The linguistic genius of babies
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0:01 - 0:04I want you to take a look at this baby.
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0:04 - 0:09What you're drawn to are her eyes
and the skin you love to touch. -
0:09 - 0:13But today I'm going to talk to you
about something you can't see. -
0:13 - 0:15What's going on
up in that little brain of hers. -
0:16 - 0:20The modern tools of neuroscience
are demonstrating to us -
0:20 - 0:24that what's going on up there
is nothing short of rocket science. -
0:25 - 0:28And what we're learning
is going to shed some light -
0:28 - 0:34on what the romantic writers and poets
described as the "celestial openness" -
0:34 - 0:36of the child's mind.
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0:37 - 0:40What we see here is a mother in India,
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0:40 - 0:44and she's speaking Koro,
which is a newly discovered language. -
0:45 - 0:47And she's talking to her baby.
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0:47 - 0:48What this mother --
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0:48 - 0:51and the 800 people who speak
Koro in the world -- -
0:52 - 0:55understands is that,
to preserve this language, -
0:55 - 0:57they need to speak it to the babies.
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0:57 - 1:00And therein lies a critical puzzle.
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1:00 - 1:03Why is it that you can't
preserve a language -
1:03 - 1:06by speaking to you and I, to the adults?
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1:06 - 1:08Well, it's got to do with your brain.
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1:09 - 1:13What we see here is that language
has a critical period for learning. -
1:13 - 1:17The way to read this slide is to look
at your age on the horizontal axis. -
1:17 - 1:20(Laughter)
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1:20 - 1:23And you'll see on the vertical
your skill at acquiring a second language. -
1:24 - 1:28The babies and children are geniuses
until they turn seven, -
1:28 - 1:30and then there's a systematic decline.
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1:30 - 1:32After puberty, we fall off the map.
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1:33 - 1:35No scientists dispute this curve,
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1:35 - 1:37but laboratories all over the world
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1:37 - 1:40are trying to figure out
why it works this way. -
1:41 - 1:45Work in my lab is focused on the first
critical period in development, -
1:45 - 1:46and that is the period in which babies
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1:46 - 1:50try to master which sounds
are used in their language. -
1:50 - 1:52We think, by studying
how the sounds are learned, -
1:52 - 1:55we'll have a model
for the rest of language, -
1:55 - 1:58and perhaps for critical periods
that may exist in childhood -
1:58 - 2:00for social, emotional
and cognitive development. -
2:01 - 2:03So we've been studying the babies
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2:03 - 2:06using a technique
that we're using all over the world -
2:06 - 2:07and the sounds of all languages.
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2:07 - 2:09The baby sits on a parent's lap,
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2:09 - 2:12and we train them to turn
their heads when a sound changes -- -
2:12 - 2:14like from "ah" to "ee."
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2:14 - 2:17If they do so at the appropriate time,
the black box lights up -
2:17 - 2:19and a panda bear pounds a drum.
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2:19 - 2:22A six-monther adores the task.
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2:22 - 2:23What have we learned?
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2:23 - 2:26Well, babies all over the world
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2:26 - 2:29are what I like to describe
as "citizens of the world." -
2:30 - 2:33They can discriminate
all the sounds of all languages, -
2:33 - 2:36no matter what country we're testing
and what language we're using, -
2:36 - 2:39and that's remarkable
because you and I can't do that. -
2:39 - 2:41We're culture-bound listeners.
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2:41 - 2:43We can discriminate the sounds
of our own language, -
2:43 - 2:45but not those of foreign languages.
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2:45 - 2:48So the question arises:
When do those citizens of the world -
2:48 - 2:51turn into the language-bound
listeners that we are? -
2:51 - 2:54And the answer:
before their first birthdays. -
2:54 - 2:58What you see here is performance
on that head-turn task -
2:58 - 3:00for babies tested in Tokyo
and the United States, -
3:00 - 3:01here in Seattle,
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3:02 - 3:03as they listened to "Ra" and "la" --
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3:03 - 3:06sounds important to English,
but not to Japanese. -
3:06 - 3:10So at six to eight months,
the babies are totally equivalent. -
3:10 - 3:12Two months later,
something incredible occurs. -
3:12 - 3:15The babies in the United States
are getting a lot better, -
3:15 - 3:17babies in Japan are getting a lot worse,
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3:17 - 3:20but both of those groups of babies
are preparing for exactly the language -
3:20 - 3:22that they are going to learn.
