PSYA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Frontal Lobe, Operant Conditioning, Puberty
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PSYA02H3 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Animals most definitely use their bodies and sounds to communicate, but usually in the here and now. Receptive language (if you ask him to get a toy he will know which one) But human language is different, it allows one to transport knowledge and ideas across time and space. We can learn things from others (no other animal can through space and time communicate) Impressive and unique about human language: the way we use words, not just as associates. Many animals, dog"s especially, have strong receptive language abilities. Some even have some language production abilities. But is this all just good conditioning? (more just operant conditioning) To really impress all scientists an organism must use language in a very flexible way. Words are symbols used to represent and convey ideas. A so-called abstract symbol system that can be used very dynamically. There was one chimp that knew the words bird and water separately.
