Language and Development 1/2 Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

Arbitrary

A

words have no obvious relation between the sign and its meaning

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Systematic mapping

A

identifying units that make up a word or sentence

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Communication system

A

a shared set of rules or conventions that establish a systematic mapping between words and the world

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Recursive rule (and example)

A

a rule that can be reapplied to the output e.g. The man is chasing the dog [That is chasing the cat]

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What are the 3 steps to language comprehension?

A
  1. recognise sounds/words
  2. retrieve meaning of sounds/words
  3. combine words into a message (by understanding relationships between words)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What are the 3 steps to language production?

A
  1. retrieve words from memory
  2. put words together to form a coherent sentence
  3. fine-grained motor planning
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Aphasia

A

language impairment as a result of brain damage

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Why do some people not possess language?

A

lose the ability to speak (brain damage)
never fully develop it
can not learn it

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is ‘Plato’s problem’ as explained by Chomsky?

How did he support this theory?

A

The fact that we know so much must be because some of the knowledge is innate/preexisting
asked a child questions leading him to conclude Pythagoras’ theorem despite knowing he had never learnt about it

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Universal grammar

A

an innate system of combining units within the constraints of structural patterns of any human language

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Give 3 issues with nativism

A

underestimates the impact exposure has on learning, some innate ‘language specific’ knowledge has actually been proven as general perception skills, certain patterns may arise naturally due to all languages trying to solve similar issues in communication, ‘universals’ cannot be that hard wired as some languages do not conform to the universal rules yet children still learn them easily

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Give and explain 4 of Hockett’s design features

A

Semanticity - fixed association between language units and aspects of the world
Discreteness - units are separate and distinct
Displacement - Can talk about what is not actual or present
Productivity - new words and meanings can be created from what is already learnt
Duality of Patterning - meaningless sounds combine to produce meaningful words (e.g. P-A-T, T-A-P)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What are the 4 Ps that determine development?

A

Profound - changes to one’s outlook on the world
Permanent - not easily reversed, unlike learning
Progressive - usually brings about improvement rather than detrimental change
Pervasive - affect all areas of life

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What did Rousseau say about the child?

A

“The child [is] the father to the man”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What is Haeckel’s maxim?

A

“ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”

- the development of the individual replays the development of the species

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What are the 5 major debates in developmental psych?

A

nature vs. nurture, passive vs. active child, reliability of longitudinal stability, individual differences, how to investigate

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Nativism

A

humans are genetically programmed to have a general capacity for language that has evolved as an adaptation
Descartes
innate potential for development

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Empiricism

A

language learning is not genetically programmed but a by-product of cognitive abilities
Locke
emphasis on the environment
child’s mind is a ‘tabula rasa’

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Extreme empiricism

A

Watson

children can be conditioned (e.g. little Albert and the white rat)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What 4 main issues are there in investigating development?

A
  1. methodological issues
    - children not reliable participants
    - early development inherently ‘noisy’ (multiple influences)
  2. the ‘data problem’
    - difficult to obtain quantitative measures while maintaining naturalistic context
  3. establishing causal relations
    - moving from how the mind develops to the causes of such developments
    - difficult often to determine the direction of causation
  4. choosing the right age
    - ensuring tasks are age appropriate while assessing the same construct
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Can animals learn a human language?

A

Yes, but lack vocal anatomy to be able to make relevant sounds:
Chimpanzee Vicky learnt 4 words w/speech therapy
Kanzi learnt to understand sentences and knew 100s of words HOWEVER could not use lang productively

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Joint attention (what can it predict in infants?)

A

The focus of two individuals on one object at the same time (can predict vocabulary size up to 2 years later)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

How is the language of bees not like that of humans?

A

it is non-arbitrary

can only communicate about one thing

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Give a challenge to the nativist view

A

Language was actually just a side effect of higher cognitive functioning that gave us an edge over other species

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

Why do animals not understand pointing?

A

Do not comprehend the ‘intention to communicate’ - unaware that pointing is done to satisfy their goal rather than the pointer’s won

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

Why do babies babble?

