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Nativism: Noam Chomsky

Nativism: Noam Chomsky. Nativism. Main question: what is the cognitive code? Infant is born with complete world knowledge Infants count Infants have a concept of objects Infants have physics concepts Infants have language. Nativism. Evidence for the claim of complete world knowledge

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Nativism: Noam Chomsky

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  1. Nativism: Noam Chomsky

  2. Nativism • Main question: what is the cognitive code? • Infant is born with complete world knowledge • Infants count • Infants have a concept of objects • Infants have physics concepts • Infants have language

  3. Nativism • Evidence for the claim of complete world knowledge • Youngsters learn an extremely complex system (language) effortlessly • Youngsters learn an extremely complex system (language) in a short amount of time • Youngsters do not need instruction to learn their mother tongue

  4. Nativism • Do youngsters who are born deaf can learn an impoverished language at a level that is higher than the level they hear? • Youngsters develop Creole from pidgin • Infants do not hear grammar; they hear a string of words and infer the syntactic rules language (impoverishment of the stimulus) • Infants often hear ungrammatical sentences, yet they learn the grammar

  5. Nativism: Learning Paradox • Fodor’s learning paradox: one learns something only if one knows it in advance • To learn a language you have to know that language in advance • What you know is at a higher level than what you learn

  6. Nativism • In the case of language, infants are born with: • a universal grammar (UG) - a data base of grammar • language acquisition device (LAD) - hypothesis tester

  7. Nativism • If the child is born with a LAD and no UG, he doesn’t have anything to hypothesize on • If the child is born with a UG and no LAD, he cannot hypothesize about the language

  8. Nativism • The UG is the cognitive code. • Unique to humans • Universal for humans • If one can describe it, one has cracked the cognitive code.

  9. Nativism • Relations between learning and development • Only learning (deductive) • No development • Similar to classical behaviorism

  10. Nativism: Language Acquisition Device • hypothesize the grammar in the language you are exposed to • see if the hypothesis fits the grammar • if yes, continue with the hypothesis • if no, make a new hypothesis

  11. Nativism • If that is how children learn language, it is impossible, in principle, to develop to a higher level • How can you hypothesize something that is not already there? • Nativists say you cannot

  12. Nativism • As a consequence, it is best to build the most powerful system so that it is there in infancy

  13. Argument between Piaget and Chomsky • CHOMSKY’S POINT: • Chomsky: One cannot construct more powerful structures because hypothesis testing cannot take place at a level that is higher than one’s highest level e.g., conservation: a child cannot hypothesize conservation if he is at the intuitive stage

  14. Argument between Piaget and Chomsky • Chomsky: One cannot construct more powerful structures because hypothesis testing cannot take place at a level that is higher than one’s highest level • Fodor’s learning paradox e.g., conservation: a child cannot hypothesize conservation if he is at the intuitive stage

  15. Piaget Rebuttal • Piaget: I don’t have to accept hypothesis testing as the mechanism for learning • I believe children learn and develop through disequilibrium

  16. Piaget Rebuttal • I can describe learning and development in • Child development (ontogeny) • History of disciplines (Piaget & Garcia; Kuhn) • My system allows me to describe two disparate developments: ontogeny and historical development

  17. Piaget Rebuttal • You, the nativists cannot describe the development of disciplines in history in terms of innate modules within humans • Bottom line: • I can describe two developments and you can describe one • I don’t believe the description you give to language acquisition

  18. Nativism: Modularity 1. Encapsulation - it is impossible to interfere with the inner workings of a module.2. Unconscious - it is difficult or impossible to reflect on the operations of module.3. Speed - modules are very fast.4. Shallow outputs - modules provide limited output, without information about theintervening steps that led to that output.

  19. Nativism: Modularity 5. Obligatory firing - modules operate reflexively, providing predetermined outputs for predetermined inputs regardless of thecontext.6. Ontogenetic universals - modules develop in a characteristic sequence.7. Localization - modules are mediated by dedicated neural systems.

  20. Nativism: Modularity 8. Pathological universals - modules breakdown in characteristic fashion following insult to the system.9. Domain specificity - as discussed above.

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