Genie - Wild Child (documentary)
Could Genie verbalize her pre-speech past?
Yes, some of her past she could verbalize such as "Father is angry. Father hit Genit big stick", but there was also occasions when she could not such as seeing a picture of a wolf in a magazine
Was Genie able to make her desire needs and feelings known without speech?
Yes, through drawings and pictures
What kind of deficit do both signers and speakers have with extended discourse, after damage to the right hemisphere?
After damage to the right hemisphere, both signers and speakers have a deficit with extended discourse in their abilities to narrate; their narratives are full of vague words and phrases and lack organization.
How did doctors become combative over her diagnosis and treatment methods?
All wanted to keep Genie to themselves, treated her like an object sometimes.
In languages that have less than 12 color terms, what is the order of appearance in a language of those terms? That is, if a language only has 3 color terms, what are they? If it has 6, what are they?
1 + 2 = black + white 3 = red (always the third ) 4, 5, 6 = yellow, blue, green (not necessarily in that order) 7 = brown (generally the seventh) 8, 9, 10, 11 = orange, pink, purple, gray (not necessarily in that order)
What ethical concerns have been raised regarding the way Genie was treated?
-Ethical concerns of how Genie was treated: Genie was tossed around from place to place in new homes consistently. Researchers cared for her and studied her. Having the same people perform different roles was not healthy or normal for Genie to be raised around.
Describe Melissa Milkie's research on the media and teens. What research methods did she use? What did she find?
-Milkie studied the impact of pervasive beauty images on black and white girls' self-concepts. She interviewed girls at two different high schools (one ethnically diverse, and the other all white and rural). Readers found advice about "girls" in the magazines helpful. Readers perceived pictures of models and women in magazines as unrealistic. However, white girls still claimed that they compared themselves to the models, even with the knowledge that the pictures are unrealistic. Black girls did not seem to compare themselves to the models as much. They stated that boys would not be as interested in the stick thin and "perfect" looking girl.
How do scientists explain Genie's (Nova's "Secrets of the Wild Child") limited language skills? Is there consensus on how to explain this? If not, why?
-Scientists discovered that there is a critical time period for language acquisition. Genie was able to learn a lump sum of language, but the extensive language was stunted to a certain degree. -There is not much consensus on why it happens this way, but interaction with others and communication during the early years of life is the only way for full language skills to develop normally.
What are the gender messages often conveyed in children's books according to the research done by Weitzman and others? What are the gender messages conveyed in games and toys? In advertisements? In films?
-Weitzman and colleagues: children's books and the ratio of boy to girl pictures (11:1), gender imbalance in central roles, stories, and titles, and the traditional portrayal of females and males. -Games and toys, advertisements and films: colors, activities and words used on games and toys are much different for males and females. Males games are generally blue dark colors, while female games are typically pink or purple (bright colors). Video games proved that the female games were all about taking care of animals, decorating princess castles, all very traditionally feminine activities. In films and advertisements, females are typically viewed as the more dainty, kind, damsels in distress, whereas the males are more masculine, tough, and more capable of doing challenging activities.
Explain socialization using social learning theory and symbolic interactionist theory.
-individuals learn to align their own thoughts, feelings and behavior to fit into society or groups. -social learning theory: enactive and observational learning. Can occur even when behavior is followed by negative consequences; it's the performance that is guided by the consequences. -symbolic interactionist theory: Process is taking the role of the other. Mead's development of the self- preparatory stage-meaningless imitation. Play stage: take role of one person. Game stage: take role of many people and the generalized other.
Gleitman's observation, "children aren't learning language from experience. They learn words from experience. They bring the sentence with them"
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How did Gopnik demonstrate a failure to overregularize in the Greek SLI speaker? What specific deficit does she argue that their language demonstrates?
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How is it children four and a half years old tell correct from incorrect
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What is Williams syndrome? What makes us think it is genetic? what kinds of cognitive deficits are found in people with Williams syndrome? What kinds of strengths? What is peculiar about the vocabulary of Williams syndrome people?
