Reading points - midterm 2 Flashcards
how father stopped 7 month old boy grabbing glasses
but them behind his back
as object removed from sight, according to piaget never existed so boy stopped being annoying trying to play with them
what do developmental theories provide
a framework for understanding important phenomena
emphasis on observations and experiences in a larger context and deepen our understanding of their meaning
developmental theories raise questions about
human nature
how does baillargeon argue around children under 8 months don’t reach for an object hidden by a cloth
do realise the hidden object continues to exist but lack the memory or problem-solving skills necessay for using that understanding to retreive hidden objects
developmental theories lead to a better understanding about
children
new research stimulated
eg piaget theory led to research of retrieving toys now from under an opaque cover (which 7 month olds did) this supported piaget’s original interpretation showing neither lack of motivation nor lack of ability to reach for the toy explained the infants usual failure to retreive it
diamond’s experiemnt with opaque cover and waiting times
varied amount of time toy was hidden when the infant was allowed to reach for it (again opque covering used)
6 month olds immediate, 7 2 second wait, 8 4 second wait
memory for the location of hidden objects as well as the understanding that they continue to exist is crucial to success on the task
5 theories of cognitive development in text book
piaget - active child, continuity/ discontinuity
information-processing - how change occurs
core-knowledge - continuity/ discontinuity
sociocultural - influential of sociocultural context, how change occurs
dynamic systems - active child, how change occurs
all adress nature vs nurture
Piaget’s theory
swiss psych
cognitive development involves a sequence of four stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operatioal and formal operational stages) that are constructed through the processes of assimilation, accomodation and equilibration
why do we still use / think about piaget today
observations vivd for each age
remind care givers of own experience with children
breadth of theory
intuitively plausible depiction of the interaction of nature and nurture in cognitive development as well as continuities / discontinuities that characterise intelectual growth
piaget fundamental assumption
children are metnally active from the moment of birth
mental and physical activity contribute greatly to their development
piaget approach =
constructivist
child constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences
three most important of children’s ocnstructive processes
generating hypotheses
performing experiments
drawing conclusions from their observations
= child scientists
piaget son - laurent book observation
dropping toys in different places
when lands somewhere new eg pillow will do it several times to work out the the difference
what is the second basic piagetian assumption
children learn many important lessons on their own, rather than depending on instructions from others
pebble example from piaget in book
line up pebbles and count ten in one direction
then count in the other direction checking there are still ten
what is the third basic piagetian assumption
children are intrinsically motivted to learn and do not need rewards from other people to do so
when they aquire a new capability - they apply it as often as possible
also reflect on lessons of their experience becuase they want to understand themselves and everything around them
piaget view on nature vs nurture
they interact to produce cognitive development
nurture includes the experiences children encounter
nature = ability to learn from experience, tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge
vital part of children’s nature is how they respond to nurture
three processes which are the main sources of continutiy according to piaget
assimilation
accomodation
equilibration
assimilation
book example
the process by which people translate incoming information into a form that fits concepts they already understand
eg 2 yo child - saw man with bald patch ontop of his head then long side hair - shouts clown clown as assimilated into his own knowledge
accomodation
book example
the process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experience
eg boy father explained bald man not a clown as whilst hair correct, no silly costume etc = boy’s clown conceot changes
equilibration
book example
the process by which children (or other people) balance assimilation and accomodation to create stable understanding
4-7 yo believe animals are the only living things as they move in ways to help them survive. then learn flowers and plants move too = causes disequilibrium (now confused about what it means to be alive) thiking then becomes accomodating that animals are plants are alive as both move to survive
= more stable equilibrium because subsequent info about animals and plants will not disrupt it
this is how children learn about the world surorunding them
according to piaget when satisfied with their knowledge =
and explain the opposite
equilibrium
disequilibrium = when they recognise shortcomings in their understanding of the phenomena but cannot generate a superior alternative. simply = confused. finally will develop a more sophisticated understanding that eliminates the shortcomings of the old one
= more advanced equilibrium within which a braoder range of observations can be understood
4 central properties of piaget’s stage theory
qualitative change
broad applicability
brief transitions
invariant sequence
piaget’s view on qualitative children
children of different ages think in qualitatively different ways
early stages of cognitive development conceive of morality in terms of the consequences of the behaviour and not the persons intent (which they work out later)
eg person who knocks over cookie jar smashing all the cookies acciendetally was naughtier than the person who stole one cookie (by 8 reverse)
what does piaget mean by broad applicability
the type of thinking characteristic of each stage influences children’s thikings acorss diverse topics and contexts
what does piaget mean by brief transitions
before entering a new stae, children pass through a brief transitional period in which they fluctuate between the type of thinking characterised by the new and the old
what does piaget mean by invariant sequence
everyone progresses throught the stages in the same order without skipping any of them
during the sensorimotor stage intelligence is bound to
the immediate perceptions and actions
which stage has the clearest example of the active child
sensorimotor intelligence
between birth and age three the brain
weight triples
piaget general primciple: the earlier in development
the more rapidly changes occur
piaget proposed when infants suck on an object…
they gain not only pleasure but also knowledge about the world beyond their own bodies
reflexes textbook interested in babies are bron with
object infront of eyes = visually tracked
objects placed in mouth = sucked
objects come into contact with their hands = grasp them
when they hear noises = turn towards them
during their first few months babies change their reflexes to make them… and example
more adaptive
eg very quickly learn to change sucking depending on object
so infants moidfy their actions to the parts of the environment to which they interact
over the first few months of development, infants reflexes…
organize into larger complex behaviours
most centered on own bodies
define object permanence
the knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they are out of view
eg little bell hidden by piaget hand his son won’t look for
define a not b error
the tendency to rach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in new location where it was last hidden
define deferred imitation
the repetition of other people’s behaviour a substantial time after it occured
jaceueline deferred imitation example
watched a little boy throw a temper tantrum
next day copied it herself
main aquisition during preoperational stage
symbolic representation - the use of one object to stand for another
eg a card as an iphone or stick as a gun
tends to be physically resemblative, as they develop further they rely less on self-generated symbols and more on conventional ones
eg drawing flowers begin to use more similar depictions
most noteable weaknesses during preoperational stage
egocentrism and centration
define egocentrism
the tendency to perceive the world soley through one’s own point of view
also envident in language (egocentric speech)
egocentric speech decrease can lead to
verbal quarrels in children as are now listening to other children and understanding they have a different view to us
define cetration
the tendecny to focu on a single perceptually striking feature of an object or event
what is the conservation concept
the idea that merely changing the appearance in objects does not necessarily change the objects other key properties
how concrete operations children fail swinging pendulum test
come up with various experiments that valid conclusions cannot be drawn from - are changing too mnay thigns at once
which stage did piaget believe was not universal
formal operations stage
cruicial weaknesses in piaget’s theory (4)
vague about the mechanisms that give rise to children’s thinking and that produce cognitive growth
infants and yound children are more cognitively competent than piaget recognised - his tests were hard, children tend to pass looking paradgims of his test earlier
piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive developnent
the stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it is - eg at age 6 conservation of number passes but solid quantity failed
educational applications of piaget’s theory
at different ages need to teach children differently as they think differently
children learn best when interacting with their environment and not just sat being told
eg two horses round a circular race track, only understand when physically do it that person on the inside goes slower than person on the outside
define information-processing theories
a class of theories that focus on the structure of the cognitive system and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems
define task analysis
the research technique of identifying goals, relevant information in the environment and potential processing strategies for a problem
define computer simulation
a type of mathematical model that expresses ideas about mental processes in precise ways
give an example of where computer simulations have been used for understanding child development
on the knowledge and mental processes that led young children to fail on conservation problems and the different processes that make oldre kids suceed on them.