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3:22 - 3:26So the question is: What's happening
during this critical two-month period? -
3:26 - 3:29This is the critical period
for sound development, -
3:29 - 3:30but what's going on up there?
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3:30 - 3:32So there are two things going on.
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3:32 - 3:35The first is that the babies
are listening intently to us, -
3:35 - 3:39and they're taking statistics
as they listen to us talk -- -
3:39 - 3:41they're taking statistics.
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3:41 - 3:43So listen to two mothers
speaking motherese -- -
3:43 - 3:46the universal language
we use when we talk to kids -- -
3:46 - 3:49first in English and then in Japanese.
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3:49 - 3:52(Video) Ah, I love your big blue eyes --
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3:52 - 3:55so pretty and nice.
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3:56 - 4:02(Japanese)
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4:02 - 4:06Patricia Kuhl: During the production
of speech, when babies listen, -
4:06 - 4:11what they're doing is taking statistics
on the language that they hear. -
4:11 - 4:14And those distributions grow.
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4:14 - 4:19And what we've learned is that babies
are sensitive to the statistics, -
4:19 - 4:23and the statistics of Japanese
and English are very, very different. -
4:23 - 4:25English has a lot of R's and L's.
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4:25 - 4:27The distribution shows.
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4:27 - 4:30And the distribution of Japanese
is totally different, -
4:30 - 4:33where we see a group
of intermediate sounds, -
4:33 - 4:35which is known as the Japanese "R."
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4:35 - 4:39So babies absorb
the statistics of the language -
4:39 - 4:41and it changes their brains;
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4:41 - 4:43it changes them
from the citizens of the world -
4:43 - 4:46to the culture-bound
listeners that we are. -
4:46 - 4:51But we as adults are no longer
absorbing those statistics. -
4:51 - 4:54We are governed
by the representations in memory -
4:54 - 4:56that were formed early in development.
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4:56 - 4:58So what we're seeing here
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4:58 - 5:01is changing our models
of what the critical period is about. -
5:01 - 5:04We're arguing from
a mathematical standpoint -
5:04 - 5:07that the learning of language
material may slow down -
5:07 - 5:10when our distributions stabilize.
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5:10 - 5:12It's raising lots of questions
about bilingual people. -
5:13 - 5:17Bilinguals must keep two sets
of statistics in mind at once -
5:17 - 5:20and flip between them,
one after the other, -
5:20 - 5:22depending on who they're speaking to.
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5:22 - 5:23So we asked ourselves,
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5:23 - 5:26can the babies take statistics
on a brand new language? -
5:26 - 5:30And we tested this
by exposing American babies -
5:30 - 5:31who'd never heard a second language
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5:31 - 5:34to Mandarin for the first time
during the critical period. -
5:34 - 5:38We knew that, when monolinguals
were tested in Taipei and Seattle -
5:38 - 5:40on the Mandarin sounds,
they showed the same pattern. -
5:40 - 5:43Six to eight months,
they're totally equivalent. -
5:43 - 5:45Two months later,
something incredible happens. -
5:45 - 5:49But the Taiwanese babies are getting
better, not the American babies. -
5:49 - 5:54What we did was expose American babies,
during this period, to Mandarin. -
5:54 - 5:57It was like having Mandarin relatives
come and visit for a month -
5:57 - 6:01and move into your house
and talk to the babies for 12 sessions. -
6:01 - 6:03Here's what it looked like
in the laboratory. -
6:03 - 6:08(Mandarin)
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6:25 - 6:27PK: So what have we done
to their little brains? -
6:27 - 6:29(Laughter)
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6:29 - 6:32We had to run a control group to make sure
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6:32 - 6:35that coming into the laboratory
didn't improve your Mandarin skills. -
6:35 - 6:38So a group of babies came in
and listened to English. -
6:38 - 6:39And we can see from the graph
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6:39 - 6:42that exposure to English
didn't improve their Mandarin. -
6:42 - 6:45But look at what happened to the babies
exposed to Mandarin for 12 sessions. -
6:45 - 6:48They were as good as the babies in Taiwan
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6:48 - 6:51who'd been listening
for 10 and a half months. -
6:51 - 6:55What it demonstrated is that babies
take statistics on a new language. -
6:55 - 6:58Whatever you put in front of them,
they'll take statistics on. -
6:58 - 7:00But we wondered what role
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7:00 - 7:04the human being played
in this learning exercise. -
7:04 - 7:08So we ran another group of babies
in which the kids got the same dosage, -
7:09 - 7:11the same 12 sessions,
but over a television set. -
7:11 - 7:15And another group of babies
who had just audio exposure -
7:15 - 7:17and looked at a teddy bear on the screen.
