Transcript AP Psychology Language, Thinking, and Intelligence

AP Psychology—Unit 6
Thinking, Language, Testing & Intelligence
Chamberlain 2012
Language
 The main questions of psycholinguistics:
1. Is there a critical period?
2. Is there a typical progression of how and when language develops?
3. Are there any universal rules to language acquisition and grammar?
4. Is language ability innate or completely learned?
5. What is the relationship between language and thought?
6. Can non-human animals “communicate” with humans?
Language--Is there a critical period?
1.
Genie case study showed “yes” and “no”

Genie was able to learn basic nouns and adjectives BUT not able to assemble
or read a sentence begging the question: had she surpassed the critical period
for developing the rules of language OR was she born retarded?
2.
Chomsky would argue “yes”—

language is best/easiest acquired when the “switches” are on during childhood

learning a second language becomes more difficult as we age
o
precipitous drop in ease of acquisition after age 7
Language--Is there a critical period?
Other evidence supporting critical period theory:
3.
A.
B.
Learn a second language as an adult you will speak with accent; learn it as a
child, you will sound more like native speaker of the language
Accuracy on grammar test of “second language” drops if second language was
learned after age 8 (answer to question 9 from your workbook)
9. Identify what was done in
the following experiment to
help discern whether or not
there is a critical period for
language development:
Johnson & Newport (1991) (p.
418)
Language--Is there a critical period?
Other evidence supporting critical period
theory:
3.
C.
Different brain areas used when thinking in first
and second language if second language learned
after childhood (same brain areas used if 2
languages learned at same time!)
C.
Studies of deaf children
cochlear implants before age 2 vs. after age 4
learning to sign after age 9 (after deaf
childhood) leads to less proficiency in
signing, less right hem. brain activity
learning sign language early correlates with
more fluency in sign and English and higher
scores on intelligence tests and academic
achievement!



Language--Is there a typical progression of how and when
language develops?
how do we know
they are receptive to
language?
how
rapidly
learning
language?
why is it called
universal
babbling?
why is it called
household tongue
babbling?
What is the
significant milestone
now?
What is
the
significant
milestone
now?
What is most
common mistake at
this age?
Language--Are there any universal rules to language acquisition
and grammar?



All babies born with ability to pronounce and distinguish between
all phonemes
All cultures’ languages seem to have grammar rules, semantics and
syntax
Language acquisition seems to follow same timeline across cultures
Is language learned or innate?
Skinner (behaviorists)
says learned


Parents reward proper
language development,
punish improper
Chomsky says innate:


language acquisition
device (AKA nativist
theory of language
acquisition) built into
DNA
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) :
An alternative approach to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Unlike Piaget,
Vygotsky
emphasizes need
for peer and
parental
interaction to
push cognitive
growth to next
level
Piaget emphasized
independent
discovery
Vygotsky also emphasized the role of language in helping a child push through
the zone!
What is the relationship between language and thought?
A. Vygotsky and Language
1.(infancy-toddlerhood) language for communication
1.(age 3 and up) language for thought—language becomes internalized
as thought and “inner speech”
•allows children to plan activities and strategies and therefore aid
their development and intellectual adaptation
B. Whorf: linguistic relativity hypothesis
•
language shapes (and can limit!) thought
example: Klingon’s are a very militaristic culture. When
Worf began having feelings for Troi, he had trouble
expressing them because his language did not have the
same kinds of words that her empathic culture does!
What is the relationship between language and thought?
A person’s self-image can be shaped by the language he is using to
describe himself.
•Some languages have a lot of values and concepts associated
with self-esteem and individuality because that is what those
cultures value
•Other cultures, and therefore their languages, focus more on
weaknesses of an individual and importance of the
collective/group
Can non-human animals “communicate”
with humans? Can they problem solve?
 Chimps and gorillas have been taught to use communication
boards with icons for words and sign language to communicate
 How do we know whether they are just mimicking rewarded
and modeled behavior or really expressing spontaneous,
independent thought?
 Kanzi demonstrating receptive language
 Kanzi demonstrates iconic language
 Washoe expresses empathy (start at 3:40)
 Koko grieves for All Ball
 Alex the parrot
 Do animals use trial and error strategies?
 YES! And many show self-recognition which is usually
associated with the development of “theory of mind”
 The tool using raven
Language: How humans get meaning
from sounds
smallest unit of language that has
meaning; includes prefixes, suffixes,
words
the rules for
combining
morphemes
to make
words
the meaning of
words and sentences
(Chomsky calls
this “deep
structure”)
The study of the
way (or rules for)
sentences are
constructed
(Chomsky calls
this “surface
structure”)
the rules for the
order of words
within a sentence
most basic sounds
including consonant
blends, vowel blends
e.g. bl, e, st, oo
English has 40
Quick Read: The Hart-Risley 30 Million Word Gap Study – 1995
 September 30, 2008
 After decades of collaborating to increase child language vocabulary, Betty Hart and
Todd Risley spent 2 1/2 years intensely observing the language of 42
families throughout Kansas City. Specifically, they looked at household language use
in three different settings: 1) professional families; 2) working class; 3) welfare
families. Hart and Risley gathered an enormous amount of data during the study
and subsequent longitudinal follow-ups to come up with an often cited 30 million
word gap between the vocabularies of welfare and professional families by age
three. This number came from the data that showed welfare children heard, on
average, 616 words per hour, while children from professional families (essentially
children with college educated parents) heard 2153 words per hour. The
longitudinal research in the following years demonstrated a high correlation
between vocabulary size at age three and language test scores at ages nine and ten in
areas of vocabulary, listening, syntax, and reading comprehension. This study was
subsequently used to fuel the fire of arguments for early childhood programs such as
Head Start.

