Psychology 2135A/B Lecture 15: Lecture 15 - Wednesday November 16th, 2016

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2135A/B
• Professor: Graeme Haynes

Document Summary

Theories of language acquisition: classical behaviorist perspective. Through experience they gain knowledge about language and the world: babies learn through imitation. If they are positively reinforced when they use a word, they will continue to use that word in the: nativist future (cid:862)the(cid:396)e is a spe(cid:272)ial (cid:272)og(cid:374)iti(cid:448)e fa(cid:272)ult(cid:455) fo(cid:396) lea(cid:396)(cid:374)i(cid:374)g a(cid:374)d a(cid:272)(cid:395)ui(cid:396)i(cid:374)g la(cid:374)guage(cid:863) steven pinker. Chomsky: humans biologically programmed to learn language. Problem: language is a social experience that changes over time. Language arises from a combination of biological maturation and environmental experiences. 2 approaches: primate studies, biological structures. Research with bonobos and chimpanzees: may learn to understand language with extensive teaching. E. g. , kanzi the chimpanzee has basic grammar = a 2-year old- human. Learned to comprehend basic english commands and a symbol language. Key differences from humans: do(cid:374)"t spo(cid:374)ta(cid:374)eousl(cid:455) p(cid:396)odu(cid:272)e (cid:272)o(cid:373)ple(cid:454) spoke(cid:374) la(cid:374)guage, limited to the present environment, unable to use displacement, refers to objects not physically present; past, future.