

cognitive quiz since test 2


undefined, object
copy deck
Spatial cognition is a useful way to look at the interaction between
perception, action and cognition
studies in spatial cognition have led to challenges about
what infants know and what develops
knowledge exist outside of you and your task (piaget and vygotsky) is to
move information inside
what develops in spatial cognition
perception and action form the basis for cognition (reasoning and thought)
core knowledge (spelke)
infants born with modules of certain knowledge
objects have boundaries
objects move as a whole
objects must come in contact w/ something in order to move
what develops in spelke's theory?
cognition is its own foundation thought is enriched but not fundamentally changed
architectural innateness
knowledge about space is not hardwired but you have specific ways of processing info
what develops in architectural innateness?
the way infants process infor lead them to learn what things comonly occur in the environment
ecological theory (gibson, pick)
infants are NOT blank slates, what the enviro allows you to do you learn about space because it comes to have meaning
what develops in eco theory
ability to perceive what the enviro affords (i.e. what you can do w/ things in the enviro)
egocentric represnetation
use yourself as a reference point (how we represent space)
infants in T shaped maze
place infant in maze, allow infant to find a toy, "crawl straight and then go right" then, place infants in a different place in the maze
infants with more experience crawling or in a walker will
succeed in maze problem more often
infants understanding of affordances in space
changes with experience in walking
using objects in the space to referece locations of other objects
landmarks 1 year
use objects nearby to locate an object
landmarks 2 year
use more distant landmarkers
landmarks 5 years
use multiple landmarks
allocentric representations
representations of the sapce that are independent of your new point--considered the most pure spatial cognition (must have an internal rep of the space, not an external)
use allocentric reps when
cannot use landmarks or distances are too far
Spelke's blue wall task
rectangular room with identical buckets in each corner. Task: watch experimenter hide sticker. put on blindfold and become disoriented. after disorient, look for sticker

Two conditions: landmark (blue wall), no landmark (only geometric info is available).

Adults will find sticker using the landmark

Children use only the geometric infor--NOT the landmark

15-24 months do not benefit from the blue wall. they search equally at 2 opposite corners in both the landmark and non landmark spot
children use global geometric cues to
orient themselves in space: allocentric rep
mental rotation
the ability to visualize an object form different directions w/o moving it physically
gender diffs in rotation
boys often showing faster reaction times and higher accuracy BUT this gap is closing
obejct location and spatial memory
1 year olds are very accurate remembering where to search for an object

other research shows children of all ages are accurate in reembering spatial cognition
kittens that are not given the poortunity to move around themselves
do not develope depth perception well
infants who crawl (or have experience with walker)
those fear and avoid visual cliff
summary of spatial cognition
we might be born wiht some innate reps
spatial knowlege also develops with practice
spatial knowlege is dependent on SELF motion
understanding spatial congition helps us gain insight into basic developmental processes and calls into question some assumptions we have held about govnitive developement
humans are the ony species with
political systems, novels, art, societies, religions and language
modularity (chomsky)
language was a separate (encapsulated) process unaffected by other domains fo cognitino AND unable to affect others
whorfian hypoth
languages differ in how they "carve up" the world. these differences affect how speakers of different languages think--these differences affect how speakers of different languages think LANGUAGE STRUCTURE = COGNITIVE STRUCTURE
despite different ways of cariving up color terms, people across the world have
similar ways of viewing colors
memory for oclors, dsitinctions between colors, color categories
did not differ
change in 1990s
challenge modularity: if language can affect thought, then thinking must be malleable and flexible (i.e. not modular)
focal hue
best color/example that ppl aggree on that rep a certain color
color perception task
english: 11 basic color terms
himba: 5 basic color terms
color boundaries do not overlap
3 tasks: naming (what color is this)
comprehension: (can you show me red tile)
memory: see one tile, tile is removed, must select the tile they just saw from a group
if children have a universal set of color categories we should see
children mistake colors for eaach other only wihtin the same category (e.g. mistake dark navy for a lighter navy), but NOT mistake navy for black...this is CATEGORICAL perception
if color perception is determined by learning the words in your language
children should mistake colors both within and bteween color categories (e.g. a child will make the navy blue black error as often as the dark navy light navy blue) this is INCREMENTAL PERCEPTION
when children know no color terms in their language
they do not remember focal colors of their language any better than focal colors of other language---these children make INCREMENTAL mistakes
as children learn color terms
they have better memories for the focal colors of their language
language leads to children's better memory for colors i their language--these children make
languages differ in how they
code space
english and korean differ in how they categorize space
english distinction between in and on
korean distintion between tight fitting and loose fitting in
infants 9-14 months old shown two pictures of tight fitting and loose fitting
all infants were able to distinguis between these contrasts
infants 18-24 months hear the word in or kkita, see two pictures depictin loose containment and tight containment
Korean infants make the distinction, english children DO NOT
all infants are able to distinguish between tight fitting and loose fitting spatial containment relations
the language they learn allows them to continue to
make this distinction (in the case of Korean) or drop this distinction (in the case of english speakers)
spanish ser refers to properties of an object that are
permanent or inherent
estar refers to properties of an object that are
not permanent or accidental
appearance reality task sheep
show a white sheep, ask what color it is, put it behind a red film....ask WHAT COLOR IS IT NOW, and WHAT COLOR IS IT REALLY AND TRULY

