I. THINKING AND REASONING
1. Cognition - Cognition refers to all mental activities
associated with thinking, knowledge, and memory.
2. Concepts - Concepts are mental categories for objects,
events, experiences, or ideas that are similar to one another
in some respect. They help us understand the world by helping
us represent it mentally. They may be represented in the mind
in several ways such as through visual images.
3. Propositions - Thinking frequently involves relating
one concept to another. Propositions are sentences that relate
one concept to another and can stand as a separate assertion.
For example, you could say "All professors are smart."
You have a concept of what professors are and what smart is and
you are linking them together.
4. Reasoning - Reasoning is simply drawing conclusions
from available information. Formal reasoning derives conclusions
from specific premises. This is what you may have had in a logic
class. All men are pigs. John is a man. Therefore John is a pig.
Everyday reasoning is less formal. It does not work on
clear premises. You may say "John is a pig" but there
is no clear premise that leads to that conclusion.
5. Errors in Reasoning - There are a number of things
that can cloud our reasoning such as our emotions and beliefs.
The confirmation bias is our tendency to focus heavily
on evidence that confirms our initial preconceptions. For example,
if you are in favor of abortion rights you may read only those
reports supporting your belief. If you are anti-abortion you may
read only those things that supports that view. When you are exposed
to the opposing viewpoint you may discount it.
6. Reasoning Effectively - The book gives some suggestions
to reason more effectively. They are (1) Examine and test
all premises. In other words, don't except a premise until you
have tested it, it may be flawed. (2) Guard against the
confirmation bias. Recognize that you don't know everything and
that there are other points of view. Actively seek out opposing
points of view. (3) Recognize the role of emotions. Try
not to make decisions when you are highly emotional.
LANGUAGE
I. Background
1. Definition of Language - A small number of individually
meaningless signals (sounds, letters, gestures) that can be combined
according to agreed on rules to produce an infinite number of
messages.
2. Amazing - That's amazing. You start out with just a
few meaningless sounds. From there you can make thousands of words
which can be combined using rules (grammar) to produce an infinite
number of messages.
3. Inventive - Language is also an inventive tool. What
we say or hear in a given situation is not merely a repetition
of what we heard in the past, we create novel utterances on the
spot or a number of different topics. Yet, although you come up
with these new things to say, other people can understand you
as long as you adhere to the rules and conventions of the language
you are using.
4. Learning Language - Language is very complicated yet
children in all cultures come to understand and use language at
a very early age. By 5, children not only understand most grammatical
rules but can construct complex, adultlike sentences even though
they have had no formal training in language. It appears effortless.
II. Theories of Language Development
A. Learning Theories
1. Reinforcement Model - In 1957 Skinner published a book
entitled "Verbal Behavior" in which he argued that children
learn to speak appropriately because they are reinforced for grammatical
speech. Specifically, adults shape a child's language by selectively
reinforcing those aspects of babbling that are most like adult
speech, thereby increasing the likelihood that those sounds will
be repeated. Once they have shaped sounds into words, they shape
words into sentences, and then longer sentences, and so on until
the child talks like an adult.
2. Brown, Cazden, & Bellugi (1969) - Study to test
reinforcement theory. If reinforcement theory plausible, then
parents should reinforce grammatical speech while discouraging
ungrammatical utterances. They recorded conversations between
mothers and their young children and found that in most cases
found that mother's approval or disapproval depended on the truth
value of the child's statement rather than on correct grammar.
For example, when one child said "He a girl." (truthful
but grammatically incorrect) the mother said "That's right."
When the child said "There's the animal farmhouse" when
pointing to a lighthouse (grammatically correct but untruthful)
the mother corrected her. It appears parents pay little attention
to their child's early grammar.
3. Imitation - This would be consistent with a behavioral
perspective. They hear someone else say something and receive
reinforcement so they are more likely to repeat it. It has been
shown that children do learn the names for things by hearing others
use those names. Problem comes with grammar. Bloom et al report
that children do not readily imitate a grammatical rule until
they have already used that principle at least once in spontaneous
speech. Imitation may therefore help the child apply rules but
not acquire them.
6. Conclusion - There appears to be a learning component
in language development but it cannot fully explain a lot that
goes on, especially in the area of grammar.
B. Nativist Perspective (Maturational)
1. Noam Chomsky - Took issue with Skinner and said operant
conditioning could not fully explain language acquisition. There
was no way children could learn proper grammar by listening to
adults who frequently don't talk very well. He thought there was
an innate capacity, there is a biological program to acquire language.
2. Language Acquisition Device (LAD) - Sort of like a "black-box"
for understanding the regularities of speech and fundamental relationship
of words. It is just their unique, inborn capacity for language
learning. Basically when they hear someone else use a new linguistic
principle, they can detect it and apply it to their own speech.
