PS275 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Object Permanence, Chief Operating Officer, Elizabeth Bates
Document Summary
Human languages are amazingly flexible and productive. From a small number of meaningless sounds, children generate thousands of meaningful auditory patterns that are eventually paired with a set of grammatical rules to produce messages. Language is an inventive tool, and is used to express our thoughts and interpretations of what we have seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. Language: a small number of individually meaningless symbols (sounds, letters, gestures) that can be combined according to agreed-on rules to produce an infinite number of messages. Communication: the process by which one organism transmits information to, and influences another. Vocables: unique auditory patterns of sound that a prelinguistic infant uses to represent objects, actions, or events. 5 kinds of knowledge underlie the growth of linguistic proficiency. Psycholinguists try to answer what children must learn in order to master the intricacies of their native language.