A genetic syndrome that affects IQ and communication. Very low IQ but amazing communication. Good physically with better hearing. Good verbally with lot of vocab. Acute ability to see and understand facial expressions. Highly emotional, highly friendly (think of little girl who talked to the guy, held his hand, gave him muffins but was very upset when he suggested she had a problem) Genetic- chromo 7 not connected. We know because it "runs" in families and genetic testing reveals the disconnect in the chromo for every person with Williams who has been tested. IQ: bad with number and counting (girl with muffins) also not good with size and weight (how big was the octopus?), also struggles with drawing even if replicating something in front of them. They cannot see that they did it wrong. Overall, special stuff is really bad. Strength: vocab, creative, musical Vocab is really unique... if told to come up with a list of animals they will say something random but specific same with food.
What kinds of non-language deficits are found in deaf signers who experience damage in the right hemisphere?
A non-language deficit deaf signers with right hemisphere damage suffer from is spatial framework. Damage to the right hemisphere leads to an inability to maintain the spatial framework needed in order to describe separate characters within their narratives. Deaf right hemisphere damaged patients are also unable to reproduce and draw images correctly; their work is more detailed, but are unable to organize the drawing.
How did personal finances influence Genie's journey? What was the lawsuit about?
A year after leaving the Riglers, Genie found herself in dire financial straits. She only had $4000 in her trust fund but couldn't use the money and caring for Genie was expensive.
What are the components of signs in ASL (comparable to phonemes in spoken language)? Is it accurate to refer to ASL as being a discrete combinatorial system, as spoken language is?
ASL signs have three dimensions: handshapes, location, and movement (and sometimes facial expression). Yes, ASL is a discrete combinatorial system insofar as ASL can be used to create an infinite amount of different thought processes.
What is the critical period hypothesis for language? Describe the weak and strong versions of this hypothesis. Which version did the Genie case support?
Critical period hypothesis is that all languages have a critical period in order to be learned. Strong version means that if there is no language growing up (by puberty), there will be none at all. Weak version means that if there is no language growing up (by puberty) syntax (grammar) will never be developed. Genie supported the weak version.
What does Bickerton propose about what is innate about language?
Bickerton proposed that grammar is innate in language. His evidence was through creole languages and showed how grammar had an innate function. (need more evidence) "Language Bioprogram Hypothesis" evidence- compared creoles and pidgins and found similarities in grammar and syntax (order). Also, pigeon exists all around the word but has a consistent grammar (Kind of think about how babies learn how to speak with that early grammar). Term to Know: language bioprogram: a hypothesised innate grammar that is used by children whose environmental exposure to language is limited. The bioprogram is assumed to be supposed in children whose language environment is normal. (If you don't use it you lose it). homesign: a form of "sign language" that is invited by children who are not exposed to true sign. THus, it's just the signs that they use at home Preemptive principle: when you hear someone using a form that is different than yours, and you don't hear anyone using your form, you will abandon their unique form and use the other popular form.
What is Bickerton's language bioprogram hypothesis? What is his evidence? In what specific ways are the grammars from creoles from all over the world alike, according to Bickerton?
Bickerton's language bioprogram hypothesis: the hypothesis that children whose environmental exposure to language is limited use a backup linguistic system. Evidence: creoles in Hawaii. Bickerton studied the language of immigrants who moved to Hawaii and that of their children who were born in the first two decades of the 20th century. The similarities that he found in the grammar of creole are the following: no recognizable syntax, words were ordered in relation to the speaker's native language, no subordinate clauses, single clauses lacked verbs and there is no consistent system of anaphora.
What might occur in a "slip of the hand"?
Blends: "sick" is on the forehead, and "bored" is on the upper lip. So, you could blend if trying to say "sick and tired" or "bored sick". Some are slips that have to do with number of fingers so you have the right location but add in an extra finger or just use on when you should use two (Pg 219, Figure 8.5). It's actually called "Slip of the finger". There are also anticipation types. For example, someone might want to sign "Deaf woman" but they sign something that isn't either. It is in the location in deaf but the hand position of woman (Pg 220, figure 8.6)
What kinds of gestural deficits does each group tend to have?
