How We Think Throughout Our Lives

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Humans and language

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Humans have the greatest ability to acquire and develop language.

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How do humans and language relate to different cultures and different languages?

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It follows the same general sequence of stages.

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Infant communication

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Speechless but...
-Crying (different cries for hunger and pain)
-Prefer baby talk (motherese): Format of speech adults use to talk to babies and uses shorter sentences, higher/more melodious pitch than normal.

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2 Month old communication

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Cooing:
-"oo" and "ah" sounds + laughing
-Used as a response in vocal interactions with parents

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6/7 Month old communication

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Babbling:
-Rhythmic repetition of various syllables, consonants and vowels
-Syllables not limited to sounds infant hears or those from parents' native language
-Begins to include more sounds from infants' native language over next 6 months.

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1 Year old communication

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Words:
-Few, first ones usually referring to caregivers and objects in daily environment
-Holophrase: Word expressing complete idea, i.e. "Bye-bye"

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18 Month old communication

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-Vocabulary grows slowly
-Vocabulary spurt of 100+ words a month

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18 MONTH OLD COMMUNICATION: Overextension

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Applying a newly learned word to objects not included in meaning of the word (Ex. calling any male "dada")

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18 MONTH OLD COMMUNICATION: Underextension

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Failing to apply new word more generally to objects included in meaning of word (Ex. Not saying dog and cat to dogs and cats that aren't family pets).

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18-24 Month old communication

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Telegraphic Speech:
-Two word sentences of nouns and verbs i.e. "Dada gone"
-Expanded

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2-5 Year old communication

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-Acquire grammar of native language
-Children learn rules implicitly and in very predictable order across all cultures

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Nature V.S. Nurture

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1. Nature-Language development is genetically programmed ability.
2. Nurture-However, this ability isn't developed without exposure to human speech
BOTH ARE VITAL TO LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

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CRITICAL PERIOD OF LEARNING LANGUAGE: Skinner

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-Operant Learning
-Language develops through association imitation, and reinforcement
-John Locke's notion of "tabula rosa"

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CRITICAL PERIOD OF LEARNING LANGUAGE: Chomsky

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-Innate universal grammar
-Children generate sentences they've never heard, rapid rate of learning (Errors=Overgeneralization)
-Prewired with language acquisition device

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Genie

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-Tied to potty for 13 years
-Researchers/therapists tried to rehabilitate her
-Grammatical development never reached typical development levels even after several years of trying

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GENIE: ASL & Second Language Learning

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-Similar concept to Genie
-Deaf children of hearing parents aren't as adept at ASL as deaf children of deaf parents because they are typically taught ASL later since their parents aren't signers themselves

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Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

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-No formal experiments
-Loosely structure interviews (posed problems for children to solve, observed their actions, question them about solutions
-Interested in children's errors

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PIAGET'S THEORY: Schemes (Schemas)

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Piaget's term for frameworks for our knowledge about people, objects, events, and actions that allow us to organize and interpret information about our world.

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PIAGET'S THEORY: Two Processes

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1. Assimilation-Interpretation of new experiences in terms of present schemas (Ex. when infants call all men Dada)
2. Accommodation-Modification of current schemas to allow for new experiences (Ex. Accommodating calling all men Dada once learning and understanding that they only have one father but there are many men in the world).

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PIAGET'S THEORY: Assumptions

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-Child is an active seeker of knowledge
-Child gains understanding of world by operating on it

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Cognitive Adaptation

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Child actively builds on their schemas and erects new ones.

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Sensorimotor (Birth-2)

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Experiencing the world through senses and actions:
1. Object permanence-The knowledge that an object exists independent of perceptual contact with it (Infants<8 months lack).
2. Symbolic representation of objects and events starts to develop during latter part of stage

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Preoperational (2-6 yrs)-Egocentrism

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The inability to distinguish one's own perceptions, thoughts, and feelings from those of others.

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Preoperational (2-6 yrs)-Conservation

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The knowledge that the quantitative properties of objects (mass/number) remain the same despite changes in appearance (some grasp of this marks end of preoperational stage); Beaker Test

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Preoperational (2-6 yrs)-Reversibility

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The knowledge that reversing a transformation brings about the conditions that existed before the transformation (preoperational children lack concept of conservation because they lack concept of reversibility).

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Preoperational (2-6 yrs)-Centration

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The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem at a time (i.e. height of beaker).

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Concrete (7-11 yrs)

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-Different forms developed at different times
-Develop other mental operations that allow them to reason logically (transitivity)
-Reasoning tied to immediate reality, not hypothetical world of possibility

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PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Formal Operational (12-adulthood)

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-Also engage in systematic deduction and tests of hypotheses (SCIENTIFIC THINKING)
-Evaluate logic of verbal statements without referring to concrete situations
-LIMITED: People in non Western cultures do very well and demonstrate formal operational thought on comparable tasks involving content they're familiar with and that's significant within their culture

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PIAGET'S THEORY: Problems

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1. Didn't consider impact of culture and social environment on cognitive development sufficiently
2. Stage theory of development ends with adolescent

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VYGOTSKY'S THEORY: Stressed that...

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Cognitive abilities develop through interactions with others and represent the shared knowledge of one's culture.

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VYGOTSKY'S THEORY: Zone of Proximal Development

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According to Vygotsky, the difference between what a child can actually do and what the child could do with the help of others.

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VYGOTSKY'S THEORY: Zone of Proximal Development-Scaffolding

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According to Vygotsky, a style of teaching in which the teacher adjusts the level of help in relation to the child's level of performance while orienting the child's learning toward the upper level of his or her zone of proimal development (i.e. with the help of puzzles).

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What are the two studies that answer the question of cognitive abilities across adulthood?

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1. Cross Sectional Study-A study in which the performances of groups of people of different ages are compared to one another; Intelligence declined with age.
2. Longitudinal Study-A study in which performance of the SAME GROUP of people is examined at different ages; Intelligence remained stable until very late in life when it showed a decline.

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CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY: Problems

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Cohort Effects-People of a given age are affected by factors unique to their generation, leading to differences in performance between generations.

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LONGITUDINAL STUDY: Problems

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1. Time consuming
2. Expensive
3. Repeated testing needed
4. Participants may discontinue or they may die
5. Those who survived to be tested later in life may have been most intelligent and healthiest participants whose intelligence would be most likely to resist declination.

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LONGITUDINAL STUDY: Types of Intelligence-Crystallized Intelligence

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Accumulated knowledge, verbal skills, and numerical skills that increase with age.

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LONGITUDINAL STUDY: Types of Intelligence-Fluid Intelligence

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Abilities, such as abstract thinking and logical problem solving that decrease with age.

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LONGITUDINAL STUDY: The Seattle Longitudinal Study

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-Large scale of various intellectual abilities
-1956-1998; 5,000 participants; tested every 7 years
-Most intellectual abilities decline somewhat by age 60, but decline isn't great until 80 or so. Those who suffer the least decline stayed healthy, higher socioeconomic categories, still in stimulating environments.