GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture 8

LANGUAGE & INTELLIGENCE

Visiting Assistant PROFESSOR YEE-SAN TEOHDepartment of Psychology

National Taiwan University Unless noted, the course materials are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Taiwan (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY

LANGUAGE

DEVEL

OPMENT

T H E O R I E SA N T E C E D E N T S O F L A N G U A G E A C Q U I S I T I O NV O C A B U L A R YG R A M M A R

THE COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE

Phonemes – basic sound units

Semantics – meaning of words and sentences

Grammar – structure of language (syntax, morphemes)

Pragmatics – conversational rules

HOW DO WE ACQUIRE LANGUAGE?

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

THE LEARNING VIEW

Reinforcement

(Skinner)Imitation(Bandura)

But how do children develop

language in a particular

sequence?

How do they acquire certain components of language even

without reinforcement or imitation?

THE NATIVIST VIEW

Chomsky’s LAD-

Language Acquisition

Device

Evidence:Certain

universal features in all

languages,Critical period in language acquisition

But… Social

context/culture is important – more differences than

similarities across languages

THE INTERACTIONIST VIEW

Innate ability + supportive

context(Tomasello)

Biologically programmed

ability to speak must be

complimented with extensive

experience with language

Children play an active

role in acquiring language

DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Lack of stimulation

Deafness

Blindness

Language Impairments

LACK OF STIMULATION – MALTREATED CHILDRENThe Story of Genie

• Abused and never spoken to since birth.• Discovered at age 13, given rehabilitation.• Was able to use speech much like that of a

young child (“Another house have dog”).• Never able to reach the proficiency typical

for her age.

DEAFNESS• Language does not depend on the

auditory-vocal channel.• The American Sign Language (ASL)

involves a system of gestures.• ASL has hand shapes & positions for each

word composition. • Babies born to deaf ASL users (whether or

not they are deaf) can learn from caregivers through informal interaction.

BLINDNESS

• Blind children learn language just as rapidly and as well as sighted children.

• Vision-related words like “look” and “see” are understood in a different way – use of hands rather than eyes.

• Color words are learnt even without personally experiencing them – they can talk about the colors of things they are familiar with.

LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTSAphasia- Disorder of language produced by lesions in

certain areas of the cortex in the left hemisphere.

- A lesion in Broca’s area = nonfluent aphasia (speech difficulty).

- A lesion in Wernicke’s area = fluent aphasia (comprehension difficulty)

LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTSSpecific Language Impairment (SLI)- Syndrome in which individuals are very slow to

learn language.- Not caused by developmental disorders or brain

damage.- Throughout life, difficulty in understanding and

producing many sentences, even though intelligence seems normal.

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING• Knowledge of the first or native language

is so much better than knowledge of a second or third language.

• Evidence shows that the brain loci of late-learned languages usually are different from those of the first learned language.

• The older a person who is learning a second language, the more difficult it is to become fluent in that language.

WHAT DO DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING TELL US?

THE CRITICAL/SENSITIVE PERIOD HYPOTHESIS• There is a sensitive developmental period

for language learning.• Language is most easily acquired in early

childhood.• Evidence for sensitive periods for language

acquisition comes from studies of severely maltreated children and second language learning.

BABIES’ COMMUNICATIVE EFFORTS

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Parents and infants engage in dialogue of sounds, gestures, facial expressions.

Infant grows as a communicative partner (Schaffer, 1996).

INFANT-DIRECTED SPEECH (ALSO MOTHERESE)

Gesturing sets the stage for language development….

(Goldin-Meadows, 2007)

6 months - most babies learn to use pointing gesture.

End of 1st yr, gestures to communicate, share their intentions with another (Tomasello et al. 2007).

ProtodeclarativeGesture intended to

make a statement about an object.

ProtoimperativeGesture intended to get

another person to do something for the child.

USING GESTURES

Beyond Gesturing…..

Receptive LanguageExpressive/Productive Language

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE –EARLY SPEECH PERCEPTION

• As early as 1 month of age, infants can perform categorical speech perception.

• Ability to discriminate speech sounds, e.g. consonants.

