PSYCH 2AA3 IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS?

Behaviourist Perspective

• Skills are acquired through classical and operant conditioning principles

• Infants and children imitate waht they hear —> rewarded for using words correctly with attention, smiles, conversation, help accomplish goals

• Infants and children do not receive reward if they do not speak

Behavioursit perspective: limitations

• Cannot explain novel combinations and uses of words

• Tiger age 5: I know two swear words that start with s

• Canot explain underextension and overextension

• Parents rarely correct grammar of their children

Nativist Perspective

• Noam Chomsky 1957

• Humans are born with neural circuits that allow for the acquisition of grammar, the language acquisition device

• Semantic bootstrapping theory: brain is ready to categorize the world into nouns (people/things) and verbs (actions)

• This innate knowledge about the world allows for language acquisition

• Universal grammar: every language has sibject, verb, and object. This system allows infants to acquire grammar with minimal guidance

Bootstrapping

• Using existing resources to benefit you

• Semantic bootstrapping: if you already know that words tend to be things and actions, you can use this knowledge to learn new words

Support for Universal Grammar

1. Specific brain regions for processing language including grammar

2. Only humans learn grammar readily

3. Children develop language with little/no formal input

4. Critical period for learning

5. Development of grammar is tied to the development of vocabulary

1. Damage to Brain Regions

• Broca’s aphasia: difficulty with speech production

• Wernicke’s aphasia: difficulty with meaningful speech or fluent aphasia

• Words are flowing but without meaning

• In healthy brains, two areas work in unison to produce meaningful speech

2. Animal Communication

• Animals have a veriety of communicative methods

• Vervet monkeys have different alarm calls to signal approach of leapords, eagles, or snakes

Apes and Sign Language

• many efforts 1970s, to teach apes language (e.g Dr Sue Savage Rumbaugh)

• Sign language or the use of lexicons (symbols) because their vocal apparatus does not provide fine control over voice

• Smartest bonobo ape, Kanzi learned hundred of lexicons and could understand and produce english words

Bonobos use 2-word sentences

Is language unique to humans

Yes!

• Non human animals can learn words as in associations between symbols and actual things/actions (one to one mapping)

• No animal has shown mastery of syntax

• By 4 years, children use syntax correctly without explicit instruction

• Kanzi’s mastery of language is said to be about a 3yr olds level

3. Children learn grammar: soundless environment

• Sing language has a morphology and syntax (not just symbols)

• Babies learn sign language from their deaf parents in the same way as hearing children who learn spoken language

• Begins with babbling (waving around of hands/fingers), then 1 eord signs, and eventually 2-3 word utterances (3 word utterance has proper syntac)

• If modality does not matter, seems to support innate LAD

Children learn grammar: Lack of vision

• Blind Children go through same developmental steps of acquiring language as sighted children

• Interesting differences in interpretation

• Eg “Look up!”

• Blindfolded typical infants will tilt their head up

• Blind infants will raise their hands up in the air

Sadato et al. (1996)

• Blind individuals reading Braille with thier fingers show activation in the visual cortex

• Tactile discrimination activates visual cortex bc fine discriminations of letters and wholistic interpretation of letters into words is best served by visual cortex

4. Critical/Sensitive Periods

• Recall the stories of the wild boy of Aveyron and Genie

• Isabelle a 6yr old was also rescued from deprivation but one year later was speaking as well as her peers

• Inability to learn langauge after 13-14 years of deprivation suggests innate LAD

5. Vocabulary and Grammar

• Children not only learn new words, but learn the position of words simultaneously

• “You do it”, not “Do it you

• Billingual children’s vocabulary and grammar are correlated within each language but not across languages

• Billingual children do not confuse the grammar of two languages

Cognitive Perspective

• Cognitive development allows infants and children to extract statistical regularities from their perceptual environment

• Statistical inference is a manifestation of powerful cognitive abilities not a universal grammar

• Evidence: Infants’ vocabulary improves as memory improves

• Limitation: cannot explain WIlliams syndrome (low intelligence but high verbal ability

Social Perspective

• Children master language in the context of social interactions

• Note: Adults learn a new language best when their new gf/bg is a native speaker of that language (motivation)

• Can incorporate behaviourist, nativist, and cognitive perspectives

• Provides a different level of analysis