english speaking 3 year olds say sheep is really and truly red
spanish 3 years say looks red, but is truly white
to be able to understand whether someone has a false belief, children need to be able to use words like
"to think" and "to know" correctly
children who demonstrated the abilitye to use a phrase with the verbs to think and to know
passed the test
specific linuistic constructions lead to the ability to
make correct inferences about other's mental states (ie NOT AGE RELATED)
benton faces task
determine which face matches the model---deaf children age 6-9 and adults better than non signers....late signers also better
asl and face recog test
memory is tested in this task
participants given 50 faces and asked to rate whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. then shonw a new stack of pics and asked to indicate if they have seen this face before

asl signers are not better than hearing non signers
why are asl signers better at face discrim but not recog?
because asl does not require retentino of specific facial features to understand fact it requires the oppostie the generalization across faces
asl and mental rotation
both hearing and deaf signers faster but not more acurate..depends on skill level.
conclusions on confluence of language and cognition
languagemay induce some abilities
language may maintain some abilities or produce loss
language may faciliatate some abilities
knowledge that is used for language is JUST available to use for language use; a special area of the brain for language. Domain specific knowledge, not domain generalâ€”it might be useful for something else, but you canâ€™t do it. Special box that is just for languageâ€”nothing about anything else can influenceâ€”only thing that can get in and out is the stuff that has to do with language.
limits on how children will think about languageâ€”leads them quickly to the right answers. It could be in terms of the brain, how the knowledge works. We are limited in our possibilities for language.
-These constraints might be similar to rules or could just mean that the brain works in a certain way that helps kids learn language.
**The main idea is that there is something special about learning language that is unlike learning other cognitive tasks, and that children are particularly good at it.
words (generally) donâ€™t sound like what they stand forâ€”no obvious connection between sound and the object
people can make an infinite number of sentences, even ones they havenâ€™t ever heard before (we donâ€™t just memorize them all).
language can represent objects, actions, events, and ideas all symbolically
we can talk about things that are right here in front of us or (events and objects from the past, or in other locations, or even that donâ€™t exist). Imaginary things at really young ages.
language has two levelsâ€”the actual sounds (phonology) and the meaning behind the sounds (syntax, semantics).
the sounds of languageâ€”includes both perceiving the sounds of language and being able to produce them.
word meaning/vocabulary (called lexicon in the textbookâ€”the mental dictionary)
Syntax and morphology:
rules for forming sentences and words (syntax = the rules for forming sentences/phrases; morphology = rules for forming words)
the social uses of language (ex: lying, persuasion, humor, formal vs. informal, etc)
the language that the child understands
the language that the child uses
comprehension is ALWAYS better than prodcution
sounds (phonems) are different in different languages and
are heard differently by adut speakers of different languages
the smallest unit of lanugage that makes a difference in the meaning of a word (pat vs. bat) NOT THE SAME AS A LETTER!
children perceive vowels in an adult like way at ##months and consonants at
6 months and 12 months
children also have to learn to produce all of the sounds of their language in the correct way
children begin doing this very early--around 10 months, but are still learning to do this up to 8-10 years old
the more difficult sounds in the language
can take years to learn
mapping problem
determining the right meaning
children say their first word around
10-15 months
children often show a word spurt around
18-24 months
whole object constraint
words refer to the whole obect and not a property or piece of it
mutual exclusivity constraint
one object has one label, so a new word goes with an object you don't have a label for
using a word for fewer things than an adult does (only child's dog is doggie)
using a word for more things than an adult does (cows horses and cats are doggie)
semantic development continues through
our whole lives--we can always continues to learn new words
overextension and under are
very rare
rules for putting words together, making new words
rules for puting words together into sentences
