Intentional Communication

Question 1

What is intentional communication?

Answer 1

Communication that has a discernible topic
orientated to real objects or events
Denotive or about something
e.g. pointing, words, lifting arms to be picked up

Question 2

What is pre intentional communication?

Answer 2

Expressive - purposeful

e.g. crying, laughing, babbling

Question 3

What are the 3 types of early communication development?

Answer 3

Vocal gestures - production (non speech, vocal communication e.g. crying and laughing) and perception (phonemic discriminations)
Manual - pointing, begging

Question 4

Development of intentional communication

Answer 4

0-2 months- shared alertness, not separated from mother, object is separate
2-6 - early dyadic communication, mother and infant communicate with each other
6+ - joint object involvement, mum, infant and object all interact together
9-10 - can fixate pointing
11-13 - productive pointing but don’t bring in caregiver
14-15 - productive pointing, looking at caregiver first then pointing

Question 5

Pointing to request (protoimperative)

Answer 5

Goal directed behaviour (reaching), turning to mother (attention seeking), waiting for a response, points to object, so mum gets it
Have a goal before actions, use visual and auditory actions to get mother, altered gaze from the referrent (apple) to recipient (mother) - persist and repeat signals if recipient doesn’t respond
means end reasoning -use of social partner - means = caregiver ends = attainment of object

Question 6

Pointing to comment (protodeclarative)

Answer 6

Pointing towards an unknown referent

Point to event, look at mum, look back and forth between these

Question 7

What are the two interpretations of protodeclarative pointing?

Answer 7

Lean interpretation - trying to get a response from caregiver, mean is the distant event, end=response from caregiver

Rich interpretation - child is aware that mother has a separate psychological perspective, uses pointing to influence mothers mind
goal = joint attention to object, belief that children have a TOM as young as 12 months old

Question 8

What are the 3 perspectives on pointing?

Answer 8

The nativist theory
Cognitive or representational view
Learning theory

Question 9

Nativist theory

Answer 9

Butterworth - human index finger pointing is biologically based and species specific, it is an evolutionary adaptation as a reference in humans - use gestures before words
Hand anatomy of chimps and humans - chimps have very small thumbs but long fingers so thumb sits far from fingertips. Humans use precision grip, tips of thumb and index finger held together whereas chimps use thumb and curl index finger - power grip. Butterworth thought these differences in grip contribute to pointing differences

Question 10

Evidence to support nativist theory

Answer 10

Apes do not point in the wild, it is rare if they do
they mostly point with their whole hand
Human hands are biomechanically poised for index finger extension - when relaxing hand, index finger sits above other fingers but in chimps, all fingers are lined up with each other

Question 11

Principle of antithesis

Answer 11

Opposite body postures express opposite emotions - develop from a power grip to precision grip between 6-20 months of age

Question 12

Critique of nativist

Answer 12

Language trained apes can point with their index fingers - depends on rearing
Pointing with whole hands is a human behaviour too, despite the hand differences, there is no physical impairment to pointing in chimps - posture of hand doesn’t reflect cognitive capacity

Question 13

Cognitive view

Answer 13

Humans have shared attentional modules, evidence = gaze monitoring and pro declarative pointing, means infants understand others as intentional agents with intentional and attentional agenda
Gestures influence others state of mind, so we must understand others - early indicator of TOM

Question 14

Experiment on cognitive view - Liszkowski et al

Answer 14

75 babies, 12 months old
Sit in front of window
4 conditions:
joint attention (experimenter is positive and looks)
face (positive emotion but doesn't turn)
event (looks over but neutral face)
ignore

If joint attention = babies are less likely to repeat pointing, satisfied. evidence that babies understand attention and psychological perspective of others

Question 15

Moore

Answer 15

But, could be learning, infant knows that the point leads to a head turn and response from an adult. pointing infants will expect head turns and affective responses, infants repeated point in other conditions hoping to obtain the desired response

Question 16

Critique of the cognitive view

Answer 16

Characterises babies are little robots with innate software programs that governs their behaviour. believes evolution gave it to us, ignores any environmental experiences

Question 17

The learning perspective

Answer 17

Babies point because their caregivers positively respond
babies show positive emotion during joint object play and show positive emotion during joint attention
parents synchronise smiles with pointing when pointing towards babies

Question 18

Critique of the learning perspective

Answer 18

Very little data, no evidence than you can train declarative pointing or necessity of positive emotional consequences to elicit declarative pointing

Rarity of declarative pointing in other species - if it is a function of positive emotions from caregivers, non humans would use it to

Question 19

Power grip

Answer 19

Using thumb and curl index finger - how you hold a hammer

Question 20

Precision grip

Answer 20

Tips of thumb and index finger held together