Both Broca's and Wernicke's areas are associated with impaired gestural movements. Wernicke's aphasics tend to have deficits in referential gestures that are used in conversation to refer to some aspect of the content of conversation. Broca's aphasics do more poorly with interactive gestures, which help the speaker interact with listeners.
How are linguistics astronomy alike in the study oh phenomena?
Both often contrained to be more observational than experimental astronomy because its subjects are too distant and linguistics because its subjects are children.
Compare the early stage of children's use of negatives and questions to the forms used in creole languages.
Both the early stage of children's language and and creole languages are similar forming questions and negatives. For questions they are simple made and they use intonations. For negation, they use double negatives, they put a negative in front of the subject and the verb. The order of the words is in the same order that small children use= subject followed by a verb.
Given a sample of disordered language, you should be able to tell whether it reflects Broca's or Wernicke's aphasia, and you should be able to identify the specific language deficits that are demonstrated.
Broca language is disjointed with long pauses between words. Grammar and syntax are usually out the window. Wernicke's language is fluent in grammar and syntax, but nonsensical in content or coherence.
What language deficits occur with Broca's aphasia? What about Wernicke's aphasia?
Broca's aphasia is when a person can't talk or can only speak on word. The person has slow output, they use shortened speech like a 2 year old, have trouble with inflection, they do better with irregeular forms but fail at complex syntactical form (passive). Patients with Wernicke's aphasia can't comprehend content, they use a lot of words like : this, it. They are good with prepositional inflections, they are very fluent, their sentences have no content and they usually use paraphrasing.
What does signing in a deaf person with damage to Broca's area look like? What about damage to Wernicke's language?
Broca's signers produce a lack of signs, just like a Broca's speaker has difficulty with multiple words. Wernicke's signers had comparable difficulties with speech comprehension.
What was the quarelling between Butler and Genie's team?
Butler believed that they treated Genie as a guinea pig. Butler struggles to control the intrusions of scientists into her home and at the same time struggled to be numbered officially among them.
What did Bloom's early research on counterfactual reasoning suggest about language and thought, and what did later research find out? what about the research on Chinese and English terms for personality stereotypes? what are the problems with cross cultural research of this kind?
Counterfactual- hypothetical statement different to what has happened. Example: If I were born in the 1800's as a woman then.... (imaging) Experiment= give people a statement "If John has missed the meeting" ~easy mark for English ~ But Chinese didn't understand that is was hypothetical, because they have diff cues His study seemed to suggest that Chinese don't think in the counterfactual HOWEVER, now it is said that his Chinese was just really bad. Stereotypes: → American: "Artist" intense, moody, unconventional → Chinese: "Shi gu" worldly, skillful, devoted to family Experiment found that people who were bilingual (meaning, they had a word for both stereotypes) were more in tuned to stereotype. Thus, it is the concept of it, not the term.
What are the techniques that have been used to attempt to teach language to other species? How successful have they been? How do the language capabilities of chimps compare to that of Genie?
Chimps were taught language, but in the two years that they were trained they only learned two words. American Sign Language, ASL seemed to work really well. A few chimps got to be so good that they would invent signs if they did not have a sign for the word they were trying to convey. Washoe is one who got really good. She combined "water" and "bird" to form the word "waterbird". Also, when asked questions like "who are you" or Where is the box" she was able to answer with a grammatically correct response 84% of the time. However, there are some questions raised about if the chimps really know the language or if they are simply responding to cues given by the trainer.
Lindenburg vs Chomsky: the development of language
Chomsky = learning languages is not just nurture, but nature as well. We are genetically able to learn languages. Lindenburg = agreed with Chomsky, but believed there was a time limit to learning languages (puberty = deadline)
Why did Clark (Genie's father) become paranoid? What did he do as a result of this?
Clark became paranoid because his mother got hit by a car with drunk teenagers driving and he witnessed it. He thought the world was unsafe. As a result he tied up Genie to a potty chair, naked and restrained, with a harness he fashioned.
If Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard could resurrect Victor from savergy, he would provide proof of what?
Concrete proof of Condillac's theory. Demonstrate that man brings nothins with him, that education is all.
What was the debate between Descartes and Condillac about origins of man?
Descartes set out the basic scientific method- trusted the corporeal senses(native resources) whereas Condillac contended that our minds are blank slates at birth and are tutored entirely by our surroundings.
What is conduction aphasia, and where would the brain damage likely be?
Disconnection between Brok/Wer. There is a bundle of fibers connecting these two areas, but in this case they do not connect. Problems = using the wrong word, know it's the wrong word but cannot get it right & if you say "repeat after me: arm, arm, arm, arm, arm" they could say "fork".
What did the results of research into her language development suggest about the critical period? Why is she not a good case for testing the critical period hypothesis?
Due to her stunted acquisition of language, many see Genie as confirming the principles of the critical period theory. However, she is a poor case study because she was theorized by some to be mentally deficit from birth. Legal difficulties in obtaining custody further cast doubt on whether Genie had truly reached her linguistic limit or whether her potential was cut short.
What did Susan Curtiss notice about Genie's behavior during her first linguistic tests? About her gait, latency of response?
During her first test, Curtiss noticed that Genie was exhaustingly stubborn and restless. She never initiated anything and her participation was always minimal and frustratingly effecicient. Curtiss decided that Genie was lazy. Genie would hear a name or command and not register it until about 10 minutes later. There was no sure way to know whether the child could not answer a question to simply had not heard it yet.
Did the Child Psychologists believe it was going to be possible to rehabilitate Genie?
Extremely difficult to rehabilitate her, but it had great potential —— when she started to learn / recall the past they had hope
What were the physical and mental conditions of Genie when she was found?
Extremely malnourished, skinny, skeleton-like legs, could not communicate, very quiet (asumed she was beaten for making noise), "bunny walk", spat constantly, clawed at things
What other kinds of information is used besides hand movements while singing?
Facial expressions indicate emotional content (surprise, confusion, anger, indicating "no" or "not" etc.)
Genie's language inabilities bore out Lennebergs theory and Chomsky. Comment.
Genie chased more and more in Lenneberg's direction. Genie's inabilities bore out Lenneberg's theory, at least conditionally. She demonstrated that after puberty, one could not learn language simply by being exposed to it. The synaptic abilities which both Chomsky and Lenneberg predicted would be biologically determined, had indeed been contstrained by Genie's biology.
Who was Genie? What happened to her?
Genie is an American feral child who was a victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation. Her circumstances are prominently recorded in the annals of linguistics and abnormal child psychology. She was a pitiful, malformed, unsocialized, and severely malnourished creature. Although she was beginning to show signs of pubescence, she weighed only 59 pounds. She could not straighten her arms or legs. She did not know how to chew. She salivated a great deal and spent much of her time spitting. She couldn't talk and didn't know how to form sentences let alone words.
Shurley visited Genie when she was 29 and in a group home, what did she find?
Genie looked miserable. Like a chronically institutionalized person. Shurley says it was heartrending. Genie was very stooped and rarely made eye contact.
What specific evidence suggests that Genie was not able to learn grammar?
Genie was indeed able to render two word phrases in the subject-verb or verb-object order, but had significant difficulty with the past tense and auxiliary tenses. She additionally had difficulty in understanding some grammatical constructions.
Discuss the case of Genie. Why was there so much excitement in the psycholinguistic community when she was first discovered?
Genie was the product of the forbidden experiment - raising a child in isolation, outside society and culture. As such, she could be tested for whether the critical period truly exists for language acquisition.
Describe the unusual characteristics of Genie's speech. Give an example of a sentence Genie would make.
Genie's speech contained no syntax. Eventually she was able to get her point across but could never place the words in the correct order. At first she only spoke in one-word utterances as toddlers do when they start to talk. Later she started to string words together while imitating what somebody else said. She never understood syntax and her speech development was abnormally slow. She never acquired such a development of language that children normally do when learning to talk. She got to a point of speech and remained there. An example sentence would be "store milk go buy"
How do hearing speakers compare to deaf users of ASL in terms of which functions occur in which parts of the brain?
