on lexical knowledge, prosody, and context differently than children. Thus, the mechanism of tracking transitional probabilities contributing to word segmentation is supported for both groups, albeit perhaps with varying reliance or weighting of cues.

Because there are no other answer options provided to evaluate against, we cannot judge the correctness of alternatives. However, assuming the test item intended this single statement as the correct one, the reasoning aligns with the general consensus that transitional probability tracking plays a role in word segmentation for both children and adults, making the statement plausible as correct.

Note on formatting: since there are no other options listed, there is no additional option-specific reasoning to contrast or refute. If additional choices were given, each would require separate justification or refutation to satisfy the comparison requirement.

PSYC20008_2025_SM1 Cognitive Development Lecture Quiz

Which of the following statements about language acquisition is correct?

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