• Exposure to specific or native languages determines ability to distinguish and categorize specific sounds/phonemes.

DISCRIMINATING BETWEEN LANGUAGES• 4-day-old babies in France & America can

discriminate between English and French speech.

• By 2 months, babies listen longer when their own native language is spoken.

TUNING IN TO ONE’S OWN LANGUAGE….

• Infants lose the ability to make phoneme distinctions that are NOT used in their language community.

• Japanese infants stop distinguishing between “la” and “ra”.

• Babies begin to listen specifically for the particulars of their own language.

PRODUCTIVE LANGUAGE – EARLY SPEECH PRODUCTION• Production of sounds in 1st yr follows orderly

4-stage sequence.• Crying Cooing Babbling Patterned

Speech.• Cultural differences in prespeech sounds

emerge around the babbling stage.• Babies start to tune in to the specific sounds

of their native language.

HOW CHILDREN ACQUIRE WORDSDifferent views on how children associate a

word with an object.1. Associations combined with attention to

perceptual similarity. 2. Use of social cues from adults to learn what

a word labels.3. Use of multiple cues that changes with age

– perceptual at early stage, social later.

HOW CHILDREN ACQUIRE GRAMMAR• By 2yrs of age, children begin to use 2-

word utterances (Telegraphic Speech/TS). E.g. ‘there book’, ‘more milk’• TS includes crucial words needed to

convey the speaker’s intent.• From 2 yrs onwards, children learn the

rules of grammar – understanding and acquiring morphemes (-s, -ing)

Grammatical Flowering (deVilliers & deVilliers, 1992).

In 3rd year of life…..• Sentence construction improves.• Increasing types of verbs, and tenses.• Ability to pose questions, using wh- words (what,

which, where, why).• Expressions of negation (e.g. “That not daddy”,

“No go school”).

LANGUAGE DEVELOPM

ENT

T H E S O C I A L U S E O F L A N G U AG EB I L I N G U A L I S M

THE COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGEPhonemes – basic sound units

Semantics – meaning of words and sentencesGrammar – structure of language (syntax, morphemes)

Pragmatics – conversational rules

USING LANGUAGE SOCIALLYChildren use language as a social tool

through….

1. Speech Acts = Expressions clearly referring to situations rather than to one object/action.

2. Discourse = Socially based conversation where children listen and respond to another’s speech.

THE RULES OF PRAGMATICS – Using Language Appropriate To A Given Situation

1. Engage attention of listener.2. Be sensitive to listener’s feedback and

respond clearly.3. Adjust speech to the characteristics of the

listener (e.g. age, culture, social background).

4. Adjust speech to suit situation (e.g. church)5. Learn to listen.6. Evaluate own and conversational partner’s

messages.

HOW EARLY DO CHILDREN LEARN THE PRAGMATICS OF LANGUAGE?

MAKING CONVERSATION AT 2YRS2-year-olds…• Addressed listeners during interaction• Directed communication to others when they

could see each other.• Made close contact to topic/object of

conversation.• Responsive to feedback.

(Wellman & Lempers, 1977)

ADJUSTING SPEECH 2-3-yr-olds used more repetitions and

more attention-eliciting words (hello, look) when talking to baby siblings than to mothers.

(Judy Dunn & colleagues)

CHILDREN’S LIMITATIONS…Less effective speakers when they must

compete with other adults or children.

Less competent when speaking about (i) Absent objects(ii) Feelings (iii)Thoughts (iv)Relationships

LEARNING TO LISTEN• Even 3-yr-olds can recognize ambiguous

messages and respond appropriately.

Revelle et al (1985)- When 3- and 4-year-olds heard ambiguous

requests (e.g. Bring me the refrigerator)….- Many understood that request was

problematic and requested more information (e.g. How? It is too heavy)

BILINGUALISM / MULTILINGUALISM

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

A FEW CONSEQUENCES OF BILINGUALISM…• Learning of each language may be slower,

vocabularies of each language smaller.• Can use distinct sounds from each

language to deal with cognitive load from learning two languages.

• Skillfulness in 2 languages – better concept formation, flexible thinking.

