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Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

Language Development

716
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
716
Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

658
Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
658
Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

613
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
613
Continuity of a Function01:23

Continuity of a Function

122
A function is continuous at a point a if three conditions are met: the function is defined at a, the limit of the function as x approaches a exists, and this limit equals the function’s value. Mathematically, this is written asThis definition ensures the graph of the function does not exhibit any breaks, holes, or jumps at that point. Discontinuities occur when any of these conditions fail. A removable discontinuity exists when the two-sided limit exists but the function is either...
122
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood01:25

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood

989
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development emphasizes the role of thinking in a child's learning process, suggesting that children are naturally curious about their environment. His approach to development is discontinuous, proposing that cognitive abilities progress through distinct stages, each with unique characteristics. Central to Piaget's theory is schemata—mental structures that allow individuals to understand and interpret the world.
Schemata: Building Blocks of Knowledge
989
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

342
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...
342

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 15, 2025

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

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Continuous developmental change explains discontinuities in word learning.

Abdellah Fourtassi1, Sophie Regan1, Michael C Frank1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Developmental Science
|July 13, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Children

Keywords:
cognitive developmentcomputational modelingword learning

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • Children's early phonetic discrimination skills do not always predict word learning.
  • Previous theories suggested discontinuous developmental stages for word learning.
  • Emerging evidence supports continuous development in phonetic encoding.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To model word knowledge as graded and developmental change as precision improvement.
  • To investigate if apparent cognitive discontinuities arise from continuous mechanisms.
  • To test if referent visual similarity impacts word learning accuracy.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a probabilistic computational model of graded word knowledge.
  • Utilized precise testing methods to assess phonetic encoding in children and adults.
  • Collected human data to validate model predictions.

Main Results:

  • The probabilistic model successfully explained existing findings on phonetic discrimination and word learning.
  • Model predictions regarding visual similarity modulating word learning were confirmed.
  • Both preschool children and adults showed effects of referent visual similarity.

Conclusions:

  • Apparent discontinuities in cognitive development may emerge from continuous underlying mechanisms.
  • A graded representation of word knowledge offers a continuous developmental framework.
  • Computational models are valuable tools for understanding cognitive development.