Humans rely on various sources to categorize objects, and they are the only known animals that assimilate language information in object categorisation (Varley, 2014). Object categorisation is a process that classifies objects or events into groups by their distinguishable properties, such as the physical appearances or commonalities (Yamauchi & Markman, 1998). Additionally, the salience of an object could affect an individual’s in defining an object. For example, if the heads of one group of the objects are all red while other body parts are grey. In this case, the head is a more noticeable than other features, promoting the inductive generalisation by the more salient part (Spotorno, Tatler & Faure, 2013). Apart from the salience, the diagnosticity …show more content…
Since the age of 2, children are capable to follow the object label and shift their focus to a particular part of an object via the grammar structure (Waxman & Markow, 1995). Brown (1957) described the pre-school child were successful in recognising the linguistic nature of verb and noun when hearing a novel word from a sentence. For instance, the students were able to illustrate the novel noun (e.g. “Give me a capa.”) as a visible object, and understand the new verb (e.g. “Do you like capaing”) as indicating an action. Moreover, labels can be formed when several objects are believed to possess commonalities within the same category, even when the word itself does not have any semantic meaning (Sloutsky & Fisher, 2004; Waxman & Markow, 1995; Waxman & Hall, 1993). Thus, a non-word that is pronounceable but yet meaningless can be used as a label in object categorisation …show more content…
Gliozzi, Mayor, Hu and Plunkett (2009) suggested that the labels are just another form of the non-visual features, which affects in the same way as other features in establishing category membership. A research from Perfors and Navarro (2010) revealed that object labels deviated adults’ attention away from other physical appearances, inferring that the labels act as another salient feature instead of the category marker as it diverges one’s attention to the label instead. Moreover, such distraction mechanism was found in demoting an individual’s ability in using the less salient cue in inducting
Word learning is a fundamental building block for early language acquisition. One controversial phenomenon associated with vocabulary growth is vocabulary spurt, usually characterised as a rapid increase in productive vocabulary in early childhood language. Despite the fact that initially, the word production starts slowly, it has been argued that after a few months, children undergo a transition to a subsequent stage of faster vocabulary growth (Goldfield & Reznick, 1990). Several theories have attempted to account for this phenomenon. For instance, Plunkett (1993, as cited in Ganger & Brent, 2004) suggests that the acceleration results from linguistic advances such as word segmentation which allows children to pick up more words from speech stream; however, there is now a growing disagreement on its existence in all children (Goldfield & Reznick, 1990; Ganger & Brent, 2004).
The first of these statements offers parameters as the solution to the question of how children are able to learn any language after birth. Baker argues that by simply identifying which parameters are present within a given language, children are able to rapidly acquire an understanding of how to construct and interpret its constituents (Baker 23). While this explanation is accessible to unexperienced readers, it is by no means complete. In his justification for this statement, Baker cites no studies or concrete facts to augment its validity, asking instead for the reader to take his assertion for granted based off of logical reasoning. The presence of parameters is a possible explanation for the process of learning language; however, it is by no means the only explanation and by not addressing and/or disproving the others, the overall strength of his argument is diminished. Another technique employed by Baker to support his thesis is example sentences from different languages that he translates in order to prove the existence of particular parameters. One specific instance of this is when Baker contrasts Mohawk and Japanese phrases in order to illustrate the presence of a fundamental parameter related to possessive and possessed nouns within noun phrases.
Children must know about something before they can re-create it in language. Once a word is introduce, it cannot be erase from memory. Naylor shared a personal experience that demonstrated her personal stake in this situation as she described the first time she heard a different meaning of the word “nigger.” A white boy in her third-grade class said it to her in spite when she gave him his test. “I didn’t know what a nigger was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t have called me. (257)” When a baby hears the
One day as I was shopping in Patterson’s at the mall here in Bemidji I noticed somethin that I have seen quite a lot of as I have been living in this town of racial diversity. I seemed to notice when I walked in the store with my mom we got the expected "Hello, can I help you find something?". We said "No, we are just looking." and went on our way through the store. A couple of minutes later some Natives came in the store and the guy who was working acted much different. He kind of looked at them with a disgusted look and followed them about the store without really saying anything. If he did it was something like "What size are you looking for?", no hellos or any chance of using the word help. I watched how he kind of looked at them with a sick grin on his face resembling a smirk of disgust. My mom also saw this same thing happen a couple of days earlier but didn’t say anything until we left the store.
Induction is an important cognitive ability in which inferences extend knowledge beyond the available information (Farrar, Raney, & Boyer, 1992). For instance, knowing an object belongs to a specific category can lead to beliefs that it shares additional properties with other category members. This can be crucial to learning and interacting with the world around us and can be considered one of the most basic functions of living creatures. Induction appears early in development (Sloutsky, Kloos, & Fisher, 2007). Preschool children have been shown to expect categories to promote induction and they use category membership to predict underlying similarities among objects – even when perceptual similarity would lead to a different prediction (Gelman, 1988). For example, a study conducted by Gelman and Markman with 3- and 4-year-olds, children were shown two objects, a tropical fish and a dolphin, and were taught a new fact about each that one breathes under water and the other pops up to breathe (Gelman, 1988). They were then shown a third object, a shark, and had to infer which of the facts about the first two objects would be applied to the new third object. However, the third object looked like the dolphin, but given the same category as the tropical fish.
middle of paper ... ... w features are combined and recognised thereafter as actual objects in the environment. Although supported by both behavioural and neurological evidence, feature models are limited as they do not account for top-down processes, and at best address only part of the process of pattern/object recognition. References Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. T. (2000). Cognitive Psychology: A student’s handbook (4th ed).