3. Support for Nativist Position
(1) Brain Specialization - Major language centers
are located in the left cerebral hemisphere. Studies show that
from birth speech sounds elicit more electrical activity from
left side of brain. Infants are also able to discriminate important
contrasts (Ba - Pa) very early in life. These finding imply infant
is wired for speech.
(2) Critical Period Hypothesis - Preschool children
seem to have easiest time acquiring language. Believed to be between
2 and puberty. Support: Children who suffer brain damage before
puberty usually recover their lost language functioning without
special help. If damage after puberty you need extensive therapy
just to get part of language back. Due to plasticity, right hemisphere
takes over functioning.
(3) Linguistic Universals - If language is maturational
all children should proceed through the same stages in acquiring
their first language. This appears to be the case. Children with
Down's Syndrome also proceed through the same stages but at a
slower pace.
4. Problems With Nativist Approach
(1) Critical period is not the only time you can learn
language. Studies show that with intensive training, adults do
learn a foreign language at about same rate as children. Also,
there have been cases of neglected children who had very little
language when discovered after puberty but they learned language
very rapidly.
(2) LAD was mainly developed to explain things researchers
couldn't explain. There is no evidence to show it does exist.
5. Conclusion - Just about everyone agrees that there is
a biological component but a strict nativist position is incomplete.
C. Interactionist Perspective
1. Interactionist Viewpoint - Both biological factors and
the linguistic environment combine to influence language development.
What is innate is not any specialized linguistic capacity but,
rather, a nervous system that predisposes children to develop
similar ideas at about the same time. Focus is on cognitive development.
III. Definition of Terms
1. Phoneme - The smallest unit of sound that distinguishes
one utterance from another by signaling a difference in meaning.
Languages differ in the number and kinds of phonemes they contain.
English has about 45.
2. Morpheme - The smallest unit of a language that by itself
has a recognizable meaning. It is a word or part of word. For
example, word is one morpheme because it can not be broken down.
Words; however, is two morphemes (word and s).
3. Syntax - Consists of the rules by which words and morphemes
are combined to form larger units such as clauses and sentences.
Standard word order in English is subject-verb-object (She painted
the picture). Other languages may be different.
4. Semantics - The study of meanings, how the sounds of
language are related to the real world. Example: As adults if
I said the sound "dog" you probable have an identifiable
object of which you all agree. Children may not. Dog could mean
any 4 legged animal for example.
IV. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
1. Infant's Reaction to Language - By 3 days of age an
infant already recognizes his mother's voice and prefers it to
other female voices. Young infants will suck harder to hear recorded
speech than instrumental music. They therefore can discriminate
speech very early in life.
2. Vocalizations - Infants are capable of vocalizing at
birth and utter a number of speech-like sounds before they utter
their first word. These vocal abilities develop in a step-like
fashion over the first 10-12 months.
(1) Crying - Neonates are capable of producing at least
3 kinds of cries - a hunger cry, a mad cry, and a pain cry. During
third week of life, many neonates develop a fake cry, they are
not in discomfort or distress. One function is attention but it
is also believed that it calms infant.
(2) Cooing - At about 3-5 weeks infants start to produce
new sounds that are associated with pleasure. Vowel-like sound
such as "oooh" or "aaah". Come when baby is
awake, alert, dry, and contented.
(3) Babbling - At 3-4 months they add consonant sounds
and by beginning of first year they are making consonant/vowel
combinations such as "ka" and "ga." Soon the
infant begins to repeat these combination "baba" or
"kaka" that may sound like meaningful speech and this
is babbling. Sounds that are made are very similar across cultures.
Babbling continues until about 12-18 months. Deaf kids babble
about same time as normal children but stop at about 8-9 months.
This would suggest a maturational component in onset but environmental
stimulation for it to continue. It appears its major function
is to tune the speech muscles, to gain motor control over speech
muscles to get ready for forthcoming verbalizations.
3. First Words - First word usually appears by end of first
year. At first vocabulary is limited to one or two words that
may be understandable only to family like "ba" for ball
or "awa" for water. At first vocabulary increases very
slowly, one word at a time, it usually takes about 3-4 months
before vocabulary is 10 words. One they reach 10 words; however,
the pace quickens. By 19-20 months working vocabulary of about
50 words and by 24 months vocabulary of about 186 words. Most
of their first 50 to 100 words are objects instead of actions.
4. Telegraphic Speech - At about 18-30 months children
combine words into simple sentences, starting with 2-word utterances.
Called telegraphic because they resemble the abbreviated language
of a telegram. They consist solely of content words and omit less
meaningful parts of speech like "Where ball?"
5. Preschool Period - Ages 2 1/2 to 5. They begin to produce
lengthier sentences but important part is increase in complexity
of sentences.
6. Refinement of Language - Although most of the English
language system has been acquired by age 5, certain forms of syntax
pose a problem for several years. They also learn more irregular
verbs and nouns, become better in use of personal pronouns, etc.