TEDxRainier
Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies
Patricia Kuhl: A xenialidade lingüística dos bebés
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En TEDxRainier, Patricia Kuhl comparte importantes descubrimentos sobre a forma en que os bebés aprenden unha lingua por encima doutras: escoitando ás persoas que os rodean e "calculando estatísticas" dos sons que necesitan coñecer. Experimentos de laboratorio (e escáneres cerebrais) amosan como os bebés de 6 meses usan razoamentos complexos para comprender o seu mundo.
Patricia Kuhl - Language
Patricia Kuhl studies how we learn language as babies, looking at the ways our brains form around language acquisition. Full bio
Patricia Kuhl studies how we learn language as babies, looking at the ways our brains form around language acquisition. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I want you to take a look at this baby.
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Quero que ollen para este bebé.
00:18
What you're drawn to are her eyes
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Séntense atraídos polos seus ollos
00:21
and the skin you love to touch.
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e pola pel que lles gustaría tocar.
00:24
But today I'm going to talk to you about something you can't see --
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Pero hoxe vou falar de algo que non poden ver,
00:27
what's going on up in that little brain of hers.
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algo que ocorre no seu pequeno cerebro.
00:31
The modern tools of neuroscience
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As ferramentas modernas da neurociencia
00:33
are demonstrating to us that what's going on up there
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están a amosarnos que o que ocorre no seu cerebro
00:36
is nothing short of rocket science.
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é un proceso moi complexo.
00:39
And what we're learning
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O que estamos aprendendo
00:41
is going to shed some light
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vai esclarecer en parte
00:43
on what the romantic writers and poets
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o que os poetas e escritores románticos
00:46
described as the "celestial openness"
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describían como "apertura celestial"
00:49
of the child's mind.
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da mente infantil.
00:51
What we see here
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O que vemos aquí
00:53
is a mother in India,
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é unha nai da India
00:55
and she's speaking Koro,
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que está a falar koro,
00:57
which is a newly discovered language.
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unha lingua descuberta hai pouco.
00:59
And she's talking to her baby.
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Está a falarlle ao seu bebé.
01:01
What this mother --
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O que esta nai sabe,
01:03
and the 800 people who speak Koro in the world --
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así como os 800 falantes de koro do mundo,
01:06
understands [is] that, to preserve this language,
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é que se quere conservar esa lingua
01:09
they need to speak it to the babies.
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ten que falárllela aos seus bebés.
01:12
And therein lies a critical puzzle.
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E aquí xorde unha incógnita crucial:
01:15
Why is it that you can't preserve a language
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Por que non se pode conservar unha lingua
01:17
by speaking to you and I, to the adults?
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falando con vostedes e comigo, cos adultos?
01:20
Well, it's got to do with your brain.
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A resposta está no cerebro.
01:23
What we see here
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O que vemos aquí
01:25
is that language has a critical period for learning.
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é que hai un período crítico para a aprendizaxe dunha lingua.
01:28
The way to read this slide is to look at your age on the horizontal axis.
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Nesta diapositiva, teñen que buscar a súa idade no eixo horizontal.
01:31
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
01:34
And you'll see on the vertical
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E no eixo vertical verán
01:36
your skill at acquiring a second language.
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a súa capacidade de adquirir unha segunda lingua.
01:38
Babies and children are geniuses
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Os bebés e os nenos son xenios
01:40
until they turn seven,
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ata os sete anos,
01:42
and then there's a systematic decline.
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cando comeza un descenso sistemático.
01:45
After puberty, we fall off the map.
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Despois da puberdade, saímonos do mapa.
01:47
No scientists dispute this curve,
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Ningún científico cuestiona esta gráfica,
01:50
but laboratories all over the world
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pero os laboratorios de todo o mundo
01:52
are trying to figure out why it works this way.
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intentan averiguar por que funciona deste xeito.
01:55
Work in my lab is focused
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No meu laboratorio, o traballo céntrase
01:57
on the first critical period in development --
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no primeiro período crítico no desenvolvemento,
01:59
and that is the period in which
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que é o período no que
02:01
babies try to master which sounds are used in their language.
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os bebés intentan discernir que sons se usan na súa lingua.