CRIB BILINGUALISM…• Bilingual exposure in early infancy

enhances the ability to monitor and switch between competing tasks.

• Having to inhibit knowledge about one language while learning another language promotes executive control.

• Better cognitive flexibility and executive control – better ability to monitor, repair, and reinterpret sentences.

INTELLIG

ENCE

TYPES OF INTELLIGENCEF LU I D

• Ability to deal with new and unusual problems, likely to be a fast learner.

• Decreases with age.

• More susceptible to bodily changes.

C RY S TA L L I Z E D• Individual’s

acquired knowledge; useful for dealing with problems that are similar to those already encountered.

• Increases with age.

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

3 major components –(a) Information-processing skills: Encode, store,

and retrieve info.(b) Experience with given task: Exposure &

practice with particular intelligence task.(c) Ability to adapt to demands of context: Adapt

to requirements, select situation to meet abilities & needs.

Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence

Ability to meet own goals and those of his/her society.

3 abilities:1. Analytical: reasoning about best answer to

a question.2. Creative: devising new ways of addressing

issues and concerns.3. Practical: skills used in work, family life,

social/professional interactions.

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence8 kinds of intelligence:1. Linguistic (e.g. poet, teacher)2. Logical-Mathematical (e.g. scientist)3. Spatial (e.g. engineer, artist)4. Musical (e.g. musician, composer)5. Bodily-Kinesthetic (e.g. dancer, athlete)6. Intrapersonal (e.g. novelist, actor)7. Interpersonal (e.g. psychotherapist)8. Naturalistic (e.g. biologist)

APPLICATION TO FORMAL EDUCATION?Gardner & Sternberg’s Project Zero

Practical Intelligence for School Program (PIFS)

• Positive effects on motivation, achievement, behavior.

PIFS• Students work through lessons that

develop their understanding of their own strengths and interests;

• The purposes of various school tasks (why is there homework and how is it similar to what adults do?);

• The demands of different subject areas (how is studying for a math test different from studying for social studies?);

• The many steps involved in school tasks (such as making plans and using resources); and

• The importance of self-monitoring through reflection (in journals and discussions).

INTELLIGENCE TESTINGIQ (Intelligence

Quotient) Index of a way a person performs on a standardized intelligence test relative to the way others of the same age perform.

WHY DO WE NEED TO MEASURE

INTELLIGENCE?

FLANAGAN & HARRISON, 20051. Predict academic performance2. Predict performance on the job3. Assess general adjustment & health

Problem with IQ Test Questions…- Are they accurate?- Are they culturally sensitive?

EXISTING INTELLIGENCE TESTSInfants1. Bayley Scales of Infant Development2. Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence- Primarily used to identify abnormal

development, determine child’s need for early intervention services.

Older children1. Stanford-Binet Test2. Weschler Intelligence Scale for

Children- Skills tested in WISC include factual

knowledge, long-term memory, short-term memory, reasoning, mathematical skills.

Adults1. Stanford-Binet Test2. Weschler Adult Intelligence Scales

(WAIS)- Skills tested in the WAIS include

verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed.

WHAT INFLUENCES INTELLIGENCE?

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTELLIGENCEHeritability Ratios

• Proportion of variance in intelligence in a given population that is attributable to genetic factors.

• Estimates of 40%-70%.• Differences in heritability – some cultures or

socio-economic backgrounds facilitate/impede the expression of ‘intelligence’ genes.

CULTURE & INTELLIGENCE• Cultures may differ on conceptions of what

intelligence is.• Different cultures use different methods of

problem solving.• Cultures differ in the skills they need and

value.

POVERTY & IQ DEVELOPMENT• Children who live in poverty in their preschool

years seem more at risk than children who were not exposed to such levels of poverty until middle or late childhood.

• Genetic factors are more significant in high-SES than low-SES families.

• Impoverished environment cuts off genetic potential – so genetic blueprint matters less.

THE FLYNN EFFECT IQ scores seem to be rising at the rate of approx 3

points per decade.

Why? Improvement in nutrition and health care. Interaction among cultures – sharing ‘intelligence’ Genetics less significant – evolution takes much

longer.