lunes, 14 de marzo de 2011
cont....
Language acquisition is one of the central topics in cognitive science. Every theory of cognition has tried to explain it; probably no other topic has aroused such controversy. Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all normal humans speak, no nonhuman animal does. Language is the main vehicle by which we know about other people's thoughts, and the two must be intimately related. Every time we speak we are revealing something about language, so the facts of language structure are easy to come by; these data hint at a system of extraordinary complexity. Nonetheless, learning a first language is something every child does successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need for formal lessons. With language so close to the core of what it means to be human, it is not surprising that children's acquisition of language has received so much attention. Anyone with strong views about the human mind would like to show that children's first few steps are steps in the right direction.
Language acquisition is not only inherently interesting;
How do we explain children's course of language acquisition , most importantly, their inevitable and early mastery? Several kinds of mechanisms are at work. As we saw in section , the brain changes after birth, and these maturational changes may govern the onset, rate, and adult decline of language acquisition capacity. General changes in the child's information processing abilities (attention, memory, short-term buffers for acoustic input and articulatory output) could leave their mark as well. In the next chapter, I show how a memory retrieval limitation , children are less reliable at recalling that broke is the past tense of break can account for a conspicuous and universal error pattern, overregularizations like breaked .
Many other small effects have been documented where changes in information processing abilities affect language development. For example, children selectively pick up information at the ends of words , presumably because these are the parts of strings that are best retained in short term memory. Similarly, the progressively widening bottleneck for early word combinations presumably reflects a general increase in motor planning capacity. Conceptual development , too, might affect language development: if a child has not yet mastered a difficult semantic distinction, such as the complex temporal relations involved in John will have gone, he or she may be unable to master the syntax of the construction dedicated to expressing it.
The complexity of a grammatical form has a demonstrable role in development: simpler rules and forms appear in speech before more complex ones, all other things being equal.
Children often use each marker with the correct case, never using a nominative marker for accusative nouns or vice-versa, but don't properly use the masculine and feminine variants with masculine and feminine nouns.
Language acquisition is not only inherently interesting;
How do we explain children's course of language acquisition , most importantly, their inevitable and early mastery? Several kinds of mechanisms are at work. As we saw in section , the brain changes after birth, and these maturational changes may govern the onset, rate, and adult decline of language acquisition capacity. General changes in the child's information processing abilities (attention, memory, short-term buffers for acoustic input and articulatory output) could leave their mark as well. In the next chapter, I show how a memory retrieval limitation , children are less reliable at recalling that broke is the past tense of break can account for a conspicuous and universal error pattern, overregularizations like breaked .
Many other small effects have been documented where changes in information processing abilities affect language development. For example, children selectively pick up information at the ends of words , presumably because these are the parts of strings that are best retained in short term memory. Similarly, the progressively widening bottleneck for early word combinations presumably reflects a general increase in motor planning capacity. Conceptual development , too, might affect language development: if a child has not yet mastered a difficult semantic distinction, such as the complex temporal relations involved in John will have gone, he or she may be unable to master the syntax of the construction dedicated to expressing it.
The complexity of a grammatical form has a demonstrable role in development: simpler rules and forms appear in speech before more complex ones, all other things being equal.
Children often use each marker with the correct case, never using a nominative marker for accusative nouns or vice-versa, but don't properly use the masculine and feminine variants with masculine and feminine nouns.
Language Acquisition How Children Acquire Language
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign. Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, rather than second language acquisition, which deals with acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages.
The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes humans from other organisms. While many forms of animal communication exist, they have a limited range of nonsyntactically structured vocabulary tokens that lack cross cultural variation between groups.
A major concern in understanding language acquisition is how these capacities are picked up by infants from what appears to be very little input. A range of theories of language acquisition has been created in order to explain this apparent problem including innatism in which a child is born prepared in some manner with these capacities, as opposed to the other theories in which language is simply learned.
The capacity to acquire the ability to incorporate the pronunciation of new words depends upon the capacity to engage in speech repetition. Children with reduced abilities to repeat nonwords (a marker of speech repetition abilities) show a slower rate of vocabulary expansion than children for whom this is easy. It has been proposed that the elementary units of speech has been selected to enhance the ease with which sound and visual input can be mapped into motor vocalization.
