AS level Psychology The Core studies

AS level Psychology The Core studies

COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
THE STUDY OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR CHARLES DARWIN THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES we all evolved from a common ancestor

COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
THE STUDY OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR Humans share many behaviours with non-human animals But what about language? What is language?

Language…. How is it that we are able to speak? Do we learn? Or
Is language innate? An example of the nature nurture debate

Language theories…. The behaviourist theory (Skinner)
That children learn by Imitation and Reinforcement operant conditioning…

Language theories…. The nativist theory (Chomsky)
That children are born with an Innate Language Acquisition Device LAD that the ability to use language is hard wired into the brain

Language theories…. Nurture (Skinner)
This theory emphasises performance a child imitates what she hears and is reinforced when correct gradually vocalisations are shaped and words are learned

Language theories…. Nurture (Skinner) PROBLEMS It would take too long
Parents do not reinforce correct speech

Language theories…. The nativist theory (Chomsky)
emphasises the difference between performance vs competence using vs understanding All humans are ‘prepared’ to learn language All normal children acquire language in similar stages Linguistic universals exist in every language

LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS
Language not just a mish mash of sound THREE COMPONENTS of language PHONOLOGY - SOUND PATTERNS SYNTAX - WORD PATTERNS SEMANTICS - MEANING PATTERNS

LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS
SEMANTICITY - words have meanings DISPLACEMENT - the ability to use words to refer to things that are not present in time and space STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE - words can be ‘chunked together’ and moved around - the policeman shot the man in the garage CREATIVITY - each sentence that is spoken might be a unique ‘utterance’ GENERALISATION - from one situation to another

Language --- the great debate
Why teach language to apes? THE RATIONALE If apes can learn language it supports Skinner (Nurture) If not Perhaps Chomsky was right (Nature)

Teaching language to apes
The earliest experiment The Kelloggs and Gua brought up like human baby continually exposed to speech ‘understood’ 70 words but never spoke Chimps do not have vocal chords that can produce speech

Premack taught Sarah (1966) trained by Operant Conditioning lived in a cage taught to manipulate symbols on a plastic board e.g. RED SQUARE meant banana could ‘understand’ and follow orders never initiated word games

Savage Rumbaugh taught Lana funded by Coca Cola symbolic keyboard linked to computer which is linked to a vending machine If Lana requested ‘food’ she received it Lana understood arbitrary symbols like ‘more’ YES - semanticity YES - displacement, NO - structure dependence

Gardner & Gardner (WASHOE)
Method - a case study Participant - a female chimp WASHOE Age - approx I year old Procedure - Washoe lived in a caravan in the Gardner’s garden Never alone when she was awake team of researchers and psych students

Washoe

How was Washoe talked to? American Sign Language (ASL) Signs stand for words Washoe continually surrounded by ‘signing humans’ No rigorous training methods No other ‘language’ used

Training methods Imitation Babbling Instrumental conditioning

Imitation. As with chimpanzees in general, Washoe naturally imitated. Washoe signed the sign for 'toothbrush' spontaneously upon entering the Gardener's bathroom and noticing toothbrushes. There seems to have been no obvious motive, except to communicate.

Babbling. 'Babbling' here does not mean vocal babbling, rather the untaught signs used by Washoe to communicate a desire. Washoe used a begging gesture, which was not too different from the ASL signs for 'give me' and 'come'.

Instrumental conditioning. Humans could not learn a language, purely by instrumental conditioning, although it seems likely that the 'trick vocabulary' of early childhood could be acquired in this way. Instrumental conditioning was one strategy used with Washoe. Tickling was used as a reward. The sign for 'more' was learnt by instrumental conditioning. This sign was later applied to a variety of relevant situations.

