Psycholinguistics and the Presidential campaign
It is Sunday morning. Earlier I listened to the NPR program “On Being” with Krista Tippett which this week featured a conversation with Dr. Jean Berko Gleason, Professor Emerita of psychology at Boston University. Dr. Gleason made reference to a Ted Talk by Deb Roy, an engineer at MIT, who, along with his wife or certainly with the cooperation his his wife, has been studying the interactional development of language with his son using a multitude of video cameras in their home. I also read the Tampa Tribune of February 7 including a story by David Fahrenhold of the Washington Post entitled “GOP candidates accuse, bicker. In this article Mr. Fahrenhold reports that both Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz endorsed the use of waterboarding “in certain situations. Mr. Trump in fact is reported to have stated,”I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse then waterboarding” Senator Rubio is reported to have said that, “We should be putting people into Guantanamo, not empting it.” On CBS news while I was at the gym I also heard a discussion about the concern of representatives of the United States, as well as other countries, about the launching of a long range rocket missile by North Korea, allegedly to launch a satellite.
As I prepare to write, my thoughts are running around in a million directions. I think of the sage reminder of my friend Dr. Walter Kaufman the other day following his reading of one of my posted blogs. Essentially he was reminding me of the basic rules when writing and attempting to communicate a point. His basic reminder was to write a thesis statement and stay focused. He was accurately suggesting that I had neglected to follow this rule in the blog he had just read. I had introduced a number of topics without tying them together under a thesis point or statement. It was a good reminder that even though I might have a sense that some thoughts all have a central theme, I need to find a way to make that clear when I am writing.
So, with that in mind, I need to ask myself the common theme or thesis point which is coming out of these seeming varied writing and thoughts this morning. What does the work of a psycholinguistic professor, the scientific observations of an MIT engineer dad, the reaction to the launching of a long-range rocket missile by North Korea and recommendation of the use of waterboarding and a camp/prison where the United States keeps prisoners indefinitely without due process have in common.
The work of Dr. Roy and Dr. Gleason as well as that of the work of social scientists and the work of those such as neurobiologists are increasingly confirming that learning is interactional and all of life forms are interdependent. For example, the study of language confirms that when a child in vitro is exposed to more than one language the brain of that child will be born with a bilingual brain. As the child develops the adults with whom the child interacts will continue to learn and to develop. The adults spending time with a child will also adjust their behavior to that of the child and vise versa.
While we are still leaning a lot about what abilities, including that of language, with which children are born, we are learning and/or confirming that children do need to interact with other people to develop language skills. Those of us who are parents and who have paid attention also know that we as adults are influenced and affected by what children say and do. Increasingly as Dr. Gleason reminds us,” A lot of people are talking about children and animals, and the importance of animals, or how good it is to take a dog to the nursing home, things of that sort. But, uh, the point is, that we have an enormous connection to the rest of the living world and that we love the living world.”
Thus, it is it true and it certainly seems to be true that despite some innate abilities and talents, children are dependent on interacting with other humans and the rest of life forms to fully develop language skills and how they affect and are affected by the language and behavior of we adults.
This background of thoughts made me think about how children might be hearing what the GOP (and Democratic) political candidates were saying last evening and how the United States and other countries are responding to the launching of a long-range missile by the North Koreans. Specifically I was thinking about future conversations with my adopted six-year-old niece Sam and my 12-year-old nephew Paul. I can well imagine them attempting to understand why it is wrong for them to hurt their friends and classmates and right for we adults to use waterboarding and other techniques of torture. They might even ask if it is okay if someone in another country in which one is traveling gets angry at them to torture them. I can also imagine them asking me why it is okay for the United States to keep people in jail for years without a trial. They might ask, “If I travel in another country and someone gets mad at me or suspects me of something, is it okay for them to keep me in jail for years.
Other questions of Sam and Paul to which I might need to respond are:
• If Oscar (the sheepdog) is bad can we put a towel over his head and pour water on him?
• Why do people get in trouble for punishing a cat or other animal?
• If the North Koreans know we have long range rockets and know we might torture or bomb them why can’t they have rockets like we do?
• If Tommy is bad can we lock him in the basement until he is an adult?
• If I say I am going to torture Mr. Trump will I get into trouble?
Obviously if we are going to study the development of language we must also be concerned about how we teach children to learn to use language. Most parents quickly figure out that they should not use language they do not want their children to copy or to mimic. We may find it charming and amazing, as Dr. Roy did, when our child learns to copy our excitement by saying “Wow” when he is about to take more than two steps for the first time, but we may not find it cute or charming when that same child says “Oh f…” in public. Certainly the first time a child says to his or her teacher, “I am going to waterboard you, you f…… b….” it is not going to be well received.
It may be that children innately know syntax or they may not. Whether they know it or learn it, they will learn that syntax is used to describe or announce behavior. Otherwise languate is not communication. Then it be nonsensical sounds and have limited, at best, social purpose. While we may alter tonality to change the meaning of a word, we are still going using it to communicate. This is what we will be teaching our children.
Perhaps some adults have such a finely discriminating mind that they can delineate the “bad” person who deserves waterboarding” from “good” person who does not, but who decides who is qualified to be that discriminating person?
As a psychologist Dr. Gleason is well aware and emphasizes that language is an interactional tool and that children learn from we adults just as we need to learn from children. The rest of we humans might be well advised to remember this.