Hearing speakers and deaf signers have their language skills in the left hemisphere. Poizner found that the regions of the left hemisphere associated with language use in ASL are similar to those for speech. For deaf users, when the stimuli are processed in a relation nature, the left hemisphere assumes control, this is typically the case in language processing and may occur in some individuals with nonspeech stimuli. when stimuli are processed holistically, the right hemisphere prevails.
How is the lateralization of the brain studied in split brain patients in the laboratory? How can visual information be sent to only one hemisphere? How can auditory information be sent to only one hemisphere?
If word "car" appears on the right side then he can read it and say "car". Likewise, picture of a car on the right side, he can say "car" On the left side you flash the word "grape", he doesn't know what the word was. Here's the doozie, if he closes his eyes he is able to draw the grapes (with his left hand). This is because the left hand is getting the control from the right brain which was the side that saw the word/picture. Remember, neurons still cross over, but they aren't communicating with the sides. Guys, it's super important to remember that he MUST draw with his left hand.
How are grammatical markers for things like tense indicated in ASL?
If you want to say "Where did Angie go yesterday", you would sign "Angie went yesterday where" and indicate that it is a question by raising your eyebrows. Facial expressions also important for saying "no" or "not". ((Spatial Modulation))Also, good for indicating something in the past you could create a space for it and refer to that space (like to the right of you) when you are telling the story and you refer back towards that space when you talk about the story/situation again. The same method can be used for talking about people or things.
Was all the research done in the best interest of Genie?
In the beginning they used to exploit her but they started to care a little. Genie team took advantage of timing for "The Wild Child" film release = booked seats to watch More of a scientific experiment than a patient. Tests make her move forward and learn but she was more used for research.
Describe the relationship Jean Butler had with Genie.
Jean was a special education teacher who wanted to adopt Genie but the hospital said no.
Which hemisphere is specialized for language? Where are the two main language areas in the brain? What function does each area seem to be specialized for?
Left- more language (understanding and speaking language) Right- spatial function Broca's area: Language production and comprehension; using syntax information to determine meaning. Processing, and controlling the muscles around the mouth. FORMATION/INFECTION/SYNTAX Wernickes: Content creation, connection between the words (like forming the sentence which is why they use a lot of filler words but don't really say anything). CONTENT/COMPREHENSION
Science needed a child who had exceeded Lenneberg's deadline. How did Genie fit this bill?
Lenneberg's deadline for being able to learn language ends at age twelve and when the child hit puberty, Genie was 13 when she was found.
Taken together, how do SLI and Williams syndrome support the argument that language is innate? How do they support the argument that language is modular, that is, not simply an outcome of advance intelligence?
Modularity hypothesis: language is a separate function not tied to other cognitive function rather than dependent on functions such as reasoning. SLI have normal IQ but decreased language; no overgeneralization of inflections William's syndrome have normalish language and low IQ; overgenralizations of inflections. Though they have low overall cognitive functions such as visual processing, they are still able to speak normally and be social and are able to properly express themselves shows that language is separate from other cognitive functions.
What was Genie's response to music played by Curtis?
Music sent Genie into a reverie, she was compelled to stand there and may have even hallucinated. Genie was transfixed by live classical music. Genie also enjoyed nursery songs and would even clap, dance and stomp along to them. Curtiss noticed Genie try to sing hospital over and over again in a voice much louder than how she usually spoke.
What are the three verb forms in creole languages, other than the base form? How do these compare to English verb forms? What morphemes are used to indicate these in Hawaiian Creole? When they are combined, what is the order of the morphemes?
Other than the base form, the three verb forms in creole languages are: anterior, irreal, and nonpunctual. How do these compare to English verb forms? The morpheme used to indicate these in Hawaiian Creole are: Anterior (He had walked; he loved -> He bin walk; he bin love), Irreal (He will/would walk; he will/would love -> He go walk; he go love), and Nonpunctual (He is/was walking -> He stay walk). When the verb forms are combined, the anterior form comes first, and is followed by the irreal and nonpunctual forms in that order. If the anterior is not present, the nonpunctual form follows the irreal.
