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Development of Body, Thought and Language

Q: How do children form episodic memories and what crucial connection is needed in the brain to be able to recall memories?

Episodic memories start to form when they've learned to talk about their experience and joint attention encourages encoding by verbally experiencing it together. Usually around 3. Connections between the prefrontal lobes and other portions of the brain seem to be crucial to the formation and recalling of episodic memories.

Q: What are the three related components to executive functions and at what age does executive functions increase to?

Working memory, inhibition and switching Executive functions increase as the child grows older to about age 15, a parallel increase in processing speed accompanies that increase in capacity .

Q: What does the marshmellow test show us about inhibition and how are children tested to show inhibition and interference in play?

The marshmellow test was a good predictor of how adults had healthier body mass induxes and a highher sense of self worth and being less vulnurable to psychosocial maladjustment. The test contained the simple premise of waiting to get 2 marshmellows, if they didnt they only got one. People who waited to get two marshmellows got higher scores in adults later in life Their ability to avoid interference is tested in the simple game of simon says, during this game commands are shouted out with a conflicting image of what the body does.

Q: How does speed of processing correlate with executive function and how does the simplified dimensional card sorting task show executive functioning?

Speed of processing is the speed at which elementary information processing tasks can be carried out , usually assessed with reaction-time tests that require a very simple judgement, such as whether two letters or shapes flashed on a screen are the same or different. Higher speed is related to higher brain maturity whilst the simplified dimensional card sorting task shows if the child has issues with the ability to switch. The reaction time for the simple tasks decreases with age.

Q: What does Theory of mind mean and what did Premack say about children dividing things into two classes of entities?

Theory of Mind talks about the ability to understand one's feelings and thoughts and feelings and behaviours of others. David Premack said that children from a very young age automatically divide the world into two classes of entities ; things that move and don't move.

Q: What do children younger than 3 year olds understand about people's mind, and how is this shown in the experiment with toys?

Children from the age of 2-3 when gained verbal knowledge already explain behaviour in mental constructs. Preverbal 18 months old will try to give an adult achieve what they need based on what they think the adult understands. In the case of a study with 3 toys, they played with two toys and the adult left and they played with the third, when the adult came back he replied oh cool can you give it to me? They must have had an understanding on what the adult hasn't played with and that people like new things more than others.

Q: How are false beliefs tested, and why is false belief a thing?

False belief is tested by telling a child a story, a story of a child putting an candy bar in a cupboard and hearing the child leave the room and his mother moving it to a different place, children under the age of 4 will think that the child will come back to find the candy in the red cupboard (even though he doesnt know) Children don't have memory issues, they know where it is, yet they don't understand that other children can understand something that isn't true

Q: How does pretend play help children acquire belief-reality distinction and how does having older siblings promote false-belief understanding?

Alan Leslie suggested that children's understanding from beliefs emerges from their earlier understanding of pretence . Pretence is similar to false belief, but in pretence, the pretenders know that their conception doesn't match reality. Pretend play helps learn non-lateral mental states. Having older siblings increases the false-belief understanding. Children with siblings often play more role-play and pretend statements.

Q: What are characteristics of autism?

Autism may be characterised by being oblivious in the mind of others, not feeling self concious and not having understanding for their thoughts about you. People could serve the same function as inanimate objects. Autistic people may fail to keep eye contact and fail to syncronize emotions expression and have a language deficit.

Q: What is mindblindness in autistic children and how is this shown in false-beliefs and false picture tests?

Mindblindness in autistic children is defined as the inability to read minds. Children with autism tend to not engage in spontaneously make believe and therefore d on't understand false-belief. They think more literally and hypothetically. Children failed the false-belief tests however they performed better than neurotypically children at the false picture test showing that beliefs is different than physical representations.

26 important questions on Development of Body, Thought and Language

How do children form episodic memories and what crucial connection is needed in the brain to be able to recall memories?

Episodic memories start to form when they've learned to talk about their experience and joint attention encourages encoding by verbally experiencing it together. Usually around 3.

Connections between the prefrontal lobes and other portions of the brain seem to be crucial to the formation and recalling of episodic memories.

What are the three related components to executive functions and at what age does executive functions increase to?

