ASP 320 Exam 1
William Greenough
**Experience affects neural development ** raised rats in different environments -rats alone in box -a bunch of rats together in box -rats together at rat disneyland -sacrifice rats and count neural connections in each rat -more experience you have the better connections you have in your brain
Why Generativism?
-Behaviorism can't explain how we generate novel utterances -infinite # of utterances -recursion
Three hypotheses of early right hemisphere
-The left hemisphere isn't ready to process language at the beginning. It takes a while to mature -The right hemisphere processes language until the child learns grammar (or maybe the patterns in the input??) then the left takes over -Children process the incoming signal with the right hemisphere, but that the left is better at the processing and continues to get better so that the right eventually stops processing it altogether
Poverty of Stimulus Argument
-cannot learn patterns of language based on positive evidence, alone. Need negative evidence, too -there are errors in speech -children only ever presented with positive evidence for patterns -all (typical) children master their native language
wernickes aphasia
-fluent aphasia. articulation unaffected, melodic contour unaffected. speech is semantically meaningless. syntax and morphology occur, but again are meaningless -comprehension usually impaired to some extent *may not always be aware that they aren't making sense
What's wrong with behaviorism?
-for a behaviorist, language is no different than any other behavior -behaviorist's say, "its not that cognitive mechanisms don't exist, its just that they are irrelevant" -emphasis on observable & measurable behavior can obscure understanding of psych/ cognition
computational modeling
-good for testing theories -only as good as the algorithm -assumes much in terms of how language is learned
Usage-based/Constructionist
-grammar is learned from the input using general cognitive mechanisms -both semantics and syntax are part of what is learned -no deep structure/ only surface -how lang is used determines what is learned - grammar emerges -emphasis on the input and how it shapes learning (eg frequency)
Epigenesis Gene Expression
-just because you have a gene in your makeup does not mean it will turn on, you have to receive the right environmental influences -early experiences control which genes are switched on -input is very important can't learn without it
Dynamic systems
-language learning is the emergent product of the accumulation of many small moments of perceiving, attending, remembering, and behaving embedded in context
lexicon
-link between morpheme and meaning -not considered a component of language usually
experience expectant
-neural processes that exist innately because the species has evolved with them -organism expects to have whiskers, barrell cells exist in brain -if whiskers are surgically removed at birth, the barrell will eventually be pruned away *use it, or lose it*
Non-generativist cognitive approaches
-not exclusive, but often overlapping -becomes a matter of what is being emphasized in explaining learning of a particular matter -focus on explaining learning without resorting to LAD -language is just one part of cognition and shares abilities with other cognitive capacities
Cooperation Principle (grice)
-quantity, quality, relation, manner -discorse types -literal vs nonliteral ("my head is killing me")
Behaviorist (skinner)
-reinforcement, conditioning, association, stimulus response -stimulus (function of response) --> mind--> response (behavior) -only what is observable, measurable -langauge is verbal behavior and nothing else
phonology
-sound systems (phones(all sounds you can produce in a lang), phonemes( meaningful categories of sounds), allophones (variation of phonemes))
Can we account for what learning looks like with just thinking of those basic things?
-starts out very simple, becomes more complex -early things turn into bigger things -previous experience guides subsequent behavior -context influences learning -novelty things and words get more attention
Generativist
-we can "generate" language, we can say new things, combine units of language to generate language -language is a median
Neuron Basic Function
1) a stimulus in the environment activates a neuron 2)the neuron fires and an electrical charge is carried along the axon to synaptic cleft 3)neurotransmitters are released (serotonin,dopamine, etc.) 4) the signal is picked up the dendrites of the connecting neuron and carried to the neurons **a neuron has to be attached to another neuron if not it dies
problems with generativist approach
1) linguistics have failed to find and document universal characteristics of language 2) can't find any characteristics that are uniquely human ( recursion was last, but some birds can recognize recursion) 3) we can learn language based on positive evidence alone 4) other aspects help us learn: social context, statistical learning, child directed speech 5) may be unfalsifiable 6) tend to say its innate and not find a way to explain 7) LAD is unique to get language, really separating language from other types of cognition
language acquisition device (LAD)
Chomsky's term for a hypothesized mental structure that enables humans to learn language, including the basic aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and intonation.
Critical Period Hypothesis
Erick Lenneberg - theory of language development that states language must be learned by a certain age, otherwise, we will experience continual difficulty learning language
Basic structure of brain
Frontal lobe - decision making, executive Parietal lobe-spatial orientation occipital lobe- vision temporal lobe- language/hearing limbic lobe - motion and memory
dialect
Geographically, socially distinct versions of a single language that vary somewhat from the parent form.
What things would we expect to find in children if UG or an LAD is there at birth?
Left hemisphere would be processing langauge at the same rate of an adult
has anyone found the LAD or UG in brain?