comparing the two = can work out the difference between failure and success
also used on object permanemce, word learning, categorization, phonology, working memory, reading and problem solving
what are the two noteable characteristics of information processing
precise specification of the processes involved in children’s thinking
emphasis on thinking as a process that occurs over time
information-processing theorists see cognitive development as..
occuring continuously in small increments that happen at different ages on different tasks
differs fundamentally to piaget
the child as a limited-capactiy processing system
part of information-processing theories
similar to computer and software limitations
people’s thinking is limited by the same factors: memory capacity, speed of thought processes, availability of usefu stragtegies and knowledge
cognitive development arises from children gradually surmounting their processing limitations through expanding the amounts of info they can process at one time, increasing their processing speeds and aquiring new strategies and knowledge
define problem solving
the process of attaining a goal by using a strategy to overcome an obstacle
according to information-processing theories children are
active problem solvers
how information-processing theories see nature vs nurture
how they work together to produce development
these theories care about how change occurs
define working memory
memory system that involves actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, sotring and processing information
limited in capacity (amount of infor it can actively attend to and length of time it can maintain info in its active state)
why do we think capacity and speed of working memory increases greatly over childhood
increasing knowledge of the content on which working memory operates and in part becaus eof maturation changes in the brain
kindergarten in highly decorated classrooms study
we have highly decorated classes as we think they make them a more appealing environment to learn in
when taught a series of science lessons in a birghtly decorated classroom or in a room with no decorations they learned more of the material in the undecorated room. in highly decorated room spent more time off task
define long term memory
information retained on an enduring basis
long term knowledge includes
factual
conceptual (eg what justice is)
procedural
attitudes
reasoning strategies
totality of ones knowledge with working memory a subset
unlimited infor for an unlimited period of time
50 years later still remember spanish / alegebra they learnt at school but haven’t used since
what brain area plays an important role in cognitive control / executive funcitoning
prefrontal cortex
what are the three major types of executive functions
inhibiting inadvisable actions
enhancing working memory - eg selectively attend to important info
being cognitively flexible - eg imagining somone else’s perspective in an argument
when does the ability of executive control functions to control thinking and actions increase greatly
during preschool and early elementary years
eg 3yo cannot change rule of sorting easuly but 5yo can
eg simon says game
the quality of executive funcitoning during early childhood predicts
many important later outcomes
academic performance in high school
enrollment in college
income and occupational status in adulthood
also higher exec functioners learn more from their peers and improve their understanding of other peoples thinking
being bilingual…
improves executive functioning
training progrmmes that improve shildren’s executive functioning
tools of mind - teachers stated and implemented clear rules, rewarded positive behaviours, redirected negative behaviours in positive directions = help children inhibit impulses to disrupt classroom activities and help them sustain attention to the task in hand
substantial executive functioning imporvements both immediately after and a year after compared to controls
also for the next three years those who had the interventional performed better in maths and reading than the children in the lib
define basic processes
the simplest, most used mental activities
define encoding
the process of representing in memory information that draws attention or is considered important
define rehersal
the process of repeating information multiple times to aid memory of it
what do information-processing theorists try to explain about memory
the processes that make it as good as it is at each age and the limitations that prevent it from being better
basic processes include
associating events with one another
recognizing objects as familiar
recalling facts and procedures
generalizing from one instance to another
we encode..
