PSY 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Selective Mutism, Oneword, Grammar
12 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Language
Jadzia Wray
How do we talk?
- Animal studies show that the ability to communicate is unique to humans.
- Some studies have shown that animals are able to mimic or imitate language or communicate to
a 2-year-old level.
Why are Humans Unique?
- Animals can use abstract symbols and use them in different combinations to communicate a
message. They can learn basic grammar, but they will communicate without reinforcement.
- However, humans are the only one that showcase displacement (the ability to talk about the past
of future and about objects not present).
- Moreover, the animals in experiments that were taught language required a lot of encouragement
and imitation of their trainers, but humans learn language spontaneously.
Definition
- Language is a communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals such
as voice sounds, gestures or written symbols.
- There are TWO different views of language development:
o Learning Theory
o Nativist view
Learning Theory (nurture → must teach)
- Skinner-children learn language through operant conditioning.
- He believed that the way adults react to how a child speaks will reinforce or punish their ability
to learn a language.
- Can be used to explain selective mutism.
Nativist View (nature → have innate ability and we imitate what we hear and see)
- Children must be exposed to speech for speech to develop. They imitate the sounds that they
hear.
- Chomsky-children are born with a device that helps them develop grammar in any language
Stages to Acquisition
- Prenatal response to human voices
- Postnatal response to human voices
- Babbling
- One-word utterances
- Two-word utterances
- Telegraphic speech
- Basic adult sentence structure
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Animal studies show that the ability to communicate is unique to humans. Some studies have shown that animals are able to mimic or imitate language or communicate to a 2-year-old level. Animals can use abstract symbols and use them in different combinations to communicate a message. They can learn basic grammar, but they will communicate without reinforcement. However, humans are the only one that showcase displacement (the ability to talk about the past of future and about objects not present). Moreover, the animals in experiments that were taught language required a lot of encouragement and imitation of their trainers, but humans learn language spontaneously. Language is a communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals such as voice sounds, gestures or written symbols. There are two different views of language development: learning theory, nativist view. He believed that the way adults react to how a child speaks will reinforce or punish their ability to learn a language.
