PSYC1001 Developmental Psychology Lecture 5 2024 PDF

PSYC1001: Developmental Psychology Lecture 5: Language Development 1 Background Language development We will cover two topics today: 1. Major theoretical approaches to language development 2. How language helps us think...

PSYC1001: Developmental Psychology Lecture 5: Language Development 1 Background Language development We will cover two topics today: 1. Major theoretical approaches to language development 2. How language helps us think 2 Background Language development Why does language get “special attention”? Some have thought language is the critical difference between humans and other animals. Critical for thinking and problem solving, socialising, cultural transmission. 3 Language Development: Nature or Nurture 4 Background Aspects of language Four aspects of language: (I) Phonology: The sounds used by the speakers of a language. (II) Semantics: The meaning of words and utterances. (III) Grammar/Syntax: The form or structure of a language - rules for combining words into meaningful sentences. (IV) Pragmatics: The principles specifying how language is used in conversation; how discourse is structured. 5 Syntax at the center of the field Aspects of language (III) Grammar/Syntax: The form or structure of a language - rules for combining words into meaningful sentences. Where biggest debates about the nature of language development have focused. 6 Three approaches to language development Empiricists (e.g., Skinner, Bandura) – learning approach (nurture) Nativists (Chomsky, Pinker) – innate language knowledge/learning guidelines (nature) Interactionist/Constructivist (Bates, Tomasello) – domain-general maturation and cognitive/social learning account for language, language emerges/is constructed from other faculties 7 Empiricist/Behaviourist Approach Skinner: Acquisition via positive reinforcement for saying words and sentences. e.g., frequency of maternal responsiveness at 9 months predicts language acquisition at 17 months Bandura: Social learning perspective - learning by imitation and reinforcement. But: “Babies communicate because they are social beings” Research implies that babies only learn when parents are actively involved 8 Nativists 9 Nativists Biological programming Noam Chomsky: Humans have an inborn capacity for language learning, a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) – a set of perceptual and cognitive abilities that analyse linguistic input. 10 Nativists Noam Chomsky: Reinforcement learning (proposed by behaviorist) and learning-through-action mechanisms (as proposed by Piaget) cannot explain the acquisition of human language. Human language is too computationally complex. Language is composed of abstract syntactic rules that can generate an infinite number of novel sentences, that don’t even have to make any sense! “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” 11 Nativists Recursion: Sentences can be embedded within sentences, e.g.: The man is tall. The man who likes cats is tall. The man who likes cats that went to the store yesterday is tall. The man who likes cats that went to the store yesterday to pick up a new tie to match his shirt is tall. Chomsky argued you can’t get that from Skinner’s or Piaget’s “general learning mechanisms.” Thus, language must have special innate properties. 12 Nativists Recursion: Sentences can be embedded within sentences No other primate communication system shows recursion. Other primates communicate with a very limited number of messages, while human language is infinitely generative. Bird song can show recursion in the structure of their notes, but manipulating small sequences of their notes does not change the meaning of the song. Evidence that whale/dolphin communication shows recursion. More research needed. 13 Interactionist-Constructivist Language acquisition is a product of the interaction between maturation and environmental factors and is tied to cognitive development. Bates (1993): “What might be innate is not any specialised linguistic knowledge or processing skill but a sophisticated brain and CNS that matures very slowly and predisposes children to develop similar ideas at about the same age - ideas that they are then motivated to express in their own speech” Language emerges from domain-general cognitive and social learning mechanisms 14 Interactionist-Constructivist 15 Interactionist-Constructivist Outside the domain of language, many more sophisticated learning mechanisms, and social reasoning capabilities have been researched since Skinner and Piaget. For example, artificial neural networks can pass the “wug” test. Tomasello (2003) synthesises the evidence and puts together a strong argument that these more powerful learning mechanisms can explain the complexities of language without the need for a Universal Grammar. 16 Syntax development: Summary Skinner and Bandura applied behaviourist and social learning principles to language development. Chomsky argued that language is too complex to be learned by the learning mechanisms of behaviorism and Piaget. Thus, language must have an innate special learning device. Interactionists-Constructivists suggest that brain maturation and domain-general cognitive mechanisms more powerful than 1950’s psychology understood can explain human language. 17 How words help us think 18 Cognitive development in Language Piaget development in early childhood Vocabulary explosion (approx 2 - 6 years) Children’s vocabulary grows from 100-2000 words at age 2, to 5000-20,000 words at age 7 What does learning words do for us? The meanings of words are concepts. Can we have concepts without words? 19 Gentner: Natural Partitions Hypothesis The world is partitioned into objects and the relations between objects. Objects are perceptually cohesive. blanket Language is probably not woman needed to form object concepts bucket broom 20 Gentner: Natural Partitions Hypothesis Relations among objects are perceptually less defined, so there are more varied ways to walking away/ close to the garden represent them. Language becomes left of the maid/ north of the maid critical for learning washing/ concepts of obeying orders relations. leaning against/ next to the bucket 21 Gentner: Natural Partitions Hypothesis 3 year olds told to find match between top row and bottom row: pick the same sized object and not the same relative middle object. However, when the first row described as “daddy, mommy, baby” children pick the middle object. Language helps children understand abstract/relational commonalities. 22 Carey: Core Knowledge and Conceptual Change in learning numbers Core knowledge for numbers (shared by infants and animals): Two components: 1: Precise number of small sets can distinguish 2 dots from 3 dots 2: Analog magnitude scale can distinguish large quantities from others (vaguely) 350 dots from 500 dots, not 350 dots from 352 dots To learn maths, clearly something needs to change. There needs to be a new conceptual system. Carey says language provides this 2nd conceptual system. 23 Carey: Core Knowledge and Conceptual Change in learning numbers 2 year olds often can count to 10 and beyond, but this doesn’t mean they know what those words mean 24 Carey: Core Knowledge and Conceptual Change in learning numbers 25 Carey: Core Knowledge and Conceptual Change in learning numbers A culture without number languages, therefore no numerical thought? 26 Carey: Core Knowledge and Conceptual Change in learning numbers 27 Gelman: Conceptual Essentialism When children form categories, they assume they are not arbitrary sets Children (and adults) assume that categories have underlying essences: qualities that define categories – Revealed by generic language e.g., “birds lay eggs” though actually, only female birds Giving a category a label indicates an essence to a child, and labeling an individual as a member of a category assigns the category’s essence to that individual “Sarah is a carrot-eater” vs. “Bec eats carrots” Children think the Sarah is more likely to eat carrots in the face of adversity, etc. Labels can create stronger stereotypes! 28 In General: The more children are exposed to language in a particular domain, the faster they tend to develop in that domain. For example More spatial words in input predicts increased spatial reasoning. – Susan Levin & Susan Goldin-Meadow: parents and children putting puzzles together → more spatial words = quicker spatial reasoning development More mental-state words in inputs predicts increased ability to reason about people’s mental states. – e.g., Marc de Rosnay: words like think, know, believe, want, like 29 Different language → different thought? http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/09/can-your-language- influence-your-spending-eating-and-smoking-habits/279484/ 30 Language development Take home messages Chomsky argued that language is too complex to be learned by the learning mechanisms of behaviorism and Piaget. Thus, language must have an innate special learning device. Interactionists suggest that brain maturation and domain- general cognitive and social learning mechanisms more powerful than 1950’s psychology understood can explain human language. Language may be necessary for abstract thought: to understand relations among objects and events, and specifically to understand numbers. Language can attribute essences to categories and individual category members. Domain-specific language input increases domain-specific cognitive development. 31