only a select amount of info
we fail to encode alot
it is isnt encoded then it isnt remembered
eg american flag we dont actually know where the stars specifically are or where the bars are
balance scale problems
both distance from middle and weight matters
5 year olds look at weight and not distance as they dont encode about distance
how can we asses encoding of balance-scale configurations
children shown balance scale with varying arrangements of weights on pegs - scale is hidden behind opaque barrier
children asked to replicate arrangment on identical but empty scale
5 yo generally reproduce the correct number of weights on each side but rarely put them the correct distance from the middle
but is we teacht them both weight and distance matters = more advanced balance-scale rules that peers who weren’t taught fail to learn on their own
speed of processing increases most…
at young ages
but still continues into adolescents
what are the two biological processes that lead to faster speed of processing
mylentation
increased connectivity among brain regions
define selective attention
the process of intentionally focusing on the information that is most relevant to the current goal
eg tell 7/8 yo to remeber just a certain category of items will direct all attention to those items
same instructions to 4 yo = will still pay equal attention to all items
increase in knowledge leads to
increase in recall of new material as is easier to intgrate the new material with the existing understanding
eg shown in adults vs kids
when given new info kids remember more of the new info than adults when it is in the context of kids tv or know more about soccer (will beat those with higher iq but know less about soccer)
how does prior content knowledge improve memory for new info
improves encoding - eg child experts on chess leads to higher level chunking instead of remebering each piece separately
provides useful associations - eg what is and what is not possible so guides memory in useful directions eg baseball recall a particular inning of a game they can remember only 2 outs an innings, they recognise there must have been a third out so search their memory for it but people who do not have knowledge about baseball will not do this
define overlapping wave theory
an information-processing appraoch that emphasises the variability of children’s thinking
why childrens number addition improves
discover new methods (counting-on)
faster and more accurate execution of all the strategies that shildren know (eg retrieve answers from memory)
children’s choice among strategies becomes increasingly adaptive
why according to infromation-processing theories is planning difficutl for children
requires inhibiting the desrie to solve the problem immediately in favour of first trying to chose the best strategy
eg working on an assigned strategy without first planning it
also children tend to be overoptimitic about their abilities and believe they can problem solve without planning = leads to acting rashly. eg 6yo who overestimate their physical abilities have more accidents than their peers who have more realistic expectations
what are of the brai is important for maturation of plannig
maturing prefrontal cortex
also experience helps
in dangerous situations who is most liekly to plan
preadolescents and adolescents are more likely than adults not to plan or ignore prior plans and take risks
educational applications of information-processing theories
children’s ealry knowledge of numbers = predicts their mathematical achievement years later
children from lower ses backgrounds are in a worse place when they start kindergarte
playing numerical board games over colour based board games improves kids number and adding abilities (chutes and ladders)
task analysis of the game = verbal, spatial, temporal and motor cues provide a broadly based, multisensory foundation for knowledge of numerical magnitudes = a types of knowledge that is closely related to overall mathematical achievement
what are core-knowledge theories
appraoches that view children as having some innate knowledge in domains in special evolutionary importance and domain specific learning mechanisms for rapidly and effortlessly aquiring additional information in these domains
areas of core knowledge
understanding and manipulating other people’s thinking
recognising living vs non-living entities
identifying human faces
finding your way through space
understanding cause and effects
learning language
example of deception book starts with
i didn’t break the lamp and i won’t do it again
tries to deceive
but also has back covered just in case
what does deception research reveal
in certain areas of probable importance in human evolution, infants and young shildrent hink in ways that are considerably moer advanced than piaget suggested was possible
eg if children were completely egocentric wouldn’t try deception as the other person would already know what they knew
but preschoolers do try to deceive
how are children depicted in core-knowledge theories
active learners
eg 3yo understand deception much better when they are actively involved in perptrating the deceit than when they are merely witnessing the same deception being purportrated by others
big difference in core-knowledge theories compared to piagetian and information-processing
children enter the world equipped not only with general learning abilities but also specialized learning mechanisms or mental structures that allow them to quickly and effortlessly aquire information of evolutionary importance
child as a well-adapted product of evolution (not as a scientist)
define domain specific
information about a particular content area
different mechanisms produce…
development in each domain
eg ToM is believed to produce learnign about one’s own and other people’s minds but different specialized mechanisms are believed to produce learning about faces, language, movement etc
define nativism
the theory that infants have substantial knowledge of evolutionary important domains
Core-knowledge theory (the theory explained)
prominent nativist theory
infants begin life with 4 core-knowledge systems each of which includes understanding of a particularly important domain
1 innanimate objects and their mechanical interactions
2 minds of people and other animals capable of goal directed actions
3 numbers
4 spatial layouts and geometric relations
studies have shown infants do posses some of these basic understandings eg an object cannot simultaneaously hold the space of another object
core-knowledge theory of language
language aquisition device
specialised learning mechansim enables young children to rapidly master the complicated systems of grammar rules in their own language quickly and effortlessly
this is universal acorss cultures
but learning algebra ot formal logic or kinship relations is not universal
universality of aquisitions early in life without apparent effort and without instruction from other people = particularly important for core-knowledge theorists
define constructivsm
the theory that infants build increasingly advanced understanding by combining rudimentary knowledge with several subsequent experiences
blends elements of nativism, piaget and infor-processing theories
core-knoweldge constructivists suggest
young children actively organize their understnding of the most important domains into informal theories
as rudimental as these theories may be, they share three important characteristics with scientific theories
1 identify fundamental untis for dividing relevant objects and events into a few basic categories
2 they explain many phenomena in terms of a few fundamental principles
3 they explain events in terms of unobservable causes
many ones = bio, psych and physics
according to core-knoweldge constructivits how do children understand bio
divide all obejcts into three categories - people, other animal, non-living
understand broadly applicable bio principles - desire for food and water underlies many behaviours of animals.
