Cognitive ProcessesPSY 334

Chapter 13 – Individual Differences in Cognition

June 6, 2003

Primates & Language

Nim Chimpsky

Noam Chomsky

Roger Fouts and Washoe

Neural Evidence

Studying language acquisition may not settle the question.

Some people with aphasias are impaired forming irregular past tenses, others regular past tenses (Broca’s area).

PET imaging shows activity in Broca’s area only when processing regular past tenses.

Only regular verbs may be rule-based.

Language is Not Taught

Children are not directly taught language No feedback about their errors. Learning is inductive – infer acceptable

utterances from experience. How do they avoid being misled by

wrong sentences they hear? Motherese use is uncorrelated with

language development. Language develops under adversity too.

Critical Period

Do young children learn a second language faster? Controlling for amounts and types of

exposure and motivation, older children (11+) learn faster than younger ones.

However, mastery of the fine points, speaking without an accent, depends on learning at a younger age.

It is better to learn a language before 10.

Language Universals

Chomsky – special innate mechanisms underlie the acquisition of language. Competence not performance. Study by seeking universals across

languages. Universals -- adjectives appear near the

nouns they modify. May be based on cognitive constraints not

language mechanisms.

Parameter Setting

Variability among natural languages can be accounted for by setting about 100 parameters.

Language learning consists of acquiring the settings for these parameters. Also, acquiring vocabulary.

Pro-drop parameter: I go to the cinema (does not drop pronoun) Voy al cinema esta noche (drops pronoun).

What Develops

Two explanations for changes in children’s thinking: They think better – more working memory. They know better – more facts.

Probably both occur, due to neural changes: Increase in synaptic connections. Myelination increases neural transmission

speed.

Cognition and Aging

Decreases in IQ performance scores occur after age 20: Related to speed of response on tests.

Older adults do better on jobs. Age-related declines in brain function:

Cell loss, shrinkage & atrophy. Compensatory growth of remaining cells. Brain-related degenerative disorders such

as Alzheimer’s.

Psychometrics

Measures of performance of individuals on a number of tasks – examination of correlations across such tasks. IQ Tests – Binet, Stanford-Binet, Wechsler Mental age vs deviation IQ.

Factor analysis of performance scores: Crystallized intelligence – increases with

age Fluid intelligence – decreases with age.

Kinds of Abilities

Reasoning ability: Sternberg connects psychometrics to the

information-processing approach. People who score high on reasoning tests

perform reasoning steps more quickly. Verbal ability:

Working memory capacity is related to verbal ability.

People who recall words more rapidly do better on verbal ability tests.

Kinds of Abilities (Cont.)

Spatial ability: Rate of mental rotation is slower for those

with lower spatial ability test scores. People with high spatial ability may choose

to solve a problem spatially, not verbally. Differences in abilities may result from

differences in rates of processing and working-memory capacities. Unclear whether this is innate or a

difference in practice (nature vs nurture).

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Gardner proposed that seven different

intelligences are supported by different kinds of knowledge representation: Separate neural mechanisms. Separate developmental histories. Cross-cultural universals in the display of

such abilities. Abilities: linguistic, musical,

mathematical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, personal (self-understanding, social).

Critique of Multiple Intelligences Strong evidence for distinct linguistic and

spatial intelligence. Mathematical intelligence closely related

to spatial so may not be distinct. Remaining intelligences not usually

considered cognitive but may be universal.

Gardner argues that intelligence is not unitary and hard to compare.