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Related Concept Videos

Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...
Rocket Propulsion in Gravitational Field - I01:20

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Rockets range in size from small fireworks that ordinary people use to the enormous Saturn V that once propelled massive payloads toward the Moon. The propulsion of all rockets, jet engines, deflating balloons, and even squids and octopuses are explained by the same physical principle: Newton's third law of motion. The matter is forcefully ejected from a system, producing an equal and opposite reaction on what remains.
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The driving force for the motion of any vehicle is friction, but in the case of rocket propulsion in space, the friction force is not present. The motion of a rocket changes its velocity (and hence its momentum) by ejecting burned fuel gases, thus causing it to accelerate in the direction opposite to the velocity of the ejected fuel. In this situation, the mass and velocity of the rocket constantly change along with the total mass of ejected gases. Due to conservation of momentum, the rocket's...
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
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Rocket Propulsion in Gravitational Field - II01:03

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A rocket's velocity in the presence of a gravitational field is decreased by the amount of force exerted by Earth's gravitational field, which opposes the motion of the rocket. If we consider thrust, that is, the force exerted on a rocket by the exhaust gases, then a rocket's thrust is greater in outer space than in the atmosphere or on a launch pad. In fact, gases are easier to expel in a vacuum.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

Grounding word learning in space.

Larissa K Samuelson1, Linda B Smith, Lynn K Perry

  • 1Department of Psychology and Delta Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America. larissa-samuelson@uiowa.edu

Plos One
|December 24, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Spatial consistency aids children's word learning by linking object labels to their referents. This spatial grounding in early word acquisition is more effective than using color cues.

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Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques
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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 26, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

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Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques
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Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
12:49

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition

Published on: July 13, 2019

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Humans and objects exist in space, and language directs attention to spatial regions.
  • Spatial cues like gaze and body orientation correlate with visual perception and memory.
  • Understanding how children link words to objects is crucial for language acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether spatial consistency influences children's ability to learn new words.
  • To develop and test a computational model of word learning grounded in spatial attention and memory.
  • To determine if space is uniquely important for word learning compared to other perceptual cues like color.

Main Methods:

  • Four experiments tested how the spatial consistency of object presentation affects children's word learning.
  • A computational process model was developed based on neural dynamics of spatial attention, memory, and associative learning.
  • A fifth experiment compared spatial consistency with color as a word-learning cue.
  • A final experiment examined word learning in naturalistic parent-child interactions.

Main Results:

  • Children's word learning is significantly enhanced when objects are presented in spatially consistent locations.
  • The computational model accurately captured the experimental findings, supporting a space-grounded theory of word learning.
  • Children did not use color consistency as effectively as spatial consistency to bind words to objects.
  • Naturalistic observations showed that children of parents using consistent spatial locations for object naming learned words more effectively.

Conclusions:

  • Spatial consistency is a powerful, inherent tool that facilitates word learning in children.
  • The findings support a model where space grounds word-object associations, influencing early language acquisition.
  • Unlike spatial cues, color does not appear to play a special role in binding words to referents in this context.