A

To practice making sounds relevant to language even if they are not coherent words

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

Affective pathway

A

sound production as a result of arousal or emotion that is innate and generally inflexible

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

Cognitive pathway

A

controlled, malleable sound production requiring auditory learning and practice

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

the innate modular view of language

A

language is an instinct with an innate knowledge of universal language principles

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

What is the Poverty of Stimulus argument?

A

Language must be innate as the environment does not provide enough linguistic data for a child to be able to learn every feature of their language

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

the experience-based interactive view of language

A

social interaction provides feedback and allows language structures/patterns to be picked up over time
incentive to talk in order to interact

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

William’s syndrome

A

a genetic anomaly where language usually remains intact despite other cognitive impairments

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

Will’s syndrome

A

delayed language impairment accompanies general cognitive processing delays

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

Can we invent language?

A

Yes, feral children left without language will create their own
sign language - if learnt from birth will be just as competent as children that learnt spoken language

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
35
Q

Universality of language

A

All humans have similar mental representations - languages just help to map these thoughts into words but do not affect perception

36
Q

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

A

language may influence our mental representations and information processing

37
Q

How can we test whether language affects perception?

A

Munsell colour test
e.g. English speakers cannot determine as easily between two shades of blue as Russian speakers as do not have two separate words to distinguish between them
Motion events
e.g. Spanish and Greek do not indicate HOW someone moves as we do in english - E:’He ran out’ vs. S/G:’He exited’

38
Q

Wharf hypothesis

A

A language’s inventory of words has an effect on how speakers perceive of the world

39
Q

code switching

A

Where bilinguals switch between two languages in one sentence to avoid planning and accessing troubling words

40
Q

What are a baby’s ‘primary drives’ according to Freud?

A

hunger, thirst, need for warmth

41
Q

What are a baby’s ‘secondary drives’ according to Freud?

A

attachment to caregivers

42
Q

What did Bowlby controversially say about a infant’s attachment to caregivers?

A

That it is a primary drive

43
Q

Why was Bowlby criticised?

A

He only thought monotropy was possible (one single attachment to a caregiver)
He overgeneralised clinical observations to normal children
He did not consider individual difference is attachment

44
Q

Which of Bowlby’s theories did Ainsworth challenge? What evidence did she have?

A

Monotropy. Studied Ugandan communities where children formed multiple attachment to the caregivers and not just mothers

45
Q

What did Schaffer&Emerson’s study support?

A

abandoning the secondary drive

challenging monotropy

46
Q

What did James Roberston (1946, 1952) support?

A

abandonment of secondary drive

dynamic nature of attachment (can make and break easily)

47
Q

What were Bowlby’s revisions?

A

Decided multiple attachments can form

Focussed on the dynamics of attachment relationships

48
Q

What was Bowlby’s 1969 theory?

A

There is a goal-corrected system to attachment rather than an innate response. The goal is to maintain proximity to mother as she is the most notable environmental cue

49
Q

What did Ainsworth’s strange situation assess?

A

The level of a child’s attachment to their parent

50
Q

Between what ages can Ainsworth’s strange situation scenario be used?

A

12-24 months

51
Q

What are the 3 main classifications of attachment types?

A

Avoidant
Secure
Resistant

52
Q

Which 4 dimensions are assessed in the strange situation?

A

Proximity seeking
contact maintenance
avoidance
resistance

53
Q

What did Main&Solomon have to say about Ainsworth’s theory?

A

They added a 4th category - insecure disorganised - for infants that showed bizarre or conflicting behaviour

54
Q

In non-clinical middle class US families what was the most common form of attachment?

A

Avoidant

55
Q

What can be used to assess behavioural attachment in 3-5yo?

A

longer separations than in the strange situation

no stranger present

56
Q

What can be used to assess representational attachment in 3-5yo?

A

separation anxiety test

57
Q

What can be used to assess attachment in 5-13yo?

A

self-report measures
OR
child attachment interview (8+ only)

58
Q

What can be used to assess attachment in adults?

