Lecture 6

• Language development, Skinner (nurture approach)


  learn to speak through being reinforced for producing sounds
• Language development, Chomsky's theory (nature approach)


  people have an inborn language acquisition device
• Language development today: social-interactionist perspective (nature + nurture)


  : Language development is interaction between maturation of cognitive skills and experience with environment (e.g., adults using child-centered speech)
• Crying, first communication signal


  ▪ Crying = increases infant-parent bond

  ▪ Caregivers can read/ learn to read the „type“ and “severity”

  of cry (closeness, hunger, overstimulation)

  ▪ Crying = vital to survival – babies crying too little: signal for

  potential neurological problem

  ▪ Exercise of the vocal cords

  ▪ From 5 months: realization that sounds have an effect on

  caregiver behavior
• Language development (0 – 12 months)


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• Language development (0 – 12 months)


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• Language development (18 – 24 months)


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• “vocabulary spurt”


  Language development 18-24 months. From 1,5 years vocabulary increases strongly
• Overextension


  Too broad use of a verbal category (e.g., all four-legged pets are called ‘dog’)
• Underextension


  Too narrow use of a verbal category (e.g., only own grandfather is called ‘grandfather’)
• Language development (2 – 5 years)


  • Between 2 and 3 years vocabulary increases a lot – up to one word per 1-2 waking hour!

  • Engagement in give-and-take conversations starts

  • Longer sentences (>2 words), more grammatically complex

  • Addition of function words (e.g., articles, prepositions)
• Typical error language development 2 - 5 years


  Overregularisation (around 3 years): overgeneralising global rules about past tense or plural: E.g., ‘I swimmed’ , ‘two sheeps’ → good sign! Indication that they are mastering new rules (instead of imitating speech of their parents)
• Language development (school age)


  • Vocabulary continues to grow: average six-year-old has a vocabulary of from 8,000 to 14,000 words and grows by another 5,000 words per year until the age of 11/12 years

  • Mental vocabulary reorganized (e.g., from dog - barks to dog - cat)

  • Mastery of grammar improves: use of passive voice, conditional

  sentences

  • Learning to read and to write
• Metalinguitstic awareness (school age)


  Understanding of sentence structure (syntax), concept and definition of words (semantics), how language is affected by context (pragmatics)
• Language development (aging)


  • No change in knowledge of phonology
  • Difficulty distinguishing sounds if hearing impairments or cognitive deficits
  • No change in knowledge of grammar or syntax, less complex sentences used in aging
  • With WM problems: trouble understanding sentences with highly complex syntax
  • Knowledge of semantics (esp. word meanings) often expands
  • "tip-of-the-tongue" experience in older adults → problem in retrieving information stored in memory, not of knowing the words → compensated by speaking more slowly and plan choice of words in advance
  • Adults refine pragmatic use of language to social + professional context, this ability is maintained in older age (except for major cognitive decline)
• Language development (aging) table


  Adults learn to adapt language use to social and professional context; this ability is maintained in older age (unless major decline) (pragmatic use)

  
• Bilingualism has many advantages → more positive outcomes for:


  • Cognitive development (e.g., analytical reasoning, inhibition, interpersonal skills)

  • Language development (e.g., more conscious of syntax and grammar)
• Negative bilingualism


  : bilingual children do have a smaller vocabulary in each language than monolingual children → are not exposed to the same quantity and quality of each language
• Bilingualism – long-term effects for aging


  • May delay the onset of Alzheimer disease (~4.5 years; Alladi et al.,

  2013), effects are not the same if second language is learned later

  • Explanations:

  • better executive functions

  • better neural network functioning, especially in that involving executive function

  • seems to bolster a person’s cognitive reserve: may allow to retain mental capabilities longer by increasing mental processing efficiency in aging
• Intelligence


  The ability to solve problems and to adapt to and learn from experiences
• IQ


  strong predictor for adademic performance and people’s development
• IQ test, verbale scale:


  e.g., vocabulary, comprehension, similarities

  
• IQ test, non-verbale scale:

  e.g., block disign

  
• The Intelligence Quotient

  Range normal IQ: 70 - 130

  Intellectual disability: <70

  Giftedness: > 130

  →Score “corrected” for age:

  Test performance in relation to norms of individuals of same age
• Criticism IQ test – Flynn effect, difference explained by environmental factors:

  • Education

  • Improved economic conditions:

  • Improved nutrition

  • Improved living conditions

  • Less infectious diseases (less energy diverted from the brain)
• Western IQ test:

  • Focus on cognitive skills

  • Western context (language/pictures)
• What does IQ test performance say about someone from a different culture?

  • Reduced validity: test does not only measure intelligence
• Intelligence – integration of different theories table


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• Development of Intelligence – Infancy, • Small correlation between IQ test during infancy and childhood (BSID & WISC). Why?

  • 1. Other skills being measured:

  • BSID → sensory and motor skills

  • WISC → abstract skills

  • 2. Developmental influences change:

  • In infants: Development of intelligence more influenced by universal processes

  • In children: less influence of universal processes → more room for stable interindividual differences
• Development of Intelligence - Childhood


  • IQs at different ages starting from 4 years highly correlated

  • IQ of earlier age predicts IQ at later age

  • Great stability for most children, but instability for small group
• Development of Intelligence - Childhood, explanation


  • Fluctuation due to influences on performance

  IQ test (e.g. motivation, test conditions)

  • But also environmental factors!
• Environmental Risk Factors on IQ table:

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• IQ and Socioeconomic Status, Cumulative deficit hypothesis

  • Children of highest and lowest SES backgrounds on average separated by 6 IQ points at the age of 2 years

  • By age of 16, IQ gap almost tripled

  • But: brain is plastic → Positive effects if economic conditions

  improve
• Fluid intelligence, basic info processing


  • content-poor

  • universal, biological

  • strong genetic determination
• Crystallized intelligence, knowledge: factual and procedural


  • content-rich

  • culture dependent

  • experience-based
• Risk factors for decline intelligence


  • Poor health

  • Unstimulating lifestyle

  • Few leisure activities

  • Low social status

  • Dissatisfaction with life/disengagement from life
• Protective factors for decline intelligence

  • Above-average SES

  • Advanced education

  • Intact marriages

  • Intellectually capable spouses

  • Physically active lifestyles

  • Mentally active lifestyles
• Influence on school performance


  Student factors:

  • Intelligence

  • Motivation (fixed versus growth mindset).

  Family factors:

  • Education parents

  • Mental health parents

  • Family size

  • Absence of father
• Influence on school performance, teacher factors


  • Academic focus (e.g., many demands, regular homework)

  • Task-oriented but pleasant atmosphere

  • Address discipline issues effectively

  • Provide a sense of social cohesion in the classroom
• Work in adolescence


  increasing number who work part-time and still attend school