Social categorization is described as the natural classification process, which people use in placing others into some social groups (Abrams & Hogg, 2006). Typically, based on the human nature, social categorization occurs instinctively, without even the people’s awareness. As social creatures, people are sure to interact with others in different communal settings. As a result, they end up meeting with people of all categories ranging from different color, size, gender, shape, and sexuality among others (Ambady & Skowronski, 2008). From a generalized point of approach, social categorization is debatably the process where the people think of others as either man or woman, old or young, tall or short, black or white. Typical of any categorization,
Although pointing is a generally crude method of object identification, it can be useful in identifying a particular object, not only through time, but space as well. Quine believes that, at the most rudimentary level of ostension, space and time are inseparable, and therefore provide an essential function in object specification as a platform upon which similarities among particulars can be recognized. Identity also provides an unchanging point of reference for the accumulation and arrangement of objects into groups of kindred particulars. Conversely, it might be said that a particular
From the moment an infant is born, it is bombarded with sounds that the brain attempts to categorize. Within the first year of life alone, infants already show preferences for phonologically legal structures in their native language when compared to illegal consonant structures (Friederici et al., 1993). While a personal lexicon is not developed until later in childhood, the early stages, primarily the recognition of word segmentation, begins within the first year of life. The topic of what the important factors are in babies perceiving speech and building a preference to their own language, however, is shrouded in mystery. For instance, Friedrici et al.’s study on phonotactic knowledge of word boundaries gave results that indicate the combination of simple context cues as well as the use of infant directed speech (IDS) allows babies to recognize phonotactically legal structures by nine months. However, McMurray et al.’s results directly contrast those findings by arguing that IDS simply causes a slower rate of speech but does not highlight contrasts between segmented sounds, nor does it enhance phonetic cues. Infant directed speech is a “speech register characterized by simpler sentences, a slower rate, and more variable prosody” (McMurray et al., 2012). While there is controversy regarding the beneficial factors of infant directed speech, most studies indicate that this register is extremely beneficial for infant speech perception in the first year of life.
159). Research by Naigles and Hoff-Ginsberg (1995) states “the plausibility of syntactic bootstrapping was investigated to the extent of the linguistic input mothers provide children. With verb acquisition, the claim that children use syntax to acquire verb meanings does not preclude their use of other sources of information. Syntactic bootstrapping of a verb meaning fits into an account of syntax acquisition, syntactic bootstrapping does require that the child know some syntax before using syntactic frames to acquire verb meanings (Naigles & Hoff-Ginsberg, 1995).” Children acquire knowledge of words based off the context of the sentence.
Swingley, D. (2008). The roots of the early vocabulary in infants' learning form speech. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(5), 308-311.
Language acquisition during early childhood could be determined by a biological explanation. This may show how the brain is wired so children can acquire language ev...
Tulving, E., & Schacter, D.L. (1990). Priming and human memory systems. Bum.Science, 247, 301 – 306McCloskey, M. E. & Glucksberg, S. (1978). Natural categories: Well defined or fuzzy sets? Memory & Cognition, 6(4), 462-472
In demonstration of these processes, Banaji and Greenwaled quote the words “orderly living” (Lindinsky 614) from a book title “The Nature of Prejudice” by Gordon Allport, to give reasoning behind their usage of categories through four main feats while showing the undemanding ability the mind has. In feat one, the authors utilizes a chart with many dimensions of a car such as the make, model year and type, to show how a visual aid can arrange an array of series together when piecing a humans dimensions of race, age, sex, religion and so forth. Feat two introduces the term “Homo Catergories” which refers to the mental categories that focuses on the columns of the dimensional chart used in feat one (Lindinsky 613). In order to conceive what type
It is essential that humans focus on specific objects as they would not be able to perform one action at a time, and humans see their world in objects. Another purpose of attention is so that actions can be directed and controlled (Allport, 1987 cited in Naish 2010). It is important to research this in order to optimise health and safety and performance in occupational fields and make further discoveries in clinical neuropsychology. Some debates rage around how we attend to objects through our auditory and visual processes. Early selection theorists argue that all extraneous information is filtered out at an early stage and is ignored completely. The brain has limited capacity to deal with all the stimuli surrounding the object. From this Broadbent (1958 cited in Naish 2010) devised his influential Filter Theory, an early selection theory in auditory research. Treisman (1980 cited in Naish 2010) was an attenuation theorist and her Feature Integration Theory was also extremely influential, arguing some extraneous material is attended to before filtering. This essay will explore both theories and their contribution to our understanding of perception. It will make comparisons between the theories and the two senses. It will conclude that the research has made major contributions, but none has provided sufficient evidence to fully address the issues. Whether superfluous information is attended to or not, might depend on volume.