Written February 7, 2016
It is Sunday morning. Earlier I listened to the NPR program “On Being” with Krista Tippett which this week featured a conversation with Dr. Jean Berko Gleason, Professor Emerita of psychology at Boston University. Dr. Gleason made reference to a Ted Talk by Deb Roy, an engineer at MIT, who, along with his wife or certainly with the cooperation his his wife, has been studying the interactional development of language with his son using a multitude of video cameras in their home. I also read the Tampa Tribune of February 7 including a story by David Fahrenhold of the Washington Post entitled “GOP candidates accuse, bicker. In this article Mr. Fahrenhold reports that both Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz endorsed the use of waterboarding “in certain situations. Mr. Trump in fact is reported to have stated,”I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse then waterboarding” Senator Rubio is reported to have said that, “We should be putting people into Guantanamo, not empting it.” On CBS news while I was at the gym I also heard a discussion about the concern of representatives of the United States, as well as other countries, about the launching of a long range rocket missile by North Korea, allegedly to launch a satellite.
As I prepare to write, my thoughts are running around in a million directions. I think of the sage reminder of my friend Dr. Walter Kaufman the other day following his reading of one of my posted blogs. Essentially he was reminding me of the basic rules when writing and attempting to communicate a point. His basic reminder was to write a thesis statement and stay focused. He was accurately suggesting that I had neglected to follow this rule in the blog he had just read. I had introduced a number of topics without tying them together under a thesis point or statement. It was a good reminder that even though I might have a sense that some thoughts all have a central theme, I need to find a way to make that clear when I am writing.
So, with that in mind, I need to ask myself the common theme or thesis point which is coming out of these seeming varied writing and thoughts this morning. What does the work of a psycholinguistic professor, the scientific observations of an MIT engineer dad, the reaction to the launching of a long-range rocket missile by North Korea and recommendation of the use of waterboarding and a camp/prison where the United States keeps prisoners indefinitely without due process have in common.
The work of Dr. Roy and Dr. Gleason as well as that of the work of social scientists and the work of those such as neurobiologists are increasingly confirming that learning is interactional and all of life forms are interdependent. For example, the study of language confirms that when a child in vitro is exposed to more than one language the brain of that child will be born with a bilingual brain. As the child develops the adults with whom the child interacts will continue to learn and to develop. The adults spending time with a child will also adjust their behavior to that of the child and vise versa.
While we are still leaning a lot about what abilities, including that of language, with which children are born, we are learning and/or confirming that children do need to interact with other people to develop language skills. Those of us who are parents and who have paid attention also know that we as adults are influenced and affected by what children say and do. Increasingly as Dr. Gleason reminds us,” A lot of people are talking about children and animals, and the importance of animals, or how good it is to take a dog to the nursing home, things of that sort. But, uh, the point is, that we have an enormous connection to the rest of the living world and that we love the living world.”
Thus, it is it true and it certainly seems to be true that despite some innate abilities and talents, children are dependent on interacting with other humans and the rest of life forms to fully develop language skills and how they affect and are affected by the language and behavior of we adults.
This background of thoughts made me think about how children might be hearing what the GOP (and Democratic) political candidates were saying last evening and how the United States and other countries are responding to the launching of a long-range missile by the North Koreans. Specifically I was thinking about future conversations with my adopted six-year-old niece Sam and my 12-year-old nephew Paul. I can well imagine them attempting to understand why it is wrong for them to hurt their friends and classmates and right for we adults to use waterboarding and other techniques of torture. They might even ask if it is okay if someone in another country in which one is traveling gets angry at them to torture them. I can also imagine them asking me why it is okay for the United States to keep people in jail for years without a trial. They might ask, “If I travel in another country and someone gets mad at me or suspects me of something, is it okay for them to keep me in jail for years.
Other questions of Sam and Paul to which I might need to respond are:
• If Oscar (the sheepdog) is bad can we put a towel over his head and pour water on him?
• Why do people get in trouble for punishing a cat or other animal?
• If the North Koreans know we have long range rockets and know we might torture or bomb them why can’t they have rockets like we do?
• If Tommy is bad can we lock him in the basement until he is an adult?
• If I say I am going to torture Mr. Trump will I get into trouble?
Obviously if we are going to study the development of language we must also be concerned about how we teach children to learn to use language. Most parents quickly figure out that they should not use language they do not want their children to copy or to mimic. We may find it charming and amazing, as Dr. Roy did, when our child learns to copy our excitement by saying “Wow” when he is about to take more than two steps for the first time, but we may not find it cute or charming when that same child says “Oh f…” in public. Certainly the first time a child says to his or her teacher, “I am going to waterboard you, you f…… b….” it is not going to be well received.
It may be that children innately know syntax or they may not. Whether they know it or learn it, they will learn that syntax is used to describe or announce behavior. Otherwise languate is not communication. Then it be nonsensical sounds and have limited, at best, social purpose. While we may alter tonality to change the meaning of a word, we are still going using it to communicate. This is what we will be teaching our children.
Perhaps some adults have such a finely discriminating mind that they can delineate the “bad” person who deserves waterboarding” from “good” person who does not, but who decides who is qualified to be that discriminating person?
As a psychologist Dr. Gleason is well aware and emphasizes that language is an interactional tool and that children learn from we adults just as we need to learn from children. The rest of we humans might be well advised to remember this.
Written February 7, 2016
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