Lecture 4 - Trying to Communicate

Question 0

when do infants start trying to communicate?

Answer 0

not so clear cut age when this happens
- sometimes as early as 6 months

involves knowing the goals and utility of people around them

Question 1

are infants even trying to communicate?

Answer 1

the make sounds we might interpret as communicative, but how to asses this?

- compare vervet monkey: produce alarm call when I'm in danger, don't produce it when my kid is in danger, does alarm call REALLY REFERE to a snake/cat/eagle? if they were really refering to it they would do it when their kid was in danger

Question 2

Posited communicative functions

Answer 2

imperative: trying to get someone to do an action for you or doing an action yourself
declaratives: trying to draw someone’s attention, want to share an observation, show you something intersting

Question 3

Imperatives: rejections

Answer 3

rejections:

pushes away offered object and vocalizes
uses gesture/vocalization to end interaction

Question 4

criteria for intentional communication

Answer 4

make eye contact with conversational partner while talking/gesturing

gesture or vocalization is consistent, fixed in usage

kid waits for partner to take turn

keeps trying to communicate if not understood (may modify actions to do so)

Question 5

Imperatives: requests

Answer 5

for social interaction (Get partner’s attention)

for object (obtain unreachable item)

for action (e.g. lift arms to be picked up)

Question 6

Declaratives

Answer 6

showing stuff

point to direct conversational partner’s attention (not to obtain, just to point out “look isn’t that cool)