What was Chomsky's explanation for the origin of the inner rules of language?
Oversimplifying, we use movement- hearing a sentence similiar to a model and moving the words around to make sense of them-Chomsky believed that on a syntactic level, all languages are identical
Discuss the development of Nicaraguan sign language in terms of the development of a creole form of pidgin. What evidence (from the use of specific forms like spatial modulation) suggests that the children themselves created a creolized language?
Nicaraguan sign language developed when the Sandinistas took over the government and attempted to establish a program for deaf children.
Was Genie mentally retarded? Explain.
No, given a chance to interact with her environment, she was growing. You never see a cas of a mentally retarded child in which the mental age increases a year with every year older.
Did Whorf even have any credentials that would cause anyone to pay any attention to his claims, anyway?
No, he had no credentials.
Although the doctors attempted to change the mistakes made with Victor, were they able to make these changes with Genie?
Not very different, but they tried.
Most children concentrated their conversation on activities and relationships, Genie concentrated on what instead?
Objects, meticulously describing and defining them by color and shape, number an size.
What was wrong with Psamtik's research into whether Phyrgian was the protolanguage? What was his "sin" and how does that instruct us in the present day?
Psamtik is accused of a certain methodological informality. There is no way of ascertainting whether the children had a natural grasp of many languages and were merely expressign an innate human preference for Phyrgian baked goods. His sin is his experimentation on children. In presesnt day, we no longer are allowed to experiment on children in such dramatic ways as he did.
Compare Genie's language learning with that of deaf people who learned sign language late. What do these examples suggests about a critical period?
Research on late learners of ASL suggests the defining factor in grammar development and fluency is age. Results found in the three groups, infants scored highest (88%) followed by 4-6 year olds (83%), and lastly 7-12 year olds (72%). Research from Genie and late ASL learners seem to suggest a critical period exists in regard to grammatical development. The later one is introduced to language, the more difficult it is to develop and learn the grammatical rules of that language.
Who were her next foster parents?
Rigler and his wife
What evidence from Genie's case suggests that the process of language learning helps organize the developing brain?
Scientists studying Genie saw that she processed language in the right hemisphere of her brain even though she was right handed and there was no discernible damage to the left hemisphere. They thought this might have indicated a sort of cognitive atrophy in the left hemisphere - from lack of language exposure - that lead to her syntactic problems.
"Genie was going to learn syntax, even if the prevailing theory of the time said that she could not," why was this important?
Scientists wanted Genie to debunk Eric Lenneberg's theory thinking that at best, Genie could have provided a flawed endorsement of Lenneberg's theory.
Genie went to a foster home, how did she fair? What symptoms did she develop?
She hated it. Was traumatized. She was abused by her foster parents and ended up refusing to talk or eat out of fear
Irene, Genie's mother did what with Genie after the court settlement?
She hid Genie away and Genie currently lives in a home for retarded adults
How did Genie handle her puberty?
She masturbated in public and was getting her period at the same time as being potty trained. She didn't handle it very well
Describe Karin Martin's research on socialization practices in day care centers. What research methods did she use? What did she find?
She studied 5 preschool classrooms of 3-5 year olds. She used an observational method of research
One portion of the orthodoxy of language acquistition was the notion that no matter how slow or fast children learn language, they all go through the same stages, in the same order. What did it mean that "Movement was a facility the Genie did not have?"
She was not able to understand and answer WH questions. She wasn't able to derive the word order of the surface sentence (When is the train coming?) from the word order of teh declarative sentence underneath (the train is coming soon)
How did Genie somewhat prove the theories incorrect?
She was still learning languages through puberty (from picture books, etc). She could not make proper questions, e.g "what red blue is in?" Supported Lindenburg's theory that there was a deadline for puberty - but also rejected it since she still learned words.
Who was Jay Shurley?