02:04
We think, by studying how the sounds are learned,
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Cremos que, estudando como se aprenden os sons,
02:07
we'll have a model for the rest of language,
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teremos un modelo para o resto da lingua,
02:09
and perhaps for critical periods that may exist in childhood
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e quizais para outros periodos críticos que poida haber na infancia
02:12
for social, emotional
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para o desenvolvemento social,
02:14
and cognitive development.
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emocional e cognitivo.
02:16
So we've been studying the babies
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Estamos estudando os bebés
02:18
using a technique that we're using all over the world
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mediante unha técnica que estamos a usar en todo o mundo
02:20
and the sounds of all languages.
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e cos sons de tódalas linguaxes.
02:22
The baby sits on a parent's lap,
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O bebé senta no colo dos seus pais
02:24
and we train them to turn their heads when a sound changes --
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e ensinámoslle a xirar a cabeza cando un son cambia,
02:26
like from "ah" to "ee."
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como de "a" a "i".
02:28
If they do so at the appropriate time,
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Se o fan no momento adecuado,
02:30
the black box lights up
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a caixa negra ilumínase
02:32
and a panda bear pounds a drum.
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e un panda toca un tambor.
02:34
A six-monther adores the task.
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A un bebé de seis meses encántalle esta actividade.
02:36
What have we learned?
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E que aprendemos?
02:38
Well, babies all over the world
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Que os bebés de todo o mundo
02:40
are what I like to describe
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son o que me gusta denominar
02:42
as "citizens of the world."
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cidadáns do mundo.
02:44
They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages,
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Poden diferenciar tódolos sons de tódolas linguas,
02:47
no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using,
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sen importar con que país ou con que lingua fagamos os experimentos.
02:50
and that's remarkable because you and I can't do that.
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E isto é salientable porque nin vostedes nin eu podemos facer isto.
02:53
We're culture-bound listeners.
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Nós estamos limitados pola nosa cultura.
02:55
We can discriminate the sounds of our own language,
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Podemos diferenciar os sonidos da nosa propia lingua,
02:57
but not those of foreign languages.
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pero non os de linguas estranxeiras.
02:59
So the question arises:
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De modo que a pregunta que xorde
03:01
when do those citizens of the world
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é cándo pasan estes cidadáns do mundo
03:03
turn into the language-bound listeners that we are?
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a ser oíntes limitados pola cultura, coma nós?
03:06
And the answer: before their first birthdays.
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A resposta: antes do seu primer aniversario.
03:09
What you see here is performance on that head-turn task
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O que ven aquí é o rendemento na actividade de xirar a cabeza
03:12
for babies tested in Tokyo and the United States,
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con bebés de Tokio e dos Estados Unidos,
03:14
here in Seattle,
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aquí, en Seatlle,
03:16
as they listened to "ra" and "la" --
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mentres que escoitaban "ra" and "la",
03:18
sounds important to English, but not to Japanese.
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que son sons importantes no inglés, pero non no xaponés.
03:21
So at six to eight months the babies are totally equivalent.
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Dos seis aos oito meses, os resultados son idénticos.
03:24
Two months later something incredible occurs.
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Dous meses mais tarde, ocorre algo asombroso.
03:27
The babies in the United States are getting a lot better,
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Os bebés estadounidenses melloran moitísimo,
03:29
babies in Japan are getting a lot worse,
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e os bebés xaponeses empeoran moito tamén,
03:31
but both of those groups of babies
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porque os dous grupos de bebés
03:33
are preparing for exactly the language that they are going to learn.
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prepáranse exactamente para a lingua que van ter que aprender.
03:36
So the question is: what's happening
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Así que a pregunta é: que sucede
03:39
during this critical two-month period?
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neste período crítico de dous meses?
03:41
This is the critical period for sound development,
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Este é o período crítico para o desenvolvemento dos sons,
03:43
but what's going on up there?
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pero que sucede no cerebro?
03:45
So there are two things going on.
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Pois suceden dúas cousas.
03:47
The first is that the babies are listening intently to us,
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A primeira é que os bebés escoitan atentamente
03:50
and they're taking statistics as they listen to us talk --
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e calculan estatísticas mentres nos oen falar.
03:53
they're taking statistics.
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Sí, calculan estatísticas.