No -evidence suggests that language is proceccessd by left hemisphere, while non-speech sounds are processed in right hemisphere
corpus callostomy
Separation of the two hemispheres in the brain to treat epilepsy -Gazzaniga
Eric Kandel
Studied the sea slug Aplysia and posited that learning and memory are evidenced by changes in synapses and neural pathways. -learning physically changes brain -inverterbrates have huge neurons compared to vertebrates
Merge **
a syntactic objects combine to create unordered linguistic objects -does not change SO, only combines them hierarchelly
intention reading (part of si)
ability of the person to understand the intention of the other
prescriptive grammar
all the rules of a language
All ______ are ________, but not all ______ are _______.
allophones, phones, phones, allophones
over production of synapses
brain doesn't know what to make, so it tries different connections
free morphemes
can exist on their own
generative
can produce novel utterances
Teleological change/evolution ********not sure
change is a result, not changing for a purpose -change is caused by language variation
Recovery from aphasia is more complete in......
children and faster; they generally catch up if injury occurs before language acquisition begins (though some slight delays often remain)
conventional/signs
communication or self expression -generative
standardized tests
compare individual to norms
Chomsky's solution --> Universal grammar
contains core universal constructs of language -innate and unique to humans -universal properties of language -experience helps us set parameters - variability of language is only on the surface
left cortex controls right side of body
contralaterrally arranged
wernikes area
corner right where sylvan issue ends -language comprehension
language variations
dialect, pidgin, creole
Wada test
disrupts language -administers sodium amobarbitol through the carotid artery, which turns off left or right side of brain to test where language occurs -used when people have epilepsy before surgery to correct it
joint attention (part of si)
drawing attention to an object, then naming object
social interactionist (usage based)
emphasizes the role of communication -the purpose of communication in language learning
cell body
executes commands
dendrites
feeding INTO the neuron
bound morphemes
have to be attached to something else
early plasticity of the brain makes it
highly malleable in responses to environment
Motor cortex
housed by frontal lobe -generates motor function -arranged topographically to parts of your body
auditory cortex
housed in temporal lobe
auditory cortex
houses the lateral sulcus or the sylvian fissure (separates temporal and frontal lobe)
pragmatics
how language is used -intentions and recognized ways of carrying them out -conversational cues
descriptive grammar
how people actually use language -how did people learn language
syntax
how words are arranged -gives much of language meaning -tree diagrams w/word classes
greater degrees of lateralization
in adults than in children
Diachronic change
language change over time
75%of left handed people
language in left temporal lobe
95% of right handed people
language in left temporal lobe
broca's area
language production
normative studies
large scale, sectional studies, expensive time consuming, allows snapshot of what is "normal"
most people's language is in.....?
left hemisphere
population studies
look at characteristics of population in order to make correlations -can not draw cause and effect
experiments
may not reflect real life situations well controlled best received in science
connectionist approach (usage based)
models language and language learning on the concept of a network and neural nodes -a collection of neurons that create a more complicated concept -simple tasks become more complex - learning creates connections between nodes and the nodes conspire to provide some function -networks of association
corpus studies
multiple subjects, all speech recorded at particular interval, time consuming, dependent on sampling frequency *deb roy video
creole
native speakers of a certain pidgin
experience dependent
neural processes that occur in response to experience
axon
neuron can have one axon only (but it can branch) feeding OUT of neuron
special cases
nicuarauagn sign language, wild child
5 basic parts of language
phonology syntax morphology semantics pragmatics
systematic
phonology, lexicon,morphology, syntax, pragmatics
diary studies
single subject, record what child says, focused on one thing, tune ear, selective
Brocas aphasia
speech will not be produced right -non-fluent aphasia, speech is telegraphic, halting. speech is labored and slow. syntax and morphology is minimally produced. word finding difficulties -comprehension generally ok
morphology
structure of the meaningful units of language (morphemes) -suffixes, prefixes, infixes?
Pruning
synaptic growth in first 2 years is massive -at 8 months neurons begin to be pruned back -keeps the most used, best connections -determined by child's experiences
language is....
systematic and conventional use of sounds (or signs, or written symbols) for the purpose of communication or self expression
semantics
the meaning of language -separate from other aspects of language
Imprinting
the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life -konrad lorenz
construction grammar (usage based)
thought of as frames composed of slots into which words, morphemes, parts of speech, semantic relationships can fit -only surface structure *idea* fit things in that do fit, exclude what does not
introspection
uncontrolled, unreliable, maybe a place to start hypothesis -corpus studies- multiple subjects, all speech recorded at particular interval, time consuming, dependent on sampling frequency
pidgin
variation of 2 languages coming together for the purpose of trade and communication
synapse
where axon ends and comes in close contact with another neuron