Behaviourism Flashcards
Which theorist created behaviourism?
B.F. Skinner
Children learn through…
imitating their parents’ language
Language is learnt through…
positive and negative reinforcements
What is positive reinforcement?
Positive reinforcement is rewarding the child for good language behaviour with attention, praise, sweets etc. to encourage them to continue this language behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
Negative reinforcement is the LACK of positive attention (no attention, no praise etc.) so that the child doesn’t repeat that language behaviour
Using positive and negative reinforcement is known as…
Operant Conditioning
What did Chomsky say about behaviourism? (Pt. 1)
All children of all backgrounds and languages tend to go through similar stages around the same time, supporting the theory that language acquisition is innate.
What did Chomsky say about behaviourism?
Pt. 2
Children produce utterances they could never have heard before (“linguistic creativity”) and make mistakes (“virtuous errors”) that suggest they have an in-built grasp of the rules of language.
Give three criticisms of behaviourism
1st Criticism
-If imitation were taking place, children would go through these stages at radically different times, depending on the input they received.
Give three criticisms of behaviourism
2nd Criticism
-Children commonly produce overgeneralisations such as “mouses” for the plural of “mouse” or “falled” and “runned” as past tense forms of irregular verbs which adults would say as “fell” and “ran”. They can’t have heard these from adults, so something more than imitation must be at work
Give three criticisms of behaviourism
3rd Criticism
-The Wug Test. It shows children have innate grasp of language and can apply that to even made up words
What is stimulus-response?
The idea that behaviour is produced by the response
What is imitation?
Imitating another’s speech
