language acquisition

Question 1

BF Skinner

Answer 1

Theory of behaviourism
Believed in nurturing; meaning that you’re leaning different habits from other people in your life

Theory mean when you are a first born you have no knowledge in your mind

Classical Conditioning: learned response to a stimulus (ex. Healing the lunch bell ring and immediately getting hungry for lunch

Operant Conditioning: strengthening a behaviour with positive or negative reinforcement (ex. You don’t study for a test, your phone gets taken away, you start to study more

Reinforcement - strengthens behaviour
Positive → increasing behaviour by adding a trigger
Negative → removing something to improve behaviour
Punishment - reduces behaviour
Positive → to reduce undesired behaviour, add a negative aspect
Negative → concealing something to reduce undesirable conduct

Question 2

Noam Chomsky

Answer 2

Theory of nativism
Believed in nature; meaning that it has a larger impact on how you develop
Means that learning, knowledge and understanding is being “unlocked” or provided to us later on in life

Broca’s Area – part of the brain:
In charge of speech generation, language understanding and language processing
Wernicke’s Area - part of the brain:
Essential in understanding spoken words