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7:17 - 7:19What did we do to their brains?
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7:19 - 7:22What you see here is the audio result --
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7:23 - 7:25no learning whatsoever --
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7:25 - 7:26and the video result --
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7:27 - 7:29no learning whatsoever.
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7:29 - 7:33It takes a human being
for babies to take their statistics. -
7:34 - 7:36The social brain is controlling
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7:36 - 7:38when the babies
are taking their statistics. -
7:38 - 7:41We want to get inside the brain
and see this thing happening -
7:41 - 7:45as babies are in front of televisions,
as opposed to in front of human beings. -
7:45 - 7:50Thankfully, we have a new machine,
magnetoencephalography, -
7:50 - 7:51that allows us to do this.
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7:51 - 7:54It looks like a hair dryer from Mars.
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7:54 - 7:59But it's completely safe,
completely noninvasive and silent. -
7:59 - 8:01We're looking at millimeter accuracy
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8:01 - 8:04with regard to spatial
and millisecond accuracy -
8:04 - 8:07using 306 SQUIDs --
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8:07 - 8:10these are superconducting
quantum interference devices -- -
8:10 - 8:14to pick up the magnetic fields
that change as we do our thinking. -
8:14 - 8:20We're the first in the world
to record babies in an MEG machine -
8:20 - 8:22while they are learning.
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8:22 - 8:24So this is little Emma.
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8:24 - 8:26She's a six-monther.
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8:26 - 8:31And she's listening to various languages
in the earphones that are in her ears. -
8:31 - 8:33You can see, she can move around.
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8:33 - 8:37We're tracking her head
with little pellets in a cap, -
8:37 - 8:40so she's free to move
completely unconstrained. -
8:40 - 8:42It's a technical tour de force.
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8:42 - 8:44What are we seeing?
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8:44 - 8:46We're seeing the baby brain.
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8:46 - 8:51As the baby hears a word in her language,
the auditory areas light up, -
8:51 - 8:56and then subsequently areas surrounding it
that we think are related to coherence, -
8:56 - 9:00getting the brain coordinated
with its different areas, and causality, -
9:00 - 9:03one brain area
causing another to activate. -
9:04 - 9:09We are embarking on a grand
and golden age of knowledge -
9:09 - 9:11about child's brain development.
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9:11 - 9:14We're going to be able
to see a child's brain -
9:14 - 9:18as they experience an emotion,
as they learn to speak and read, -
9:18 - 9:21as they solve a math problem,
as they have an idea. -
9:22 - 9:25And we're going to be able to invent
brain-based interventions -
9:25 - 9:27for children who have difficulty learning.
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9:28 - 9:31Just as the poets and writers described,
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9:31 - 9:35we're going to be able to see, I think,
that wondrous openness, -
9:35 - 9:38utter and complete openness,
of the mind of a child. -
9:39 - 9:42In investigating the child's brain,
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9:42 - 9:46we're going to uncover deep truths
about what it means to be human, -
9:46 - 9:47and in the process,
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9:47 - 9:50we may be able to help keep
our own minds open to learning -
9:50 - 9:52for our entire lives.
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9:52 - 9:53Thank you.
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9:53 - 9:56(Applause)
- Title:
- The linguistic genius of babies
- Speaker:
- Patricia Kuhl
- Description:
-
At TEDxRainier, Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:57
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The linguistic genius of babies | ||
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for The linguistic genius of babies | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The linguistic genius of babies | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The linguistic genius of babies | ||
TED edited English subtitles for The linguistic genius of babies | ||
TED added a translation |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 11/23/2016.