Shurley is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Oklahoma and a specialist in extreme social isolation. He came on three three-day visits to conduct daily observations and to carry out a sleep study, hoping to determine if Genie was autistic, whether or not she had sustained any brain damage, and whether or not she was born mentally disabled. Shurley concluded she was not autistic. He noted that she had a high level of emotional disturbance, but wrote that her eagerness for new stimuli and lack of behavioral defense mechanisms were uncharacteristic of autism. He thought she was mentally disabled from birth (she was not).
What are the purposes or functions of slang? How is slang different from jargon? Who uses each kind of language? When is each used?
Slang is informal language. Its usage often designates membership to a subculture. Jargon can be difficult to understand by outsiders like slang, but instead is used by professionals to talk about specific topics within their field. Slang is used informally by a group to speak colloquially, while jargon is used professionally by a skilled members of a particular group.
What kinds of nonlinguistic information is conveyed by slang?
Slang is situational, designates subcultural membership, indicates group identity, provides a lexical gap, and abides by phonaesthetics (aka the actual sound of the word is pleasing).
What is the social interaction or social cognition view of how language evolved?
Social interactionist theory is the language acquisition theory that emphasized that social interaction was the best way of a child acquiring language. Being around fluent and linguistically intelligent adults would help children acquire language themselves. It's view was that language evolved by the individuals learning language through absorbing what is spoken to them.
What is Specific Language Impairment? What makes us think it is genetic? What kinds of language errors do people with SLI show?
Specific Language Impairment is a deficit in lieu of other deficits. Trouble lies mostly with inflections. Patients also have trouble with tense, agreement, relatives clauses, and sounds. We think it is genetic because of those who have SLI, 80% of monozygotic (identical) twins share the condition, whereas only 30% of dizygotic (fraternal) twins share the condition.
Summarize Rosch's research with the Dani, a tribe with only two color terms. Does this research suggest that language affects how people perceive colors?
The Dani, when taught to recognize more than two colors, recognized focal (pure) colors faster than non-focal (mixed) colors, e.g. a red would be faster than a maroon or burgundy. When new colors were donned with familiar clan names, the Dani were also faster to memorize the names of focal colors than non-focal colors. These results contrast the Whorf hypothesis and suggest instead that language does not affect general color recognition.
In 1975, when Genie was 18, having spent four years living with the Riglers what happened to Genie?
The Rigleres relinguished care of Genie and Ganie moved back in with her mother, which her mother found extremely difficult.
What do we mean by a critical period for language development? How can a function like language be innate yet have a critical period for development?
The critical period is a span of time in which a human is sensitive to acquiring language. If this is not done within that time, it will become very difficult or even impossible to develop language. It should be noted that our capacity to learn language is innate (supposedly) but it can only be utilized if developed within the critical period (supposedly).
What was found out about the deaf who learned ASL vs. those who were deprived of early sign language?
The deaf who learned ASL during childhood had left brains lateralized for language as well as for other tasks. But those deprived of early sign language did not- their brains were yet unformed.
What did Genie's case tell us about how stimulation is needed to "organize" the brain?
The organization of our brain is as genetically ordained and as automatic as breathing but like breathing is initiated by the slap of a midwife, and the mid wife is grammar.
Where can we get an insight into the acquistition fo language and how does that set up the importance of the discovery of Genie?
The reveltations of how we acquire language comes from children, wild children like Genie, who have grown up with beasts as their only companion, neglected and abused children whose famaily history replicates the isolation in the shepherd's hut.
What part of her brain was biased towards her successes and what part her task failures? How was Genie's brain processing language? How profound was this functioning?
The tasks she performed well were all right-brain and the tasks she failed were left-brain. Genie only used her right side to process, she didn't use her left brain for language at all. It showed that her left brain was functionally dead. Genie shows that we are physically formed by the influence of language.
How do early and late sign language learners (as a first language) perform on tests for a Theory of Mind?
Theory of Mind is the ability to "read" minds, or have an understanding of what another person is thinking at a given time. Early sign language learners tend to outperform late sign language learners on Theory of Mind tests.