vital activities of animals are caused by something inside of the animals themselves as opposed to external forces that determine the behaviour of the objects
what do core-knowledge contructionists wellman and gelman suggest about cognitive development
first theory of psych emerges 18 months, bio at 3yo
at first theory of psych is organised around the understanding that other peoples actions,not just ones own reflect their goals and desires
eg people eat when they not you are hungry
first theory of bio is organized around realization animals and people are living and other things are not
eg animals and people can heal, manufactured objects cannot
more advanced theories then follow
not until 7 yo children believe that the cateogry of living things includes plants and animals
similarly only at 3/4 yo do children recognise beliefs as well as desires influence their own and other people’s actions
educational applications of core-knowledge theories
young children are essentialists - they believe members of a species have a fixed innre essence that makes them what they are
but this interferes with learning about natural selection (useful for learning if one dog has a spleen, they all do though)
managed to teach 5-8 yo about natural selection through storybook about pilosas = trunks too wide to fit in burows
wouldn’t survive etc so over time only thin trunks survived
impressive as it worked and was thought only high school aged kids could understand natural selection
define sociocultural theories
appraoches that emphasise that other people and the surrounding culture contribte greatly to children’s development
define guided participation
a process in which more knowledegeable individuals organize activitie in ways that allow less knowledgeable peopole to learn
define cultural tool
the innumerable products of human ingenuity that enhance thinking
vygotsky saw children as
social learners, shaped by people anf by their cultural context and gradually becoming emmersed in it
vygotsky view on language
language integrally related to thought
thought is internalized speech anf thought originates in large part in statements that paretns and other adults make to children
three phases of speech’s role in the development of childrens ability to regulate their won behaviour (vygotsky)
at first a child’s behaviour is controlled by other people’s statements
then children develop their own private speech in which they tell themself what to do
finally behaviour is controlled by internalized private speech (thought) in which they privately tell themselves what to do
speech goes underground and becomes thought - the inbetween often characterised by whispering or lips moving
define private speech and what age groups is it most prevalent in
the second pahse of bygotsky’e internalization-of-thought tocess in which children develop self-regulation and problem solving abilties by telling themselves aloud what to do, much as their parents did in the first stage
most prevalent 4-6 but older children and adults particularly on challenging tasks such as assembling furniture or operating unfamiliar devices
what does tomasello propose beyond vygotsky
human species = two unique characteristics that are cruicial in our ability to create complex, rapidly chnaging cultures
one is inclination to teach others of the species and other is to attend and learn from such teaching
= what makes culture possible
even 1 yo point to things they are naming
only humans engage in such rudimentary teaching behaviours that are not directly tied to survivial
children as product of culture
what is the same and what is different across cultures
processes that produce development are the same - eg guided participation
but content children learn is different
chinese students vs american students (college level) experiment
one problem required solutions analogue to the strategy of leaving a trail of white pebbles like in hansel and gretel (US students far more successful even though they hadn’t heard it in years)
other problem solution - like a chinese fairytale. college students from china were far more successful
chinese vs american earliest first memories
china - included more reference to other people than american did
define intersubjectivity
the mutual understanding that people share during communication
cannot have a conversation without this meeting of minds
is indespensible for effective teaching and learning
define joint attention
a process in which social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment
greatly increases a childs ability to learn from other people
by what age can infants learn novel behaviours by oberving anothers behaviour
6 months
this requires attending to the actions of another person
language learning and joint attention
when adult tells infant name of an object, adult will look or point - children need to be looking in same direction to learn
degree to which infants follow others gaze when learning a new word predicts their later vocab and subsequent language development in general
when are children able to imitate those they think are persuing their goals competently over incompently
8-18 months
example of development of intersubjectivity
older preschoolers and elementary kids are more likely than younger ones to reach agreement with peers than younger ones on rules of a game
are able to take others perspective
define social scaffolding
a process in which more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports children’s thinking at a higher level than children who could not manage on their own
can include task goal, help with the tricky bits etc
allows children to work at a higher level than they would without such help
define autobiographical memories
memories of ones own experiences including ones thoughts and emotions
key area social scaffolding is used on
educational applications of sociocultural theories
us promotes memorization of facts over deep understanding
community of learners programme = 6-12 yo
make groups all study a topic in a theme
10 weeks later groups mixed up so one child from each old group per new group. can now bring their expertise to the table (jigsaur approach)
participating in ommnities of learners yielded both cognitive and moitvational benefits
highly quality solutions made
also mutual respect and responsibility = a culture of learning created
define dynamic-systems theories
a class of theories that focus on how change occurs over time in complex systems
thinking provides an…. purpose
adaptive
helps people and other animals attain their goals
examples of dynamic-systmes research
improved reaching allows infants to cateogirze objects in more advanced ways
the onset of crawling changes infants relationships with family membrs (happy they are crawling but increased vigilance in danger baby now is to themself)
also show children aquire skills at different ages and in different ways and that their development entails regression as well as progress
esther thelen longitudinal research
dynamic-systems
because of individual differences in infants physiology, activity level, arousal, motivation and experience each child faced different challenges in their attempts to master reaching
dynamic-systems theory suggests at all points in development…
thought and action change moment to moment in response to current situation, child immediate past history and child’s long term history in similar situations
development = dynamic
functions as an organized system
motivators of development
dynamic-systems theory
children are strongly internally motivated to leanr about world around them and explore their own capabliities
practice new skills even when have better practiced other skills
eg try to walk when crawling right now would be quicker
observing people = motivator, sociocultural contxt emphasised
the centrality of action
dynamic-systems theory
actions contribute to development throughout life
eg velcro covered mittens, infants grab and explore items they otherwise couldnt
after 2 weeks, now without velcro covered mittens the infants show a greater ability to grab and explore ordinary objects without the mittens than did other infants the same age
so thinking shapes action and action shapes thinking
moving object up down study result
children would categorize with what they were taught to do
so if taught up down then categorized with other up down objects as opposed to if categorized as side to side then categorized with other side to side objects
language aquisiton and centrality of action
experimental manipulations that lead to child stating an incorrect name for an object impaired the childs future attempt to learn objects correct name
actions shape memory example
children’s past attempts to dig up objects they had seen being hidden in a sandbox altered their recall of the objects new location after they saw them being re-hidden
mechanisms of change - dynamic-systems model
changeoccurs through mechanisms of variation and selection that are analougous to those that produce bio evolution
variation = behaviours to persue the same goal (walking, crawling, sliding)
selection = increasingly frequent choice of behaviours what are effective in meeting goals and decreasing use of less effective behaviours
relative success of each approach at meeting a particular goal
efficiency = chose approaches that meet goals more quickly or with less effort
novelty = lure of something new
educational applications of dynamic systems theories
intervention helping preterm infants improve their reaching
caregivers encourage arm movement by tying a bell to infants wrist so when arm moves it rings (to motivate more arm movements), velcro mitten on infant so could reach for velcro toys infront of them
also brought to lab to watch each other
control group = special social experiences (singing, talking = keep them on same schedule as control group)
improvements in both group but most improvement in experimental
also helped preterm infants avoid other tyoes of cognitive and motor impairments related to delayed deveopment of reaching which may facilitate brain development as well
define symbols
systems for representing our thoughts, feelings and knowledge and for communicating them to other people
ability to use them expands our cognitive and communicative power
symbol can be both linguistic and nonlinguistic
by what age is language as developed as in adults
5 yo
mastered basic structure of own language
vocab and powers of expression may be less sophisticated but sentences are gramatically correct
define comprehension
with regard to language, understanding what others say (or sign or write)
define production
with regard to language, speaking (or writing or signing) to others
2 things language requires
comprehension and production
ability to understand preceedes ability to produce
define generativity
refers to the idea that through the use of the finite set of words and morphemes in humans vocab, we can put together an infinite number of sentences and express an infinite number of ideas
this is a cost for young language learners - there is alot of complexity to work out
define phonemes
the elementary units of meaningful sound used to produce languages
define phonological development
the aquistion of knowledge about the sound systme of a language
define morphemes
the smallest unit of meaning in a language, composed of one or more phonemes
define semantic development
the learning of the systen for expressing meaning in a language including word learning
define syntax
rules in a language that specify how words from different categories can be combined
define syntactic development
the learning of the syntax of a language
define pragmatic development and give an example from the book
the aquisition of knowledge about how language is used
some socities would be bizzarre for a stranger to come up and talk to you
what about learning to sign?