How did they measure what Washoe had learned (the DV) A sign was assumed to be learned IF Washoe spontaneously used a new sign, seen by THREE observers and used over 15 days

WASHOE’s progress First SINGLE WORDS come, gimme, hurry, sweet, tickle
34 after 21 months by 4 years over 100 signs YES - SEMANTICITY signed TOOTHBRUSH in bathroom signed FLOWER in garden and when shown picture of flower

WASHOE’s progress YES – GENERALISATION (or Transfer)
MORE - first used with TICKLE then - generalised to MORE e.g. food, drink, pushing in laundry basket

WASHOE’s progress DISPLACEMENT YES
WASHOE could refer to absent objects and people

WASHOE’s progress Differentiation.
The sign 'more' used in many different situations until a more specific sign had been learnt. The sign for 'flower' used inappropriately for the idea of 'smell'. After additional training eventually Washoe was able to differentiate between 'smell' and 'flower'.

WASHOE’s progress CREATIVITY (combinations) - YES
Washoe spontaneously used combinations of signs GIMME TICKLE - come and tickle me OPEN FOOD DRINK - open the fridge LISTEN EAT - listen to the dinner gong GO SWEET - take me to the raspberry bushes

WASHOE’s progress NO - STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE?
English children usually put the SUBJECT before the ACTION Mummy come Eve read Car gone

WASHOE’s progress GO SWEET or SWEET GO NO - STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE?
Washoe did not seem to do this GO SWEET or SWEET GO meaning take me to the raspberry bushes Why might this be?

WASHOE’s progress WHY NO STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE? Perhaps the researchers were overeager and gratified her every whim thus she did not need to learn about word order - perhaps if she had had difficulty making herself understood she might have learned structure

WASHOE’s progress WHY NO STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE? It may be harder to maintain a fixed sequence with signs, some research suggests that deaf adults are not always consistent in ordering sign language

WASHOE’s progress Perhaps she would have learned eventually
WHY NO STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE? Perhaps she would have learned eventually BUT - perhaps she did not and could not understand the patterned nature of language

WASHOE’s progress WHY NO STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE? Also perhaps the ‘researchers’ were not very good signers!

WASHOE’s progress She was allowed to adopt a young chimp - LOULIS
WHAT else HAPPENED TO WASHOE She was allowed to adopt a young chimp - LOULIS She ‘signed’ to LOULIS CHAIR SIT - sit on the chair FOUTS reported “through imitating Washoe, Loulis now has his own repertoire of signs”

WASHOE’s progress SEMANTICITY- YES DISPLACEMENT - YES
SUMMARY - can WASHOE use language? SEMANTICITY- YES DISPLACEMENT - YES STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE - NO CREATIVITY - Some but limited GENERALISATION - YES The GARDNERS said YES

WASHOE - CRITICISM Difference between children and NIM (and WASHOE)
BY TERRACE (Nim Chimpsky) Difference between children and NIM (and WASHOE) No increase in length of sentences Increase in imitation which decreases in children

Training techniques Imitation (e.g. toothbrush)
Babbling (e.g. bits of natural actions moulded into signs – like gimme Instrumental conditioning (e.g. more)

WASHOE’s CRITICISM BY TERRACE (Nim Chimpsky) Only 12% of NIMs utterances were spontaneous BUT children do not only talk when prompted Nim (& Washoe) never learned to ‘take turns’ when talking - never learned the rules of the ‘language game’

WASHOE - CRITICISM NOAM CHOMSKY “It is about as likely that an ape will prove to have language ability, as that there is an island somewhere with a species of flightless birds waiting for humans to teach them how to fly”

Ethics - how might you criticise this case study? Generalisation - can the findings of this study be generalised to all chimps? Why or why not?

Questions Describe some examples of animal communication Describe some forms of human communication that do not use language

Questions Describe the strengths & weaknesses of the case study method? What do you think might be the main difficulty in recording sign language in a chimp?

Questions How do people KNOW when it is their turn to speak in a conversation? IMPLICATION: If Washoe can be shown to have learned language which theory SKINNER or CHOMSKY is supported?

Application - how is this study useful? THE END

AS level Psychology The Core studies

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