Held in her home in a room, what were Genie's primary sources of visual and tactile stimulation?
There wasn't much for Genie to touch or look at. The only pieces of furniture in her room were the crib and the potty seat. There was no carpet on the floor and pictures on the walls. Two windows covered up except for a few inches at the top our of which Genie could see the sky from one side and the side of a neighboring house from the other. One dim light bulb was hanging. She had two plastic raincoats, which she soemtimes could play with. Her toys were empty cottage cheese containers and empty thread spools.
How did this conflict with the environmentalist or empiricists ?
They believe that a child learns language from its interaction with the world and from speech of its parents.
What is the prognosis for language functions in children who have had the left hemisphere removed?
They can still understand what is said to them. Thus, comprehension is really good. You can ask them a question and they will be able to understand it. Also, they can think of an answer but usually the formation of the answer is really hard. It takes a lot of effort for each word and they will usually answer with only a few words.
How did the NIMH funding people view the Rigler research?
They found the lack of progress troubling. Worried that data was being collected in haphazard fashion, they suggested new tests to fill in the gaps and asked that others be readministered. Rigler states that essentially they didn't understand that this study wasn't like most scientific studies. There were no controls. It's a study of a single case.
-Agents of gender socialization
Through the family (toys, chore assignments, clothing, bedroom décor)
What became of Victor when Itard became from successful and famous? How did he live out his life? What happened when a new "wild child" was found years later? How had ties changed?
Victor became forgotten by Itard and lived out his life with Mme. Guerin supported with a small state pension in a small house near the institute. When a new wild child was found, the government in Paris was alerted and the people said "you keep him" because they were no longer fascinated by this wild child. The questions of the Enlightment went underground.
Unlike other wild children, Victor and Genie arrived to expectant audiences. Explain.
Victor's debut was timed roughly to the questions of Condillac and precisely to the vreation of the Society of Observers of Man. Genie had the services of a different advance team. Linguistics was very popular and there was a new theory coming out every day. Her arrival was even more precisely timed to the advent of one of those rises
What is the Whorf hypothesis? What are some examples that Whorf used to support his claim? Contrast the strong version of the Whorf hypothesis with the weak version.
Whorf hypothesis: languages shape thought processes. The whorf hypothesis consists of two parts, Linguisitc determinism( the notion that a language determines certain nonlinguistic cognitive processes) and linguistic relativity (refers to the claim that the cognitive processes that are determined are different for different languages). Whorf examples to support claim: lexical and grammatical examples.
For what purpose is the split brain operate performed? What are the consequences of this operate in daily life?
You split the connections because the right and left hemi (cutting the corpus callosum). This affects how the brain communicates with each side. So, image you have a guy, lets call him Joe. You sit him down in front of a computer. Now you say "Hey Joe, imma show you some stuff". He looks at a dot in the middle and then things appear on different sides of the screen (so that only one eye is seeing them)
What summons language? What are the differences between brain and activity caused by content words and by function words? Is brain specializatoin intrinsic or is it by virtue of input?
Your brain. Function words are the ones there for purely grammatical reasons: no if, and, or, but whereas content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, word that connote the content of a sentence. There is an enormous difference between the location of brain activity caused by content words and by function words. Not sure if brain is intrinsic or by virtue of input, scientists such as Neville are trying to figure it out.
Butle was willing to let researchers into her home providing what 2 concessions?
a pay raise of 38% over the standard teacher's salary and she also asked to be acknolwdged alongside the researchers in their scientific papers
What was the barometer of Genie's happiness?
her bathroom habits
What is meant by the term "pidgin language"? How about "creole language"? Under what circumstances does each develop? How are they similar, and how are they different?
pidgin is an auxiliary language that arises when speakers of several mutually unintelligible languages are in close contact; it has limited syntax and morphology and does not have subordinate clauses. Creole language occurs when children of immigrants acquire a pidgin as their native language; it has an increase in lexicon, syntax, morphology and subordinate clauses.
After a year since admitted to the hospital, Genie's grammar resembled ________?
that of a normal 18-20 month old child