same steps to go through
just basic linguistic elements are gestures rather than sounds
there are more than 200 sign languages which are true languages and different from one another just like spoken language
what is crucial for language learning
hearing or seeing a language
an isolated human would not learn language
language is a …. behaviour
species - specific
only humans aquire language in the normal course of development
species-universal
language learning is achieved by typically developing infants across the globe
textbook example of complex nonhuman animal communication
vervet monkeys reveal the presence and identity of predators though specific calls telling their listeners they should look down to avoid a snake or look up to avoid an eagle
-sophisticated for animal standards but limited in scope
textbook example of training animals in language
limited success
Vicki the chimp raised alongside their own children by a couple
Vicki learned to comprehend some words and phrases, she produced virtually no recognizable words
Washoe (chimp) and Koko (gorilla) = ability to communicate with their human trainers and caretakers using manual signs
but were utterances and not language as they contained little evidence of a syntactic structure
kanzi the great ape language learning
observed researchers trying to teach his mother to communicate by using a lexigram board
mum didn’t catch on but kanzi got a vocab of +350
can use his lexigram board to answer questions, make requests and offer comments
often combines symbols but whether this is syntactically structured sentences = unclear
rico the dog language
knew moe thna 200 words and could learn and remeber new words using the same kind of processes that toddlers use
alex the african gray parrot language learning
learned to produce and understand basic english utterances although his skill remained at toddler level
language learning in animals summary
-basic linguistic achievement in animals only come after a great deal of concentrated human effort whereas children master with little explicit teaching
-utterances never progress to showing syntactic structure = defining feature of language
only the human brain can aquire a communicative system with the complexity, structure and generativity of language (and we are rubbish at learning the communicative systems of other specieis)
brain-language relations
hemispheric differences in language (90% right handers language is primarily represented and controlled by left hemisphere)
this specialisation appears early in life (neuroimagin studies = 3 month old show left activation when exposed to nomral speech than reversed speech or silence)
but pitch is detected in the right hemisphere
why
left hemisphere is innately predisposed to process language but not other auditory stimuli
acoustic properties so left to detect differences in timing and right differences in pitch
define critical period for language
the time during which lamguage develops readily and after which (sometime between age 5 and puberty) language aquisition is muhc more difficult and ultimately less successful
case of genie and language learning
LA 1970
18months to 13 years kept tied and locked up in a room alone
when brought food growled at
not spoken to during imprisonment
genie was stunted physically, motorically and emotionally
could barely speak
intensive training made some progress but language never developed much beyond the level of a toddlers
but this does not necessarily support critical period for language hypothesis as may have also been due to her inhumane treatment
some brief evidence other than genie that might support the critical period for language
adults who are way beyond the critical period are more liekly to suffer permanent language impairment from brain damage than are children presumabley because other areas of the young brain are able to take over language functions
adults who learn a second language after puberty use different neural mechanisms to process that language than do adults who learned their second language from infancy
english proficiency of chinese and korena immingrants to us study
had begun learning english either as adults or children
knowledge of key aspects of english grammar was related to age the individuals had begun learning english and not the lenght of exposure to the language
pre 7 yo = most profficient
ASL language in deaf individuals
if aquired as first language as child become more profficient signers than those who auire it as a first language as teens or adults
also great deal of variability among late learners
unknown reasons why some individuals continue to be talented language learners after puberty and most do not
newport less is more hypothesis
perceptual and memory limitations cause young children to extract and store smaller chunks of the language than adults do
because the crucial building blocks of language tend to be quite small (meaning carrying morphemes), young learners limited cognitive ability may actually facilitate the task of analysing and learning language
implications of a critical period in language aquisition
deaf children should be exposed to sign language as soon as possible
foreign language learning in schools should begin in early grades in order to maximise children’s opportunities to achieve native level second language
when does most language directed at infants occur
during routines eg nappy changing, mealtimes and games like peekaboo
when do and evidence infants pick up on speech
identify speech as important
newborn prefer listening to speech rather than artifical sounds
also prefer nonhuman primate vocalizations to nonspeech sounds
show no preference fo speech over macaque vocalizations until 3 months
suggests infants auditory preferences are fine-tuned through experience with human language during their earliest months
define infant directed speech IDS
the distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt when talking to babies and very young children
used to be motherese
used by both males and females including parents and non parents
even young children adopt it when talking to babies
characteristics of IDS
emotional tone - affectionate
exaggeration - slower and higher pitched and swooping, clearer vowels, exaggerated facial expressions
seen in many languages and in sign language
importance of IDS
can communicate info infants don’t know but can work out context = pitch pattern
infants exhibit appropriate facial expression when listening to these pitch patterns even when the language is unfamiliar
aids language development
draws infants attention to speech
infants prefer IDS to adult directed speech even when in another language
learn recognise words better when presented as IDS
greater brain activation to IDS
textbook example culture where motherese is not used explained
solomon islands, micronesia, papua new guinea
infants cannot understand what is said to them so no reason for caregivers to speak to them
baby carried facing outwards so they can engage with other members of the group
if are spoken to the caregiver replies for them
so even though not adressed by caregiver, still immersed in language
two basic necessities infants are born with that equips them for language
human brain
human environment
define prosody
the characteristic rhythm, tmepo, cadence, melody, intonational pattersn and so forth with which a language is spoken
reason why languages are so different rfom one another
when and how does figuring out your own language begin
in the womb
fetus develops a preference for their mothers voice and language they hear her speak
basis for this early learning is prosody
define categorical perception
the perception of speecj sounds as belonging to discrete categories
define voice onset time VOT
the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal chords start vibrating
how has categorical perception been studied
study people’s response to speech sounds
