PSYC 002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: American Sign Language, Feral Child, Mutual Exclusivity
Document Summary
Isolated since 20 months, deprived of social interaction. After 5 years of education, she spoke slowly. Lived without human contact from a young age. Little or no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and language. Cases of feral children include that of being confined by humans, brought up by animals, or live in isolation. Humans are the most flexible learners in the animal kingdom, being able to learn quickly to the things around them. Born to hearing parents, deprived of exposure to sign language in infancy. Group 1: exposure to sign language since birth. Group 2: exposure since school (age 4-6) Group 3: exposure after age of 12. Results showed decreasing grammar abilities in american sign. ***if deaf individuals are never exposed to asl before puberty, they never achieve full proficiency, even after 30 years of use*** among the three groups. Some argue that during puberty, we lose the ability to learn a new language w/o an accident.