Working memory, inhibition and switching

Executive functions increase as the child grows older to about age 15, a parallel increase in processing speed accompanies that increase in capacity.

What does the marshmellow test show us about inhibition and how are children tested to show inhibition and interference in play?

The marshmellow test was a good predictor of how adults had healthier body mass induxes and a highher sense of self worth and being less vulnurable to psychosocial maladjustment.

The test contained the simple premise of waiting to get 2 marshmellows, if they didnt they only got one. People who waited to get two marshmellows got higher scores in adults later in life

Their ability to avoid interference is tested in the simple game of simon says, during this game commands are shouted out with a conflicting image of what the body does.

How does speed of processing correlate with executive function and how does the simplified dimensional card sorting task show executive functioning?

Speed of processing is the speed at which elementary information processing tasks can be carried out, usually assessed with reaction-time tests that require a very simple judgement, such as whether two letters or shapes flashed on a screen are the same or different.

Higher speed is related to higher brain maturity whilst the simplified dimensional card sorting task shows if the child has issues with the ability to switch. The reaction time for the simple tasks decreases with age.

What does Theory of mind mean and what did Premack say about children dividing things into two classes of entities?

Theory of Mind talks about the ability to understand one's feelings and thoughts and feelings and behaviours of others.

David Premack said that children from a very young age automatically divide the world into two classes of entities; things that move and don't move.

What do children younger than 3 year olds understand about people's mind, and how is this shown in the experiment with toys?

Children from the age of 2-3 when gained verbal knowledge already explain behaviour in mental constructs. Preverbal 18 months old will try to give an adult achieve what they need based on what they think the adult understands.

In the case of a study with 3 toys, they played with two toys and the adult left and they played with the third, when the adult came back he replied oh cool can you give it to me?

They must have had an understanding on what the adult hasn't played with and that people like new things more than others.

How are false beliefs tested, and why is false belief a thing?

False belief is tested by telling a child a story, a story of a child putting an candy bar in a cupboard and hearing the child leave the room and his mother moving it to a different place, children under the age of 4 will think that the child will come back to find the candy in the red cupboard (even though he doesnt know)
Children don't have memory issues, they know where it is, yet they don't understand that other children can understand something that isn't true

How does pretend play help children acquire belief-reality distinction and how does having older siblings promote false-belief understanding?

Alan Leslie suggested that children's understanding from beliefs emerges from their earlier understanding of pretence. Pretence is similar to false belief, but in pretence, the pretenders know that their conception doesn't match reality. Pretend play helps learn non-lateral mental states.

Having older siblings increases the false-belief understanding. Children with siblings often play more role-play and pretend statements.

What are characteristics of autism?

Autism may be characterised by being oblivious in the mind of others, not feeling self concious and not having understanding for their thoughts about you. People could serve the same function as inanimate objects.

Autistic people may fail to keep eye contact and fail to syncronize emotions expression and have a language deficit.

What is mindblindness in autistic children and how is this shown in false-beliefs and false picture tests?

Mindblindness in autistic children is defined as the inability to read minds.

Children with autism tend to not engage in spontaneously make believe and therefore don't understand false-belief. They think more literally and hypothetically.

Children failed the false-belief tests however they performed better than neurotypically children at the false picture test showing that beliefs is different than physical representations.

What are the rules of language called, and how does the hierarchy of language help it create syntax?

The rules of language are called grammar. Syntax is the structure of words.

What are the universal characteristics morphemes, and how do morphemes differ from non-verbal signs?

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of language, most morphemes are word, but they can be suffixes like; cook-ing or dog-s. A morpheme is discrete and cannot be changed from meaning, however it can be added to.

Nonverbal signs typically develop and bear resemblance to the physical meaning.

How are phonemes combined to create morphemes, and how does grammar influence phonemes?

Phonemes are elementary vowels and consonant sounds.

Grammar includes rules of phonology, phonology is how phonemes are arranged to create morphemes.

What is the four level hierarchy of language?

Grammar
Syntax
Morphemes
Phonemes

How is grammar learned implicitly and not explicitly, and what is proof that children understand the grammer rules?

Four year old's cant talk about the grammar rules, but they do understand and abide by the rules. This proves grammar learning is done implicitly.

