PSYC 1101 Exam 4 Note Packet Mark Prokosch Communication in Humans LANGUAGE Infant directed speech caregiver s communications with infants 4 versions of melodies used during infant directed speech o Attention o Approval o Prohibiting o Comfort Sensitive Period of Language Development Sensitive period stage in development when an individual can best aquire specific skills o Ability to learn language later in life requires considerable effort o Many psychologists believe the years prior to age 13 are vital for language development maximally before age 7 Learning Multiple Languages Young children readily learn a second or third language o The earlier we learn it the more proficient we become o Language learning ability declines as we age Children in bilingual and multilingual homes acquire language at a slightly slower pace Growing up with one set of phonemes or basic set of sounds difficulty pronouncing those of another language Language How We Develop Sequence of Language Learning Pre vocal Learning 2 4 months old o Part of the receptive language stage where babies learn to discriminate sounds o Babies distinguish all phonemes they will later use for language o Prefer to look at faces that match sounds learn that ah comes from wide open lips etc Babbling 6 months old o Meaningless experimental sounds preceding actual language o Part of the productive learning stage where the ability to produce words and sounds arises o NOT an imitation of adult speech includes sounds from all languages o Deaf babies raised by deaf parents tend to babble more with hands o At about 10 months old a trained ear can identify the language Sounds and intonations from other languages begin to disappear and without exposure to other languages babies become functionally deaf to speech sounds outside native language ex American baby will not be able to discriminate between sounds in Japanese First Words 1 year old o Simple single word talking begins with comprehension exceeding o Still part of the productive learning stage o By now children have learned to associate meaning with speech sounds words o At this stage and inflected word may equal a sentence ex Doggy o Simple two word sentences omitting all but essential words ex Want Look at the dog out there Telegraphic Speech by 2 years old juice o Also part of productive learning stage Longer phrases sentences 4 and 5 years old o Still part of productive learning stage o Start to employ and understand humor Ex You never starve in the desert because of all the sand which is there I once shot an elephant in my pajamas How it got into my pajamas I ll never know Vocabulary After we turn 1 we learn on average 3500 words a year amassing 60 000 words by the time we graduate high school Components of Language Language production formation of language Language comprehension ability to understand meaning of language Language Centers in the Brain Aphasia impaired use of language can result from damage to any cortical area of the brain Some people with aphasia can speak but not read or comprehend what they read but not speak or write but not read etc Broca s area left frontal lobe o Critical for speech production o Associated with grammar comprehension o Broca s Aphasia impairment of language production Omission of most pronouns prepositions conjunctions auxiliary verbs tense and number endings during speech production Telegraphic speech short sentences with only necessary words Wernicke s area left temporal lobe o Critical for language comprehension o Located in temporal lobe o Wernicke s Aphasia impairment of language comprehension Difficulty understanding spoken and written speech especially nouns and verbs Sometimes called fluent aphasia because they can still speak smoothly Angular Gyrus o Affects reading aloud o Can speak and understand but can t read Evolution of Language Stephen Pinker 1994 argues that language evolved via natural selection for the communication of information Simply by making noises with our mouths we can reliably cause precise new combinations of ideas to arise in each other much like echolocation in bats or antennae in insects INTELLIGENCE CREATIVITY What is Intelligence Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity to act purposefully think rationally and deal effectively with the environment It is global because it characterizes the individual s behavior as a whole it is aggregate because it is composed of elements or abilities which though not entirely independent are qualitatively differentiable David Wechsler 1938 The ability to learn from experience solve problems and use knowledge to adapt to new situations Psychometric Tradition 100 years of research Statistic analysis of individual differences in mental ability o Charles Spearman 1904 General Intelligence Charles Spearman proposed that there is general intelligence g He notes that people who score high in one area like verbal intelligence tend to score higher than average in other areas such as spatial or reasoning ability The positive correlations between performance on all of these tests suggest that there is a general intelligence factor aka g factor o This common skill set underlies all our intelligent behavior Psychometric Tradition Influence on mental testing o IQ tests Among the most accurate reliable and valid of all psychological tests and assessments Also often the most controversial Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale WAIS Most widely used intelligence test has a version for school age and preschool children Consists of 11 subtests broken into verbal and performance areas Like the Stanford Binet test it yields an overall intelligence score but also separate scores for verbal comprehension perceptual organization working memory and processing speed Verbal o General Information What day of the year is Independence Day In what way are wool and cotton alike o Similarities o Vocabulary o Arithmetic Reasoning If eggs cost 60 cents a dozen what does 1 egg cost Tell me the meaning of corrupt o Comprehension o Digit Span Why do people buy fire insurance Repeat after me 7 3 4 1 8 6 Now say these backwards 3 8 4 1 6 Performance o Picture completion I am going to show you a picture with important part missing Tell me what is missing Ex Calendar without the month o Picture Arrangement Put the pictures in order to tell a story o Block Design o Object Assembly Using the four blocks make them look just like this one If the pictures are put together correctly they will make something Put
View Full Document
Unlocking...