03:55
So listen to two mothers speaking motherese --
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Escoitemos a dúas nais falar en "maternalés",
03:58
the universal language we use when we talk to kids --
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que é a lingua universal que usamos para falarlles aos nenos,
04:01
first in English and then in Japanese.
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primeiro en inglés e despois en xaponés.
04:04
(Video) English Mother: Ah, I love your big blue eyes --
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(Vídeo) Nai inglesa: Ah, I love your big blue eyes -
04:07
so pretty and nice.
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so pretty and nice.
04:11
Japanese Mother: [Japanese]
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Nai xaponesa: [waa okina chairoi o me-me soshite kireina kuroi kami].
04:17
Patricia Kuhl: During the production of speech,
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Patricia Kuhl: Durante a produción da fala,
04:19
when babies listen,
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mentres os bebés escoitan,
04:21
what they're doing is taking statistics
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calculan estatísticas
04:23
on the language that they hear.
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da lingua que escoitan.
04:26
And those distributions grow.
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E esas distribucións crecen.
04:29
And what we've learned
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O que aprendemos
04:31
is that babies are sensitive to the statistics,
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é que os bebés son sensibles ás estatísticas,
04:34
and the statistics of Japanese and English are very, very different.
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e as estatísticas do inglés e o xaponés son moi diferentes.
04:37
English has a lot of Rs and Ls.
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O inglés ten moitas R e L,
04:40
The distribution shows.
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como amosa a distribución.
04:42
And the distribution of Japanese is totally different,
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E a distribución do xaponés é totalmente diferente
04:44
where we see a group of intermediate sounds,
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onde vemos un grupo de sons intermedios
04:47
which is known as the Japanese "R."
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que se coñece como a R xaponesa.
04:50
So babies absorb
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Os bebés absorben
04:52
the statistics of the language
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estas estatísticas da lingua,
04:54
and it changes their brains;
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e estas moldean o seu cerebro
04:56
it changes them from the citizens of the world
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e fan que pasen de ser cidadáns do mundo
04:58
to the culture-bound listeners that we are.
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a ser os oíntes limitados pola cultura súa cultura.
05:01
But we as adults
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Nós, os adultos,
05:03
are no longer absorbing those statistics.
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xa non absorbemos esas estatísticas.
05:05
We're governed by the representations in memory
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Estamos gobernados polas representacións mentais
05:08
that were formed early in development.
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que se formaron na etapa de desenvolvemento.
05:11
So what we're seeing here
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De modo que o que vemos aquí
05:13
is changing our models of what the critical period is about.
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cambia os nosos modelos de funcionamento do período crítico.
05:16
We're arguing from a mathematical standpoint
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Afirmamos, cunha base matemática,
05:19
that the learning of language material may slow down
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que a aprendizaxe dunha lingua pode ralentizarse
05:22
when our distributions stabilize.
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cando se asentan as nosas distribucións.
05:24
It's raising lots of questions about bilingual people.
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Isto fai que xurdan moitas preguntas sobre as persoas bilingües.
05:27
Bilinguals must keep two sets of statistics in mind at once
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As persoas bilingües deben ter en conta dous estatísticas a un tempo
05:31
and flip between them, one after the other,
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e pasar de unha a outra,
05:34
depending on who they're speaking to.
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dependendo de con quen falen.
05:36
So we asked ourselves,
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Por iso nos preguntamos a nós mesmos:
05:38
can the babies take statistics on a brand new language?
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os bebés poden calcular estatísticas dunha lingua allea?
05:41
And we tested this by exposing American babies
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E fixemos un experimento que bebés estadounidenses
05:43
who'd never heard a second language
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que nunca tiveran contacto cunha segunda lingua
05:45
to Mandarin for the first time during the critical period.
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escoitasen mandarín por primeira vez durante o período crítico.
05:48
We knew that, when monolinguals were tested
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Sabiamos que, cando se facía que bebés monolingües
05:50
in Taipei and Seattle on the Mandarin sounds,
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de Taipei e Seatlle escoitaran mandarín,
05:53
they showed the same pattern.
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amosaban o mesmo patrón.
05:55
Six to eight months, they're totally equivalent.
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De 6 a 8 meses, resultados idénticos.
05:57
Two months later, something incredible happens.
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Dous meses máis tarde, ocorre algo asombroso.