we can say and understand
new sentences that we have never heard before--we can't just memorize how the words go together
tacit knowledge
not being able to explain how we know how words can and can't be put together
the kind of lanugage that we want to study is the language
that people actually use (descriptive rules) and not telling people how they should talk (prescriptive rules)
children start puting words together at
2 years old
children know most of what they eed to know about syntax by
about 5 years old---talk about as well as an adult
smallest of language that carries meaning
free morpheme
a morpheme that can stand alone (cat, happy and run)
bound morpheme
a morpheme that must be attached to another in norder to have menaing (ing, s, nes, pre)
mlu (mean length of utterance)
the average number of morphemes in an utterance. this is better predictor of syntactic development than age
telegraphic speech
children leave out a lot of small function words and endings at first (mommy go store)
overuse of the regular system onto irregular words (runned)
u shaped development
correct use, followed by incorrect use, wth a later return to correct use
stage one overreg
memorize correct forms of individual words
stage two overreg
overgeneralization of past tense "ed"
stage three overreg
correct use of regular and iregular past tense forms
social use of language: persuasion, humor, politeness, coversational, turn taking, etc.
pragmatics develop
slowly throughout life, individuals have ver different levels of pragmatic ability
since young children are solving this really complex problems so young, and will very few mistakes
they must have some advantage in learning language
in behavorism, children learn language by
imitating their parents
imitations are
selectively shaped by parents into adult like language use by reinforcement (praise and reward)
children learn syntax in behaviorism by learning to
associate one word with the next
why behave won't work
children use creative wrod forms and word combinatinos that adults don't use
children and adults can understand and create new sentences that they have never heard before
parents usually focus on
the content (semantics) of child's speech rather tan syntax and morphology and so their prasie does not relate to the syntax of letterance
when parents do try to correct a child's speech
it usually doesn't work
private speech
children talk to themselves (another criticism of behaviorism)
chomsky theory
explained language development cognitively as an alternative to the behaviorist explanation--this started the COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
language acquisition device
an innate mechanism that allows the child to learn language (set of keys)
universal grammar
the aspects of grammar that are shared by all languages--the child would know what to focus on and what to ignore (door)
language is
species specific, speicies uniform, difficult to retard, develops in a regular sequence...there are specific anatomical features for language (mouth, throat, brain) there are language disabilities that are gentically based
challenges for chomsky theory
lack of detail on how learning acquisition takes place
many universals of lanugage are debated
difficult to explain how this is implemented in the brain
computer modles
uses paralle processing
more liek the brain
miexed success with modeling more complex features
statistical learning
infants and adults have the ability to detect statistical properties of an artifical "language"
able to pick out pseudo words they herad from other words with same phonemes they hadn't heard
rule learning
paterns can be extended to other symbols
sensitive period
a time in development when an abilitiy is more easily, quickly and effortlessly acquired
reasons to believe in sensitive period
socially deprived children, adults suck at learning second language, deaf children not exposed to language until late in life
recovery of language function after specific brain damage
perceptive and productive language abilities are
evaluated with different methods
research question and subjects will determine
which task is best and specifically whether receptive or produtctive language is measured
peabody picture vocab test: child points to the picture that matches a word
picture selection task
child points to a picture that matches a sentence (to test tense, negation, plurals)
act out task
have child act out a sentence with toys (ex the car bumped the truck)
macarthur communicative development inventories
parent report of child's abilities (both receptive and productive)
imitation task
ask the child to repeat a sentence (young children can only repeat those structures that they use)...ask child to a puppet (good for eliciting questions)
finish a sentence: with a word--good for eliciting tense

Deck Info