Psychology 2040A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Nim Chimpsky, Language Acquisition Device, Noam Chomsky

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2040A/B
• Professor: Sarah smits-bandstra

Document Summary

Components of language: phonology: rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds. Sign language: animals don"t learn grammar, there are dedicated language areas of the brain, there are sensitive periods in development. Global language development patterns: babies usually start babbling around 6 months, they start saying first words around 1 year, they are able to combine words by around 3, by 4-5 have pretty good vocabularies and most grammatical rules. 150 word vocabulary: border collies, knows the labels of around 200-1000 different items and can retrieve them on command, can infer that the unfamiliar item matches unfamiliar word. Language is disrupted after lesion to left side of the brain. Language largely associated with left hemisphere: 90% in right handed people, 70% in left. In children: more plasticity: damage or removal of the entire left hemisphere, the right hemisphere is able to take over most language functions.