06:00
But the Taiwanese babies are getting better, not the American babies.
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Os bebés taiwaneses melloraban moito, os estadounidenses non.
06:03
What we did was expose American babies during this period
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O que fixemos foi expoñer a bebés estadounideneses neste período
06:06
to Mandarin.
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ao mandarín.
06:08
It was like having Mandarin relatives come and visit for a month
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Era como ter familiares que veñen a visitarte durante un mes,
06:11
and move into your house
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que se trasladan á túa casa
06:13
and talk to the babies for 12 sessions.
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e que falan mandarín cos bebés durante 12 sesións.
06:15
Here's what it looked like in the laboratory.
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Así foi como o vimos no laboratorio.
06:17
(Video) Mandarin Speaker: [Mandarin]
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(Vídeo): Falante de mandarín: [Mandarín]
06:39
PK: So what have we done to their little brains?
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PK: Entón, que lles fixemos aos seus cerebriños?
06:41
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
06:44
We had to run a control group
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Tivemos que establecer un grupo de control
06:46
to make sure that just coming into the laboratory
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para segurarnos de que vir ao laboratorio
06:48
didn't improve your Mandarin skills.
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non melloraba o nivel de mandarín.
06:50
So a group of babies came in and listened to English.
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De modo que un grupo de bebés veu e escoitou inglés.
06:52
And we can see from the graph
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E o que podemos ver no gráfico
06:54
that exposure to English didn't improve their Mandarin.
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é que a exposición ao inglés non melloraba o seu mandarín.
06:56
But look at what happened to the babies
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Pero observen o que ocorreu cos bebés
06:58
exposed to Mandarin for 12 sessions.
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que estiveron 12 sesións expostos ao mandarín.
07:00
They were as good as the babies in Taiwan
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Eran tan bos coma os bebés de Taiwán,
07:02
who'd been listening for 10-and-a-half months.
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que estiveran escoitándoo 10 meses e medio.
07:05
What it demonstrated
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O que isto demostra
07:07
is that babies take statistics on a new language.
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é que os bebés calculan estatísticas de linguas novas.
07:09
Whatever you put in front of them, they'll take statistics on.
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Calcularán estatísticas de todo o que se poña ao seu alcance.
07:13
But we wondered what role
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Pero nós preguntabámonos que papel
07:15
the human being played
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tiñamos os humanos
07:17
in this learning exercise.
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neste exercicio de apredizaxe.
07:19
So we ran another group of babies
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Por iso establecemos outro grupo de bebés
07:21
in which the kids got the same dosage, the same 12 sessions,
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que tamén tiveron 12 sesións,
07:24
but over a television set
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pero cun televisor,
07:26
and another group of babies who had just audio exposure
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e outro grupo que tivo só exposición a un audio
07:29
and looked at a teddy bear on the screen.
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mentres veía un oso de peluche na pantalla.
07:31
What did we do to their brains?
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Que lles fixemos os seus cerebros?
07:34
What you see here is the audio result --
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O que ven aquí é o resultado do audio,
07:37
no learning whatsoever --
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non hai aprendizaxe,
07:39
and the video result --
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e resultado o do vídeo:
07:42
no learning whatsoever.
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tampouco hai apredizaxe.
07:44
It takes a human being
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É necesario que haxa unha persoa
07:46
for babies to take their statistics.
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para que os bebés calculen estatísticas.
07:48
The social brain is controlling
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A parte social do cerebro é a que controla
07:50
when the babies are taking their statistics.
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cando os bebés calculan estatísticas.
07:52
We want to get inside the brain
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Queremos meternos no cerebro
07:54
and see this thing happening
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e ver como ocorren as cousas
07:56
as babies are in front of televisions,
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cando os bebés están fronte ao televisor,
07:58
as opposed to in front of human beings.
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en vez de estar con persoas.
08:00
Thankfully, we have a new machine,
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Afortunadamente, temos unha máquina nova,
08:02
magnetoencephalography,
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magnetoencefalografía,
08:04
that allows us to do this.
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que nos permite facer isto.
08:06
It looks like a hair dryer from Mars.
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Parece un secador de pelo de Marte,
08:08
But it's completely safe,
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pero é totalmente segura,
08:10
completely non-invasive and silent.
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non invasiva e silenciosa.