speech synthesiser is used to gradually and continuously change a speech sound into a related one (eg b to p)
two phonemes on an acoustic continuum
difference in these two sounds = VOT
results adults do not perceive the continuous change, instead they hear b repeated several times then they hear and abrupt switch to p
useful as can pay attention to sounds differences in one’s own language
how was it established infants can perceive VOT just like adults do
-study set up
habituation study
1-4 month olds
suck a pacifier hooked up to a computer
harder they sucked more often they’d hear repetitions of a single speech sound
after hearing the same sound would habituate and suck less enthusiatically
when a new sound was played sucking rate would increase (dishabituation) as infants discriminated old sound was different from this new sound
how was it established infants can perceive VOT just like adults do
-stimuli
difference in VOT was always the same
but for one group this resulted in sounds from two different categories eg b and p
for the other group this resulted in two sounds in the same category (ie an adult would perceive both sounds as b)
how was it established infants can perceive VOT just like adults do
-results and further expansions
only showed dishabituation to new category sound and not to same category sound
researchers have established infants show categorical perception of numerous speech sounds from languages around the world
also discovered infants make more distinctions than adults do
-this occurs because any given language uses only a subset of the large variety of phonemic categories that exist. so adults don’t perceive differences in speech sounds in other languages very well (as not important for their native language) but infants do - this also helps explain why it is so hard for adults to learn a second language later in life
so innate ability, experience independent as infants can discriminate sounds they have never heard before
what is the relationship between infants speech perception skills and later language skills
positive correlation
babies who were better at detecting differences between speech sounds at 6 months scored higher on measures of vocab and grammar at 13-24 months of age
when do infants lose their ability to perceive speech sounds not from their own language and explain the study that showed this
12 months
infants from english speaking homes
ability to discriminate speech contrasts not used in english but used in hindi and nthlakapmx
conditioning procedure (turn head to sound source when heard a change in sound and rewarded by an interesting visual display).
6-8 months readily discriminated between the sounds they heard
10-12 months now two hindi syllbles sounded the same
active learning in language textbook example
perceptual narrowing
also infants learned more about the phonetic structure of mandarin from a live interaction with a mandarin speaker than from watching a videotaped one
does perceptual narrowing occur in sign language experiment
tried to determine whether infants who had never been exposed to ASL were able to discriminate between highly similar ASL signs that are different only by the shape of the hand
4 month olds could
by 14 months only infants learning ASL could discriminate
so perceptual narrowing not limited to speech (face perception and musical rythm domains still being discussed
define word segmentation
the process of discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech
word segmentation in infants study in textbook
7 month olds listened to passages of speech with a particular word repeated from sentence to sentence
infants then tested using head turning procedure whether they recognised the words repeated in the sentences (looked at light and when they looked an auditory stimulus would play for as longs as they were looking)
infants listened longer to words that they had heard in the passages of fluent speecht as compared to words they hadn’t heard
so infants were able to pull words out of the stream of speech
what is stress patterning
an elemtn of prosody
in english the first syllable of a two syllable word is more liely to be stressed
by 8 months english learning infants expect stressed syllables to begin words and can use this information to pull words out of fluent speech
define distributional properties
the phenomenon that in any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than are others
distributional properties textbook study
-nonsense word one
infants listened to a 2 minute recording of four different 3 syllable words (nonsense) repeated in a random order with no pauses between the words
on a series of test trials babies were presented with the words they had heard and sequences from the words into new words (eg beginning of one and ending of another)
using preferential listening found infants could discriminate between the words and the sequences that were not words
to do so babies had to register that certain syllables occured together
thus infants used predictable sound patterns to fish words out of the passing stream of speech
distributional properties textbook study
-other languages one
english learning infants
repeatedly heard novel italian words embedded in a long stream of speech sounds
17 month olds readily leatned these sounds as labels for objects
having already learned the sound sequences that made up the words made it easier for infants to associate words with their references
infants and their own name
4.5 months
will listen longer to repetitions of their own name than to repetitions of a different but similar name
a few weeks later can pick their name out of background conversation
helps them learn new words eg thats jerry’s cup = can learn the word cup easier
how speech noises begin in infants and ages
6 to 8 weeks begin to coo - long vowel sounds
vocal gymnastics switching from low grunts to high pitched cries and soft to loud
begin to realise their noises elicit responses from caregivers
infants with more responsive caregivers are more likely to use more mature vocalization patterns
development of language production is influenced by the degree to which caregivers respond to their infants bids for commnuication
babbling begins between 6-10 months (7 is average)
define babbling
repetitive consonant-vowel sequences or hand movements (for learners of sign language) produced during the early phases of langauge development
does babling resemble own language
babies babble a limited set of sounds
some are not part of their native language
english and chinese leanring babies - adult listeners could not tell which language the babies were babling in unless the infants produced actual words
babbling in deaf infants
congenitally deaf babies used
will produce vocalizations similar to hearing babies until about 5 or 6 months
vocal babbling is very late and limited
but is exposed to sign language regularly do babble on schedule manually producing repetitive hand movements that are components of full ASL signs
what is the first indication of communicative competence in infants
turn taking
we must switch between speaking and listening
proposed infants learn this through parent-infant games eg peekaboo where turns are taken
this gives infants practice in bidirectional communication = scaffold on how to use language
also study showed if caregiver gives name of an object just after infant babbles then learning is far more enhanced than if labelled in the ansence of babbling
what is intersubjectivity
tow interacting partners must share a mutual understanding
foundation of it is joint attention
established by parent following babies lead looking and commenting on whatever the baby is looking at
pointing in infants
by 12 month infants begin to understand communicative nature of pointing and are capable of meaningful pointing themselves
define reference
in language and speech the associating of words and meaning
what is the early words infants can distinguish between
6 month mummy and daddy = look to appropriate person
