Ch 8 184 - 194 , 201 -207

Front 1

How did Descartes view language?

Back 1

Thought that human language was innate, creative, voluntary, and expressed rational thought;

Cartesian view: language as a vehicle for the expression of interal events

Front 2

What two assumptions does the chapter make?

Back 2

1) Language is behavior (verbal behavior)
2) Verbal behavior is determined by the same general variables as other behavior, namely, phylogenetic and ontogenetic causes`

Front 3

What do many philosophers and some modern linguists believe?

Back 3

That nonhumans are incapable of human language

Front 4

What research refutes this belief?

Back 4

The teaching of ASL to chimpanzees and gorillas

Front 5

What was one of the first documented efforts to teach a chimpanzee to talk?

Back 5

Viki; after 6 years of training she could only say 3 or 4 words because she did not have the vocal apparatus

Front 6

Washoe

Back 6

Chimp that acquired a 132 word ASL vocabulary

Front 7

What did Chomsky's structural theory of language suggest?

Back 7

-humans are born with an innate (cognitive capacity) to acquire language
-children only need brief exposure to the language of others to develop language
-universal grammar has evolved according to natural selection

Front 8

What evidence is there for a universal grammar?

Back 8

All languages possess similar grammatical forms

-deep structure
-surface structure

Front 9

What did Palmer challenge?

Back 9

Chomsky's contention that a universal grammar has evolved in the human species because CHomsky offered no info about specific structures in the brain or the relationship between them and a language structure

Front 10

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Back 10

Chomsky claimed each child is "pre-wired" with a LAD;

contains a collection of basic rules of grammar common to all languages;

used to transform deep structures into surface structures

Front 11

What did Owens say?

Back 11

That the LAD theory is too simplified and provides an inadequate explanation of language;

reification

Front 12

What does Chomsky's approach emphasize?

Back 12

-Syntax (grammar)
-Phonetics (the study of the constituent sounds of words)
-Semantics (the study of word meaning)

Front 13

Leonard Bloomfield

Back 13

argued that the facts of language are observable phenomena (behavior) that could be studied without inferring mental factors

Front 14

What did Bloomfield believe the verbal behavior of people resulted from?

Back 14

Resulted from interacting with other people

Front 15

Where is the meaning of any utterance to be found according to Bloomfield?

Back 15

In the circumstances in which it occurs

Front 16

What book on language did B.F. Skinner write?

Back 16

Verbal Behavior

Front 17

What did Skinner consider language?

Back 17

An operant behavior;

behavior that is determined by its consequences

Front 18

Verbal behavior

Back 18

-reinforced through the mediation of other people who are taught to reinforce such behavior
-acquired and maintained as a result of the effects on the environment (social)
-effects on the environment are indirect

Front 19

What two functions does a listener perform?

Back 19

-conditions verbal behavior in new speakers (i.e. children)
-teaches new speakers to become listeners

Front 20

How does the traditional approach see the meaning of an utterance?

Back 20

As inside the speaker

Front 21

Multiple causation

Back 21

any given verbal response usually has multiple functions simultaneously and is under the proximate control of more than one antecedent stimulus

Front 22

What is the goal of the scientific analysis of verbal behavior?

Back 22

To identify the proximate and ultimate variables responsible for verbal behavior

Front 23

What does the shaping of babbling into functional verbal behavior depend on?

Back 23

Operant conditioning

Front 24

Automatic reinforcement

Back 24

-one of the most powerful, yet subtle, forms of reinforcement
-reinforcement that is a natural result of behavior when it operates upon the behaver's own body or the surrounding world

Front 25

What does automatic reinforcement not require?

Back 25

Direct mediation by other people

Front 26

What is the immediate consequence (reinforcement) of babbling?

Back 26

The sound that is produced

Front 27

Hows does automatic reinforcement play into the development of babbling?

Back 27

Infant constantly hears the sounds of the language community.

Constant correlation of these sounds with other stimulus events establishes sounds as conditioned reinforcers.

Shaping occurs in which the closer the match between what the infant has heard and what the infant produces, the stronger the reinforcing effect

Front 28

How do accents develop?

Back 28

Automatic reinforcement

Front 29

What variables play a critical role in the acquisition and development of vocal speech?

Back 29

Environmental variables

Front 30

Structural approach to language analyses

Back 30

breaks down development of speech into stages;

can be used to check for developmental problems

Front 31

Single word utterances

Back 31

occur at about 10 - 13 months of age;

often nouns;

consist of single consonant vowel units (CV) or series of CV units;

usually soft "a" sound of "father"

Front 32

Holophrases

Back 32

words that have more complex meanings for the child;

verbal responses evoked by a nonverbal object because of social reinforcement;

e.g. Daddy's "daddy's shoes"

Front 33

Multiword Combinations

Back 33

18 - 24 months;

two word combinations that consist of nouns, verbs, and adjectives;

telegraphic speech

Front 34

Telegraphic speech

Back 34

like telegraph messages;

these words are all that are necessary for reinforcement in the form of some reaction from the parents

Front 35

What is verbal behavior first and foremost?

Back 35

Social behavior;

exists primarily because of its social functions

Front 36

What two general functions does verbal behavior have?

Back 36

1) Asking for things
2) Describing the environment for others

Front 37

Rules

Back 37

the descriptions of relations among stimuli and responses;

mimic the effects of conditioning, both classical and operant, by producing novel behavior-environment relations

Front 38

Why are rules physical stimuli to a listener?

Back 38

Because they involve a speaker's behavior

Front 39

What are rules analogs to?

Back 39

Classical and operant conditioning

Front 40

What are three important features of social/observational learning?

Back 40

1) Learning occurs in one trial
2) Observer may emit the modeled response long after observing it and in the absence of the model
3) Behavior by the model that leads to positive outcomes is more likely than other behavior to be emitted by the observer (vicarious reinforcement)

Front 41

What type of history does observational learning involve?

Back 41

A complex operant history in which a person is initially reinforced for imitating a model's actions

Front 42

What type of generalized behavior develops in most people as operant behavior?

Back 42

Generalized imitation: the imitation of behaviors that the person has never been reinforced for before

Front 43

What does observational learning provide for?

Back 43

A rapid means of behavior change

Front 44

What do rules substitute for?

Back 44

Conditioning histories

Front 45

What are rules?

Back 45

Verbal statements that alter the behavioral function of other stimuli;

not all are effective

Front 46

Self-generated rules

Back 46

rules formulated by the individual whose behavior they are to control;

e.g. Xanadu getting food from vending machine

Front 47

Rule-governed behavior

Back 47

occurs when an individual's behavior is affected by verbal instructions describing environmental relations that person has not directly contacted;

e.g. motorcyclist who listens to friend

Front 48

What are two reasons that rule-governed behavior is of crucial important to humans?

Back 48

1) provides for rapi behavior change
2) enables us to behave effectively without requiring direct exposure to environmental events that might prove harmful or ineffectual

Front 49

Are rule-governed and contingency-governed behaviors identical?

Back 49

not necessarily

Front 50

What types of behavior are producing and being affected by rules?

Back 50

Verbal and operant