A developmental psychologist observes a group of three-year-old children. She records instances of children's spoken language, paying particular attention to errors in verb tense. She notes that children who previously used correct irregular past tenses (e.g., "went," "ran") begin producing incorrect but rule-governed forms (e.g., "goed," "runned") after a period of exposure to regular past-tense verbs.
Which of the following best describes the type of research design the psychologist used in this study?
Correlational study, because she measured a relationship between language exposure and verb tense errors
Naturalistic observation, because she recorded behaviour as it occurred in a real-world setting without intervention
Case study, because she conducted an in-depth investigation of a single individual
Longitudinal study, because she tracked the same participants over an extended period of time
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