parents understanding of worsd infants understand study
6 month olds look at the correct picture of food and body parts significantly more often than would be expected by chance
parents reported infants did not know the meaning of these words
infants understand far more words than they can produce
same phenomena occurs with autistic toddlers
study showing infants quickly understand words they are presented with
infants moved their eyes to the correct object after hearing its label
15 months wait until whole word presented
24 month olds looked at the correct object after hearing only the first part of its label
context of gender in grmamtical gender language study
toddlers can use the gender of the article preceeding the noun to speed their recognition of the noun itself
when do infants start producing their own words
10-15 months
define holophrastic period
the period when children begin using the words in their small productive vocab one word at a time
eg i want a drink in a cup just say drink
but child with an eye infection might say eye then pause then oww
define overextensions
the use of a given word in a broader context than is appropriate
happens because young children want totalk about more than their limited vocab allows
eg dog for any four legged animal or daddy for any man
is an effort to communicate rather than a lack of knowledge
study could point to correct picture when named but could not produce the correct name on their own
rate of word learning general overview
first word and slow growth of vocab of about 50 words by 18 months
vocabularly spurt after this
context importances to word learning
new words that are used in very distinct contexts like the bathroom are produced earlier than words that are used accross a wide range of contexts
contexts can be very specific
eg infatns learn solid substance names over non-solid substances but do better at learning non-solid when seated in a high chair (context when regularly encounter non-solid food)
also learnt more easily when objects are in the same location each time they are labelled
language develpoemtn and SES
longitudinal study - speech recorded over 3 year period = parent on welfare, child received half as much linguistic experience as child of working class parents who in turn received a third of the child of a professional parent.
over time = huge differences
policy initiatives to combat
this is a problem as the number of words children hear predicts the number of words they learn
even within SES = difference eg californian spanish speaking parents, children whose families used more infant directed speech had larger vocabs and were faster at processing words 6 months later.
physical environment matters - toddlers find it harder to learn in noisier environments (eg overcrowding in poverty)
so peer issues in classrooms where kids all from low SES backgrounds but can be oversome by excpetional teacher vocab
interventions
-reach out and read - primary care physicians model and give out books
-signs in shops encouragin parents to talk to their kids (only worked in low SES neighbourhoods)
-educated parents about how it matters
-teacher training
technology and language learning
adults use - eg duolingo
many products eg dummies claim to promote speech production
study
parent teaching vocab, watch educational DVD with parent interaction, watch DVD alone, control
best results in parent teaching, then combined then video alone resembled contorl condition
-side not more the parents liked the dvd, the more likely they were to overestimate its positive effects
infants interacting from live skype do better than prerecorded human
children may have delight at apps for them but studies not showing them to have any effect on children but adults often think they work really well
may be detrimantal as less interaction
-when playing with electronic toys, parents talked/IDS less and were less responsive to their infants
-also parents own use of tech could hinder child interactions
define fast mapping
the process of rapidly learning a new word simply from hearing the constractive use of a familiar and the unfamiliar word
study showing fast mapping
during everyday activities experimenter drew child’s attention to two trays - one red and an uncommon colour (chromium)
after a single exposure about half the children showed some knowledge of it 1 week later correctly picking out chromium from an array of paint chips
what type of infants are less liekly to rely on mutual exclusivity principle
bilingual and trilingual - used to hearing many names for the same object
study showing children’s response to linguistic context of new words
shown action of kneading a mass of amterial in a container
either told sibbing, sib or some sib
depending on these labels children consequently interpreted sib as the action, container or material
2 and 3 yo children can use grammatical category of a novel word
shape bias
children are guided by objects shape even if the object is dramatically different in size, colour and texture
eg cone = mountain
what is cross-situational word learning
infants can narrow down the possible meaning of a new word
so four novel objects and one called dax
but accross experiences the child can observe that dax is said when one of the objects is always present and thus this object is probably dax
define syntactic bootstrapping and give textbook example
the strategy of using the grammatical structure of whole sentences to figure out meaning
duck and rabbit both waving right arm but duck also pushing on rabbits head
depending how the verb “kradding” was put in the sentence changed child’s interpretation of this new verb
children used the structure of the sentence to determine its meaning
infants chaging use of nonlinguistci words for object labels development
13-18 months can map an experiemnters gestures or nonverbal sounds onto a novel object as readily as they map words
20-26 months only accept words as names
so learn early strings of phonemes are more liekly to carry meaning than other types of sounds
development of putch understanding in english infants
14 month olds will believe pitch changes alters meanings of words
by 19 months no longer treat pitch changes as meaning changes
again an example of perceptual narrowing
when do children begin to combine words into simple sentences
end of 2nd year
when do we think infants start to understand sentences (even though are not producing them yet)
preferential looking paradigm
17 month olds viewed a pair of videotapes of cookie monster tickling big bird and big bird tickling cookie monster
when asked where is cookie monster tickling big bird they looked preferentially at ath eappropriate screen showing that they understood the meaning of the sentence evem if could not have produced this sentence
define telegraphic speech
the term describing childrens first sentences that are generally two-word utterance eg more juice
do tend to get word order correct in these utterances
children’s understanding of grammar onto novel words study
shown a picture of a nonsense animal and told its called a wug. then shown two wugs and children would reply wugs as young as 4 = understand pluralisation
so can generalise rules onto new words
define overregularization
explain an example of when it happens in development
speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
children initially use correct terms eg men and went
but then make overregulization erros and start to use mans and goed
then master irregular forms but even then might alternate at first
parents role in learning grammar
parents don’t tend to correct them -tend to correct semantics instead
children learn grammar instead through listening to and learning fairly complex patterns and generalizing them
define collective monologue
conversation between children that involves a series of non sequiturs, the contect of each child’s turn having littel or nothing to do with what the other child has just said
define narratives
