PSYC3311 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: B. F. Skinner, Formative Assessment, Noam Chomsky
Week 1 lec 1
- Assignment 1 is due after Easter, based on week 3 and 4 material
- Formative assessment in week 5 for decide whether to drop course or not
- Final exam- essay type qs, there will b choice + short answer qs on lab material
- 1% for submitting him the discourse for the experiment
- Readings are only RECOMMENDED
- Group project is likely to b on second textbook topic
We as adult human beings possess language. We interact with language both in terms of
comprehending it and producing it, both in the visual and in the auditory modalities. This
course is going to essentially address the issue of HOW.
- Understand and generate language
- Other modalities: Also can interact through body language
- And touch
- Olfactory??
There is more to language than learning vocabulary ( and the lexical system). Words combine
together in a particular, systematic way to convey a particular meaning. This is syntax =
grammar.
Perhaps we simply have learnt a whole lot of sentences that we can produce at the appropriate
time. This is essentially what B F Skinner, the behaviourist, proposed in the late 1950s. He
basically said that language is nothing special, but is a form of behaviour that humans simply
learn in the same way that pigeons learn to peck a key, or parrots are taught to talk – learn
reinforcements and associations.
But there is a big difference between human language behaviour and parrot's talking: Parrots can
only say what they've heard and often in the wrong context. They're just mimicking (though see
Pepperberg's work with Alex the grey parrot. Looks like parrots using language in a similar
way to humans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO6XuVlcEO4). Humans can create and
understand a huge number of utterances.
This creativeness of language and the ability to cope with novelty, was one of the important
points made by Noam Chomsky in his influential review/rebuttal of Skinner's book. How can we
produce and understand entirely new sentences that others immediately understand?
Chomsky proposes that the ability of humans to learn language is innate (and is special to
humans).
The language we learn will have specific structures that need to be specifically learnt (for that
enviro, situation..) (e.g., English vs Chinese), but underlying this are language universals. Things
that are common to all languages and that are compatible with the innate mechanism that humans
have evolved.
A major argument in favour of language being innate is that no other animals have language.
Animals certainly are able to communicate, but is this really the same as using language? Is it
more equivalent to our human yelps and cries?
Humans have both these features?-->
Language is characterised by several features of which the most important are:
Semanticity (meaning): Signals consistently mean something relevant to the world. But
perhaps true for certain animals as well. E.g.,vervet monkeys makes a different noise depending
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Assignment 1 is due after easter, based on week 3 and 4 material. Formative assessment in week 5 for decide whether to drop course or not. Final exam- essay type qs, there will b choice + short answer qs on lab material. 1% for submitting him the discourse for the experiment. Group project is likely to b on second textbook topic. We interact with language both in terms of comprehending it and producing it, both in the visual and in the auditory modalities. This course is going to essentially address the issue of how. Other modalities: also can interact through body language. There is more to language than learning vocabulary ( and the lexical system). Words combine together in a particular, systematic way to convey a particular meaning. Perhaps we simply have learnt a whole lot of sentences that we can produce at the appropriate time. This is essentially what b f skinner, the behaviourist, proposed in the late 1950s.
