Mini essay exam 2

Please use information from the readings, lectures, and in-class discussions to inform your answers. You’re welcome to look up other sources, but you should always cite anything you use (even readings from our course).

Avoid long and/or frequent direct quotations and focus on sources. Your source citations do not count toward your maximum word count.

Writing a grant to study the noun bias (500–750 words)

Imagine that you are writing to the university to secure funding so that you can conduct an study on word learning. Your application will be reviewed by three professors in the social sciences, but you don’t know who. Explain the following: (a) what is the noun bias?, (b) what evidence exists for the noun bias?, (c) what are the reasons given to explain the noun bias, (d) where does the noun bias idea fall short (i.e., what doesn’t it account for)? Then, (e), give a brief description of the study you are proposing. Novelty: Your study should not just replicate findings we discussed in class but extend them or re-examine them in some way. You can think of any study you want—it’s hypothetical after all—including bringing kids into the lab to run experiments, giving parents questionnaires, making recordings of natural interaction, testing different populations than we have seen in class, some combination of these things, you name it! Just make sure that your study somehow addresses an open question or shortcoming in the noun bias literature, as we have covered it in class. Please make explicit references to studies as needed (include at least two).

Unexpected connections (300–500 words)

Connect two readings from different modules that we have covered so far (e.g., pattern recognition and cognitive biases, or cognitive biases and maturation, or pattern recognition and maturation). Briefly summarize each of the readings. Then lay out, in specific terms, how you see them as interconnected with respect to language learning theory. Share at least one issue or open question that arises for you when you consider the joint lessons of these two readings.