Several computational models of vocabulary acquisition have been proposed so far.
The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes humans from other organisms. While many forms of animal communication exist, they have a limited range of nonsyntactically structured vocabulary tokens that lack cross cultural variation between groups.
A major concern in understanding language acquisition is how these capacities are picked up by infants from what appears to be very little input. A range of theories of language acquisition has been created in order to explain this apparent problem including innatism in which a child is born prepared in some manner with these capacities, as opposed to the other theories in which language is simply learned.
The capacity to acquire the ability to incorporate the pronunciation of new words depends upon the capacity to engage in speech repetition. Children with reduced abilities to repeat nonwords (a marker of speech repetition abilities) show a slower rate of vocabulary expansion than children for whom this is easy. It has been proposed that the elementary units of speech has been selected to enhance the ease with which sound and visual input can be mapped into motor vocalization.
Several computational models of vocabulary acquisition have been proposed so far.
miércoles, 9 de marzo de 2011
Is ADD Real? How is ADD Diagnosed?
Some people have argued that there is no such thing as ADD. Upon reading their arguments I have found that what most of them are actually saying is that ADD is not a singular "disease", but rather a collection of behaviors or "symptoms" caused by a wide range of problems. So, to some extent, it's really a matter of semantics. They compare a diagnosis of ADD to that of a diagnosis of "fever." Imagine going to the doctor with a temperature and being told you have been diagnosed with a disease called "Fever," and that all you can do is take aspirin to lower it. You might question the wisdom of such a simplistic approach and wonder why the doctor doesn't look for the CAUSE of the fever. Doctors rarely look for the cause of ADD behaviors. Instead, they assume such behaviors are due to some mysterious brain defect that for some odd reason a huge number of people seem to have.
Opponents of this simplistic approach argue that the concept of ADD as a singular and discreet disease is a complete fabrication. They do NOT argue that ADD behaviors are simply caused by lack of discipline or are figments of people's imagination. They believe people should be seen as individuals, and their specific problems treated as symptoms. The actual "condition" causing the behavior could range from brain damage to giftedness to allergies, and "treatment" would similarly range from stimulant medication to alternative education to allergy shots, depending on the root of problem.
ADD should be diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist who is knowledgeable about ADD as well as giftedness and creativity. Avoid diagnosis by a pediatrician, since pediatricians as a group are far more likely to simply prescribe medications without properly assessing the child. Psychiatrists and neurologists are far more likely to prescribe medications before acquiring a total picture of the patient.
Adults, especially those with the non-hyperactive form of ADD, may have trouble finding a practitioner knowledgeable in ADD, since until recently ADD was considered a childhood condition. Women with ADD are often told they suffer from depression and are prescribed antidepressants which do not work.
Ask the practitioner what his or her ADD assessment entails. A good assessment typically runs
several hours and will include tests for IQ and creativity. Avoid anyone who simply asks a few question and then prescribes medication to "see what happens." Most people do better and feel better on stimulants, even those without ADD, so this is a very bad approach for a professional to follow.
Opponents of this simplistic approach argue that the concept of ADD as a singular and discreet disease is a complete fabrication. They do NOT argue that ADD behaviors are simply caused by lack of discipline or are figments of people's imagination. They believe people should be seen as individuals, and their specific problems treated as symptoms. The actual "condition" causing the behavior could range from brain damage to giftedness to allergies, and "treatment" would similarly range from stimulant medication to alternative education to allergy shots, depending on the root of problem.
ADD should be diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist who is knowledgeable about ADD as well as giftedness and creativity. Avoid diagnosis by a pediatrician, since pediatricians as a group are far more likely to simply prescribe medications without properly assessing the child. Psychiatrists and neurologists are far more likely to prescribe medications before acquiring a total picture of the patient.
Adults, especially those with the non-hyperactive form of ADD, may have trouble finding a practitioner knowledgeable in ADD, since until recently ADD was considered a childhood condition. Women with ADD are often told they suffer from depression and are prescribed antidepressants which do not work.
Ask the practitioner what his or her ADD assessment entails. A good assessment typically runs
several hours and will include tests for IQ and creativity. Avoid anyone who simply asks a few question and then prescribes medication to "see what happens." Most people do better and feel better on stimulants, even those without ADD, so this is a very bad approach for a professional to follow.
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