A

Adult Attachment Interview - Ainsworth

59
Q

What are the classifications of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)?

A

Dismissing
Preoccupied
Autonomous
Unresolved

60
Q

What did Belsky et al (1996) conclude about longitudinal stability in attachment?

A

There is no good evidence that the strange situation predicts classification in the AAI

61
Q

What is a major predictor of an adults’s attachment style?

A

life events

62
Q

What were the 3 themes of Piaget’s theory?

A

constructivism, adaptation, stages

63
Q

What was Piaget’s theory of constructivism?

A

concern with how the child constructs the world around them - both innate and experience based

64
Q

What was Piaget’s theory of adaptation?

A

The basic component of intelligence is schemas, objects become part of these schemas creating evermore satisfactory theories about the world

65
Q

What was Piaget’s theory of stages?

A
There is a fixed sequence of stages in development
0-2y - sensorimotor
2-7y - preoperational
7-12y - concrete operational
11+y - formal operational
66
Q

What are the 6 substages of the sensorimotor stage?

A

0-6Wks - practice of innate reflexes
6Wks-4mnths - repetition of body movements for their benefit
4-8mnths - repetition of reactions that have an interesting effect on the environment
8-12mnths - can combine actions to achieve results
12-18mnths - experiment to discover new means to ends
18-24mnths - can imagine consequences of planned actions

67
Q

What is a key feature of the preoperational child?

A

They are egocentric

68
Q

What did Billargeon&Grabor (1987) say about Piaget’s theory?

A

It underestimates children’s object permanence skills

69
Q

What is animism?

A

belief that all things have a spirit

70
Q

What does having ToM imply?

A

understand links between beliefs and behaviour
understand the logic of mental state language
understand that beliefs can be false as well as true

71
Q

What makes a child more likely to have ToM?

A

regular contact with extended family
higher socio-economic status
mother more highly educated
child better at collaborative play earlier on

72
Q

What is mind-mindedness?

A

A caregiver’s atunement to a child’s needs

73
Q

What are 3 main issues with Piaget’s stage theory?

A

He does not take into account development in different domains can occur at different rates
Individuals develop at different rates
Undervalues the influence culture has on cognitive development

74
Q

What are Vygotsky’s 3 key themes?

A

reliance on the genetic method, semiotic mediation, social origin of higher mental function

75
Q

What did Vygotsky say about genetics?

A

Elementary mental functions are not specific to humans and are innate
Higher mental functions develop through social interactions and are specific to humans

76
Q

What did Vygotsky say about semiotic mediation? And what is it?!

A

The mediation of thought processes by words or signs to create higher mental functions
It develops through interaction with others

77
Q

What did Vygotsky say about social origin of HMF?

A

thinking is a ‘conversation in the head’

We can learn more about development of a child from what they can achieve when aided than when alone (ZPD)

78
Q

What is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?

A

The distance between actual and potential development when aided by an ‘other’

79
Q

What does the ZPD tell us about teaching?

A

teaching is good when it is slightly ahead of development as it arouses these functions which are in the stage of maturing
Tutors should be able to identify ZPD in order to pitch lessons accordingly
individual differences should be taken into account

80
Q

What did Meins (1997) find about attachment type and pitching of teaching to ZPD?

A

securely attached mothers - pitch at ZPD

insecurely attached mothers - too vague or too intrusive

81
Q

What is private speech?

A

When children talk to themselves - becomes slowly internalised

82
Q

What was different about Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s views on social interaction?

A

Piaget thought it was the end goal, Vygotsky thought it was the means to individual intellect forming

83
Q

In what situations does private speech increase?

A

When there is a challenging mental task

When something is frustrating

84
Q

What happens if you prevent children from using private speech?

A

Cognitive ability slows

85
Q

What were differences in Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s beliefs about private speech and my it disappears?

A

Piaget said we eventually grow out of it

Vygotsky said we just internalise it

86
Q

What did Vygotsky not consider?

A

Individual differences in social interactions