PSYC24H3 Lecture Notes - Reinforcement, Connectionism, Language Module
Document Summary
Behaviourist account: though to be the most dominant way that people thought kids learned language. In other words, people believed that kids learned language the same way they learn everything else: caregivers support language learning through reinforcement. This is incorrect but wouldn"t punish the child by correcting them. Instead, the parent might even reward them: parents reward incorrect language behavior all the time. That doesn"t jive well with the idea of behaviourism. In between passive and active: the child has to be able to internalize learning experiences (i. e. , punishments/reinforcements). They are responsible for taking in that information and computing that information: but also, the adults or older children around the child correcting those behaviors or reinforcing those behaviors is important as well. Nativist account: typically developing children still end up learning correct language despite the reinforcement of incorrect language, a dedicated language module has evolved in humans, there are neural structures that are specifically responsible for language.
