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1/6 lecture notes from a neuropsychology series within a psychology undergraduate degree.
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Lecture 1 – ModularityCognitive psychology:
- Why study it?
- Of all branches of psychology, cognition has had the most profound effects on
humanity
- Nobel prizes
- Ubiquitous intelligence testing
- Behavioural economics
- Education
- Attention as a commodity – always been something material i.e., oil or gold, but now
it’s cognitive.
- Understanding our own cognition and biases improves understanding self and others
cognitive psychology is an impossible discipline (the study of thought)
- Because it cannot be directly seen, you can’t see thoughts
- Disciplines shown in the ‘hexagram of cognitions’ but all disciplines
still can’t be measured directly.
Why study the black box:
- Shown by Skinner, behaviorism reduced the mind to a “black box”
- He said the brain receives input from the senses
- …and produces output from the body
- Up until the 1950s we had no way of measuring cognitions
- Then Noam Chomsky claimed that behaviorism couldn’t explain language (against
Skinner’s beliefs)
- Skinners states that’s every output is a result from the input of a stimulus, However,
that is not true under each of these ideas;
Poverty of the stimulus;
- Any language user can generate an infinite number of utterances that has never
been said in the world before and this therefore suggests that it cannot be just an
output to a stimulus but must be something cognitive.
- A language learner is exposed to a finite linguistic environment
- Behaviorism cannot explain this with Stimulus - Response theory alone
- Noam Chomsky claimed that behaviorism couldn’t explain language
- Humans must have a unique cognitive tool for acquiring language = Universal
Grammar (UG)
, UG;
- This is shown in ideas such as that languages differ in the surface structure
- E.g., in Dutch Each Sunday I wash the car (subject verb object) translates to Each
Sunday wash I the car (verb subject object).
- But they do share deep structure (i.e., nouns and their verbs are usually close
together to form a noun phrase).
- The common thread is Universal Grammar (UG)
- Similar idea by Steve Pinker - Children possess a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
- “Evolutionary theory offers clear criteria for when a trait should be attributed to
natural selection: complex design for some function, and the absence of alternative
processes capable of explaining such complexity. Human language meets these
criteria.” (Pinker & Bloom, 1990)
Evidence for UG (and LAD);
- He’s arguing behaviourism is wrong
- 1) Poverty of the stimulus
- 2) Language is uniquely human
- All animals rely on Stimulus – Response mechanisms for learning
- If behaviorist mechanisms can explain human language, why does no other animal
have language?
- Chomsky argues that human language is qualitatively different than all other forms
of communication and that Human language has grammar.
- Chimps were used to teach them language, assign language was used instead of
vocals because chimps have different sized oral cavity and so couldn’t produce
vocals.
- Chomsky claimed that chimps couldn’t learn language because they don’t have UG.
In this study (Terrace et al., 1979) chimps learned many utterances but because he
learned lots of words does this mean he acquired grammar?
- Chimps can learn dozens or hundreds of words
- May produce them in appropriate contexts and can seem like language
- However, there is no evidence for a non-human primate learning or producing
grammar
- Good for the UG hypothesis: Behavioural learning alone is not enough, need
something cognitive to explain UG
- 3) Language acquisition has a critical period
- From the ages of 3 to 12, after adolescence, language learning slows down rapidly
- Cases in which people make it to adolescence without having learned a language are
rare, but they all point to the same conclusion: they never learn it as well as those
who learned it as children.
Evidence for UG/LAD;
- Genie was confined until the age of 13 with virtually no exposure to language
- Genie eventually learned some words, but never grammar or grammatically
understanding of someone her age.
- Therefore, supporting the UG hypothesis
- E.g., Mike Paint. Applesauce buy store. I like elephant eat peanut. Neal come happy;
Neal not come sad.
- Isabelle was six and a half when she escaped from confinement, by the age of 8 she
knew 1500-2000 words and could produce complex grammar
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