descriptions of past events that have the basic structure of a story
how do childrens capacity for conversation progress
at first collective monologue
then increase to utteances on the same topic of conversation
then narratives being around age 5
parents actively encourage this and scaffold it
what is pragmatic conversation
allows children to understand how language is used to communicate
develops over preschool years
learn to take perspective of conversational partner
also learn to use info other than words to interpret meaning
childs development of conversation perspective taking is realted to their level of executive function
differences in conversation perspective taking in bilinguals and multilingual households
in tasks that require children to take the experimenters perspective, monolinguals do worse than bilinguals also mono do worse than infants who whilst not bilingual live in multilingual environments
diverse linguistic environment = attune children to the challenges of communication and the need to take the perpectives of others to effectively communicate
overview of later language development
post 5/6 yo is much less dramatic as foundations are in place
become increasingly capable of reflecting upon and analysing language use
master more complex grammr like passive constructions
increasing appreciation of pun jokes and riddles
able to learn new words just from having them defined = hughe vocab expansions
skinner view of language
verbal behaviour
behaviourist
reinforcement and punishment
parents teach children language
what does generativity mean
we can understand and produce sentences that we have never heard before
arguement against skinner
define universal grammar and whose idea was this
a proposed set of highly abstract, unconscious rule that are common to all languages
chomsky
what school of thought is chomsky
nativist
according to chonsky why do animals not learn languages
no universal grammar
what does domain specific and domain general mean in the context of language learning
specific - cognitive and neural mechanisms that underly language learning evolved soley to support or language or
general - they are used for many different kinds of things
social influence on babbling textbook example
both the sounds infatns produce and the rate at which they produce them while babbling can be influenced by parental reinforcement, such as smiling and touching in response to the babbling
= some aspect of behaviourism
so to what extent does social behaviour influence over aspect of language development (syntax etc) = unclear
define modularity hypothesis
the idea that the human brain contains an innate, self-contained language module that is separate from other aspects of cognitive functioning
chomsky view of domain specific vs general
specific
innate module
textbook evidence supporting domain general
may be innate
ditributed learning mechanisms help infants track sequences of musical notes, visual shapes and human actions
fast-mapping mechanisms that support word learning = used by toddlers to learn facts about objects
define connectionism
a types of information processing appraoch that emphasizes the simultaneous activity of numerous interconnected processing units
connectionist models of language learning
computational models
both innate structure and the environment input to a computerized learner and attmept to determine what is crucial when stimulating children’s language aquisition
software learns from experience, gradually strengthening certain connections among units in ways that mimic childs developmental progress
sucesss in describing past tense in english and development of shape bias for word learning
but criticism on features that were inbuilt into the models in the first place
when does the use of gestures start
early
infants often produce recognizable meaningful gestures before they speak recognizable words
link between gestures and language learning
more children gestured at 14 months, larger their spoken vocabulary at 42 months
again differences seen based on SES
gestures made by deaf children of non signing parents
created home signs in order to communicate with one another
children’s gesture vocab quickly outstripped that of their parents
children (but not their parents) imposed a structure on their gestures
same occurs in children learning ASL from parents who learned ASL later in life (so know it without grammar), children will impose grammar / structure onto it
textbook example of nicaraguan sign language
large scale education program brought deaf children together in two schools
for most children was their first exposure to other deaf children
no one had a formal sign language
constructed a pidgin language based of their own home signs
as younger students came in they learned this new sign language rapidly and developed it into a complex fully consistent language with its own grammar
most fluent ones are currently the youngest as they aquired it at the earliest age
israel sign language - ABSL
third generation, about 75 years old
tends to be aquired from birth as one deaf adult somewhere in the family
grammatical structure does not resemble that of the local spoken language (arabic and hebrew)
who are defined as late talkers
development going normally apart from vocab development which is lagging or below 10th percentile
will go on to have normal or near normal language skills
late talking toddlers with better word recognition skills - as measured by eye movements are more likely to catch up
those who fail to catch up = specific language impairment (may also have general challenges in working memory etc)
ASD and languauge
tends to be significantly delayed
language abilities are predictive of later outcomes including response to treatment
younger siblings of ASD have a higher rate of language delay than their peers
longitudinal study - infants at risk of ASD, those with lower vocab scores were more likely to be diagnosed ASD later
williams and language
no such delay seen like ASD and downs
tend to be interested in music and other auditory stimuli
lamguage learning in deaf with cochlear implants (CIs)
CI = worse input than normal hearing
varying levels of success in lnaguage learning
younger implantation is better
though always are less accurate and slower to recognise words than their hearing peers
so billingual (sign and spoken) may be most successful route to language aquisition
define dual representation
the idea that a symbolic artifact must be represented mentally in two ways at the same time - both as a real object and as a symbol for something other than itself
young children and dual representation
study
struggle
limits the information they cna get from symbolic artifacts
big room little room study discussed in lectures
maths and symbols
often use beads etc to oeanr about counting
but these symbols may be vulnerable to dual representation = only serve to confuse
use of dolls in sexual abuse with children cases
children younger than 5 are unable to make any connection between themself and the doll so the use of the doll could make their reports more unreliable
children have particular problems understanding self symbols
now we try ask open-ended questions and mayb eencourage drawings etc
cultures children are exposed to pictures where not exposed to pictures…
if exposed to pictures are more likely to understand pictures can serve as symbols
development of drawing in children
at first purely engaged int he act of drawing = scribbles
age 3/4 most try to draw pictures of something
then produce representational art - the age at which children are exposed to representational symbols affects the age at which children begin to produce them
often artistic desire outstrips motor and planning abilities
most common drawings = people
children’s scribbles and writing understanding
age 3 different scribbles when writing vs drawing
age 4 undersatnd key difference that written words - one spoekn word whereas drawing is many spoken words