They can distinguish grammar from non grammar sentences, even though they can't point out why.

How can infants perceive subtle sound differences, and how is it proven that infants at 6 months can interpret different language phonemes?

Children sucking to a certain sound shows habituation, when another sound is heard the sucking change and then this shows it can perceive subtle sound differences.

Babies younger than 6 months can discriminate better between vowels of another language than their own native and babies older than 6 months are able to discriminate better in their own language.

How do deaf children babble, and what is the distinction between cooing and babbling?

Deaf or hearing infants whose deaf parents communicate by sign language go through a stage of babbling with their hands.

Cooing is drawn out vowels like mooo, maaa, paa-paa, whilst babbling mimics the rhythm and pitch of the actual language.

Cooing and Babbling occurs more they're happy.

What is the evidence that word comprehension precess word production, and when does the word spurt development happen?

The word spurt development usually begins at 15-20 months. The average numbers of new words is 11 per day.

Evidence that word comprehension begins before word production comes from children naming things before they ask for things.

What is the mutual exclusivity assumption and what is referred to as syntactic bootstrapping?

The mutual exclusivity assumption is that young children know, have the tendency to assume a new word is not a synonym for something they already know, but it's a word for a new object.

Syntactic bootstrapping is what children do when they infer the meaning of new words. If they hear that a duck is biffing the bunny, and they know what a duck and a bunny is they understand that the duck is doing the biffing to the bunny.

How does children mistakes in grammar speech confirm they know the rule and they're not mimicking like shown in one wug two wug-s?

Children learn how two speak in grammar implicitly by placing subjects before verbs, a child with two stage development will say billy kick meaning billy is kicking something. Two word sentences are called telegraphic speech.

It is confirmed they know the rule because when they learn it they overgeneralize it not knowing early on there's exceptions, 3 year olds who say kicked and played also say thinked and swimmed.

In the wug rule, children who had just formed plurals would add s correctly even for words they'd never heard before.

What four ways are shown that we are born with an innate language development?

We are born with anatomically structures in the throat that enable production of broader range of sounds.
Brain areas specialized for language (brocas & wernickes).
A preference for listening to speech and an ability to distinguish among speech sound of any languages.
Mechanisms that cause us to exercise our vocal capacities through coo-ing and babbling.

What did Chomsky create with fundamental principles called universal grammar and how did he coin the language-acquisition devise or the LAD?

Chomsky conceived grammatical rules as aspects of human mind that link spoken sentences ultimately to the minds system for representing meanings. Even though languages are different they're all based on fundamental principles called universal grammar, that are innate properties of the human mind.

The innate mental mechanisms that enable a child to acquire language quickly and efficiently are coined as the LAD, the language acquisition device.

It's inborn foundations for universal grammar plus the entire set of inborn mechanisms that guide the childrens learning of unique rules of their cultures language.

How do children invent grammar when there's none (think colonization) and how is this shown in pidgin language and how does it transform to creole language?

New languages arise when different cultures colonize an area and communicate with each other, first generations' colonist communicated through a primitive hammerless collection of words taken from their various native languages - a communication system referred to as pidgin language.

Pidgin can develop in a true language, when it's developed into a full range of grammatical rules it's called a creole language. Some languages can be developed within one generation of the children by original colonists.

How does the deaf children in Nicaragua create grammatical sign language that was first pidgin and then creole?

When deaf children entered a school setting for the first time, they created their own language which was at first pidgin. Unstructured amalgams of signs they used at home.

Over the years, it became more structured and not the eldest wisest contributed most but the youngest, it's recognized as a full true language and developed into creole.

What is the LASS and How can variations of the LASS occur without impairment?

The language acquisition support system is provided by the social world in which the baby is born. In western culture, parents often simplify words in motherese, using short words and sentences. Responsive mothers encourage word development.
In some cultures they don't use motherese and don't communicate that much with children but they are carried everywhere so they're still introduced to speech - so large variations of the LASS can occur without impairment.

What are the cost and benefits of billinguisms and what are the two forms of bilingualism?

There are two types of bilingualism; sequential and simultaneous.

Bilingualism children have smaller vocabularies in each language than monolingual children and are slower at retrieving words, but develop greater executive functions.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Inleiding Psychologie II

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