Quick Read: The Hart-Risley study (1995): The “30-million word
gap”
 Longitudinal study of language exposure for children from birth to age 3 in 3
socioeconomic cohorts: professional, working class, or poverty
 Findings?
 Huge difference in amount of words heard on a daily basis per hour
 professional families utter approx 2,100 words/hour
 working class families—1,200 words/hour
 welfare families—620 words/hour
 So what?
 high correlation between vocabulary size at age three and language test
scores at ages nine and ten in areas of vocabulary, listening, syntax, and
reading comprehension. Question: How does this relate to Whorf ’s
linguistic determinism theory?
Answers to workbook questions
1. How many phonemes are in the English language? 40
2. Try to read the following messed up sentences. What do the messed up
sentences tell you about the semantics of vowel and consonant phonemes in
the English language? Consonants convey more meaning than vowels!!
Wh cn’t h g wth s?
y a e o i?
3. The fact that both speakers and signers of a second language (if the second
language is not acquired at the same time as the first) have an “accent” when
speaking that second language tells you what about phonemes and language
acquisition? critical period
4. When Belinda is asked, “Where is your pencil?” by the teacher, she replies, “I
ain’t got mines.” Belinda’s response indicates which of the following:
Belinda’s statement is a different dialect than the teacher’s.
Answers to workbook questions
8. Identify what was done in the following experiments to help discern whether
or not an infant’s brain is wired for receiving language: Safran (1996), Marcus
(1999), Johnson and Newport (1991) (p. 417)
a) Safran: 8-month-olds attention while listening to strings of
nonsense syllables peaked when repeated syllables were heard
a) Marcus: 7-month-olds attention peaks when new “rules” for
patterns of syllables are heard (attention signals discernment;
patterns are beginning of understanding rules of grammar)
a) e.g. ba-bum-ba ta-tee-ta is rule 1
bum-ba-ba tee-ta-ta is rule 2
c) Johnson and Newport: oops that should not have been listed in
question 8 (see question 9! Hopefully David is here to point out
what a bad person I am...)
Answers to workbook questions
(9-11 addressed throughout lecture)
12. (from pp. 420-421) Cite the findings of the following studies that show a
correlation between language fluency and other cognitive skills:
a)Ozgen’s study of colors and perception of color
• our perception of subtle color differences is greater if we have different
words for different hues
b)Isham & Kamin study of deaf people (1993)
• children of deaf, signing parents are more fluent in signing and have
higher achievement and intelligence scores
c)Lambert’s Canadian study of bilingual advantage
• able to inhibit one language while using second language correlates
with ability to focus better and filter out irrelevant information
d. Study of self-esteem of ESL students in bilingual programs vs. English-only
programs
• self-esteem higher, less risk of dropping out when ESL kids experience
½ of their classes in native language and half in new language
e.Maass and Russo (2003) example of how language influences mental
imagery/perception
• imagine things from left to right if that is how their native language is
written; opposite in countries that read/write from right to left or up to
down