1- The modularity debate Flashcards

Question

What is the nativist view of modularity?

Answer 1

Modularity is innate, present in the infant brain. Would expect to find a lot of double dissociations

Answer 2

The modular structure is not present in the infant brain but rather emerges through development. Double dissociations emerge during development should not expect to find clear double dissociations in developmental disorders.

Answer 3

The "myth" is the idea that people with Williams Syndrome have intact language and face processing (used to argue for independent modules). The authors argue that although these are relatively good compared to other areas of cognition, they are not "intact" and still develop atypically compared to typically developing individuals.

Answer 4

Karmiloff-Smith and colleagues challenge the notion of intact language in WS. They argue that no aspect of language, be it syntax, semantics, phonology, or pragmatics, is truly intact. They say Nativist literature misinterpret findings, treating relative strengths as absolute strengths. They highlight the limitations of small sample sizes and ceiling effects in studies that claim intact language abilities. For instance, they conducted a larger study on past tense formation and found no selective deficit in irregular past tense formation in WS when controlling for verbal mental age. Instead of "intactness," these researchers suggest that WS language is delayed and develops along a different trajectory compared to typically developing individuals. They present evidence suggesting that individuals with WS may rely more on phonological information and less on semantic information during language development. This is supported by findings such as the naming spurt preceding fast-mapping ability and the lack of sensitivity to subcategory violations during sentence monitoring tasks in WS. The authors argue that the good verbal memory often observed in WS can mask underlying difficulties with semantics and syntax, making language appear more intact than it actually is It is not the case that people with WS have an intact face processing module and an impaired space processing module. Both follow atypical developmental trajectories.

Answer 5

Nativists believe individuals with Williams Syndrome exhibit intact linguistic functioning 'hyperlinguistic' and morphosyntax, whilst cognition is impaired (IQ measured around 50), suggesting the presence of an innate, independently functioning language module. For instance, Pinker (1991, 1999) has claimed that syntax is spared in WS, citing observations of relatively good grammatical abilities in controlled testing. He contrasts WS with Specific Language Impairment (SLI), suggesting that in WS, genes impair intelligence while sparing grammar, whereas in SLI, genes impair grammar while sparing intelligence. Clahsen and Almazan (1998) also support this view, proposing a double dissociation of innate mechanisms. They argue that WS involves impaired lexical memory but intact syntax, while SLI presents the opposite pattern. They base this on studies of tasks like past tense formation and sentence comprehension. They claimed WS individuals have a specific deficit in forming irregular past tenses but intact performace on regular past tense.

Answer 6

The authors of this article, Karmiloff-Smith and colleagues, critique these nativist claims, pointing out methodological limitations such as small sample sizes and ceiling effects in the studies cited by nativists. Ceiling effects can simply suggest task is not sensitive enough. Given that WS language is seriously delayed initially, Thomas et al. (2001) argued that it is not sufficient to show that irregular past tense formation is poorer than regular past tense formation, because this is also true of some stages of typical development. the WS group displayed no selective deficit in irregular past tense formation. The best way to characterize WS language is that it is delayed. If the WS infant brain presented with an intact morphosyntactic module, as Nativists suggest, this severe delay would surely be surprising.

Answer 7

WS language system develops differently, placing more weight on phonological information and less on semantic information. For example, the naming spurt in WS precedes fast mapping ability. In typical development, these two coincide (Mervis & Bertrand, 1997). The naming spurt in WS does not coincide with exhaustive category sorting (indicative of semantic representation) Suggests that vocabulary growth relies less on semantics than in the typically developing case. WS group displayed equal levels of reading for both concrete and abstract words (Laing, Hulme, Grant, & Karmiloff-Smith, 2001). Controls found concrete, imageable words much easier to read. Imageability effects are weaker in people with WS

Answer 8

Vocabulary levels are usually better than syntactic levels in WS but both are significantly below conrtol (Karmiloff-Smith et al., 1997). In imitation tasks, WS show impairment with complex syntactic structures like embedded relative clauses. A recent study by Grant, Valian, and Karmiloff-Smith (2002) showed that despite having a mean vocabulary test age of 9 years, the participants with WS performed significantly worse on relative clauses than the 6- and 7-year-old controls. Length of sentence did not explain the results because the shortest of the sentence types was the most difficult for the WS group who performed at ceiling on non embedded filler sentences of varying length. These findings are inconsistent with the view that WS syntax is intact.

Answer 9

"Modularity Continuity Hypothesis"= brain is organised into innate, genetically determined modules that are capable of being dissociated from one another across the lifespan. Studies investigating dissociations in linguistic and numerical abilities in children with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS) challenge this hypothesis... Paterson (2000) compared the performance of toddlers and adults with WS and DS on vocabulary comprehension and numerosity. Adults with WS performed significantly better on vocabulary tests than adults with DS. However, toddlers with WS and DS showed equal impairment on vocabulary comprehension tasks, both performing significantly worse than typically developing children. This suggests that either the developmental trajectories of language acquisition differ between the two syndromes, or children with DS experience a progressive decline in linguistic skills relative to their WS counterparts. Adults with WS were significantly more impaired than adults with DS on numerosity judgement tasks. In contrast, toddlers with WS demonstrated unimpaired performance on numerosity judgement tasks, while toddlers with DS were significantly impaired. FINDINGS DEMONSTRATE- the relative strengths/weaknesses observed in adulthood do not reflect the cognitive profiles present in early development. The differing patterns observed across age suggest that the development of these abilities follows distinct trajectories in WS and DS, and that inferences about innate modularity based solely on adult phenotypic outcomes are misleading.

1- The modularity debate Flashcards

(34 cards)