08:13
We're looking at millimeter accuracy
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E permítenos mirar con precisión milimétrica,
08:15
with regard to spatial
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no plano espacial,
08:17
and millisecond accuracy
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e con precisión de milisegundos
08:19
using 306 SQUIDs --
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usando 306 SQUID
08:21
these are Superconducting
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(aparatos superconductores
08:23
QUantum Interference Devices --
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de interferencias cuánticas)
08:25
to pick up the magnetic fields
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para detectar campos magnéticos
08:27
that change as we do our thinking.
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que cambian cando pensamos.
08:29
We're the first in the world
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Somos os primeiros do mundo
08:31
to record babies
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en rexistrar bebés
08:33
in an MEG machine
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cunha máquina MEG
08:35
while they are learning.
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mentres están aprendendo.
08:37
So this is little Emma.
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Esta é a pequena Emma.
08:39
She's a six-monther.
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Ten 6 meses.
08:41
And she's listening to various languages
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E está escoitando distintas linguas
08:43
in the earphones that are in her ears.
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cos auriculares que ten postos.
08:46
You can see, she can move around.
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Como poden ver, pode moverse.
08:48
We're tracking her head
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Estamos analizando a súa cabeza
08:50
with little pellets in a cap,
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cunhas pequenas bólas nun gorro
08:52
so she's free to move completely unconstrained.
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de forma que ela poida moverse con liberdade.
08:55
It's a technical tour de force.
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É un gran reto técnico.
08:57
What are we seeing?
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Que podemos ver?
08:59
We're seeing the baby brain.
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Podemos ver o cerebro do bebé.
09:01
As the baby hears a word in her language
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Cando o bebé escoita unha palabra na súa lingua,
09:04
the auditory areas light up,
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acéndense as áreas auditivas
09:06
and then subsequently areas surrounding it
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e tamén outras áreas cercanas
09:08
that we think are related to coherence,
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que cremos que están relacionadas coa coherencia
09:11
getting the brain coordinated with its different areas,
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(-coordinan as diferentes áreas do cerebro),
09:13
and causality,
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e coa causalidade,
09:15
one brain area causing another to activate.
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(que fan que unha área faga que outra se active).
09:18
We are embarking
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Estámonos adentrando
09:20
on a grand and golden age
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nunha gran idade dourada
09:23
of knowledge about child's brain development.
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do coñecemento sobre o desenvolmento do cerebro dos nenos.
09:26
We're going to be able to see a child's brain
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Poderemos ver os cerebros dun neno
09:28
as they experience an emotion,
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cando experimenta unha emoción,
09:30
as they learn to speak and read,
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cando aprende a falar e a ler,
09:32
as they solve a math problem,
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cando resolve un problema matemático,
09:34
as they have an idea.
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e cando ten unha idea.
09:36
And we're going to be able to invent brain-based interventions
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Poderemos inventar intervencións con base cerebral
09:39
for children who have difficulty learning.
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para os nenos con dificultades de aprendizaxe.
09:42
Just as the poets and writers described,
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Como dixeron os poetas e escritores,
09:45
we're going to be able to see, I think,
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creo que poderemos ver
09:47
that wondrous openness,
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esa marabillosa apertura,
09:49
utter and complete openness,
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esa completa e total apertura
09:51
of the mind of a child.
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da mente infantil.
09:54
In investigating the child's brain,
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Ao investigar o cerebro dos nenos
09:56
we're going to uncover deep truths
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imos descubrir verdades profundas
09:58
about what it means to be human,
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sobre o significado de ser humán.
10:00
and in the process,
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E neste proceso,
10:02
we may be able to help keep our own minds open to learning
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pode que sexamos capaces de abrir as nosas propias mentes ao aprendizaxe
10:04
for our entire lives.
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durante toda a nosa vida.
10:06
Thank you.
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Gracias.
10:08
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Patricia Kuhl - LanguagePatricia Kuhl studies how we learn language as babies, looking at the ways our brains form around language acquisition.
Why you should listen
Patricia Kuhl is co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences at the University of Washington. She's internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Kuhl’s work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain. It has implications for critical periods in development, for bilingual education and reading readiness, for developmental disabilities involving language, and for research on computer understanding of speech.
Patricia Kuhl | Speaker | TED.com