Neural plasticity and human development: the role of early experience in sculpting memory systems

The concept of sensitive or critical periods in the context of memory development is examined in this paper. I begin by providing examples of the role of experience in influencing sensory, linguistic and emotional functioning. This is followed by a discussion of the role of experience in influencing cognitive functioning, particularly memory. Based on this discussion, speculation is offered that the infant’s proclivity for novelty, which makes its appearance shortly after birth, provides critical input into a nervous system that will eventually be set up to learn and remember for the entire lifespan. Because learning and memory are fundamental to the survival of our species, those aspects of the nervous system that permit the encoding and retention of new information are remarkably malleable from the outset, even in the face of some types of neural trauma. This flexibility is retained for many years so long as the learning and memory ‘system’ is challenged. The implications of this model are discussed in the context of those life events that might undermine the longevity of memory systems.     

How linguistic and cultural forces shape conceptions of time: English and Mandarin time in 3D

In this paper we examine how English and Mandarin speakers think about time, and we test how the patterns of thinking in the two groups relate to patterns in linguistic and cultural experience. In Mandarin, vertical spatial metaphors are used more frequently to talk about time than they are in English; English relies primarily on horizontal terms. We present results from two tasks comparing English and Mandarin speakers' temporal reasoning. The tasks measure how people spatialize time in three-dimensional space, including the sagittal (front/back), transverse (left/right), and vertical (up/down) axes. Results of Experiment 1 show that people automatically create spatial representations in the course of temporal reasoning, and these implicit spatializations differ in accordance with patterns in language, even in a non-linguistic task. Both groups showed evidence of a left-to-right representation of time, in accordance with writing direction, but only Mandarin speakers showed a vertical top-to-bottom pattern for time (congruent with vertical spatiotemporal metaphors in Mandarin). Results of Experiment 2 confirm and extend these findings, showing that bilinguals' representations of time depend on both long-term and proximal aspects of language experience. Participants who were more proficient in Mandarin were more likely to arrange time vertically (an effect of previous language experience). Further, bilinguals were more likely to arrange time vertically when they were tested in Mandarin than when they were tested in English (an effect of immediate linguistic context).     

Intergenerational influence and ontogenetic development in the emergence of spatial grammar in Nicaraguan Sign Language

The recent emergence of a new sign language among deaf children and adolescents in Nicaragua provides an opportunity to study how grammatical features of a language arise and spread, and how new language environments are constructed. The grammatical regularities that underlie language use reside largely outside the domain of explicit awareness. Nevertheless, knowledge of these regularities must be transmitted from one generation to the next to survive as part of the language. During this transmission, language form and use is shaped by both the characteristics of ontogenetic development within individual users and by historical changes in patterns of interaction between users. To capture this process, the present study follows the emergence of spatial modulations in Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). A comprehension task examining interpretations of spatially modulated verbs reveals that new form-function mappings arise among children who functionally differentiate previously equivalent forms. The new mappings are then acquired by their age peers (who are also children), and by subsequent generations of children who learn the language, but not by adult contemporaries. As a result, language emergence is characterized by a convergence on form within each age cohort, and a mismatch in form from one age cohort to the cohort that follows. In this way, each age cohort, in sequence, transforms the language environment for the next, enabling each new cohort of learners to develop further than its predecessors.     

Exploring the implications of social change for human development: Perspectives,issues and future directions

Researchers have investigated the implications of social change for human development from different perspectives. The studies published in this special section were conducted within Greenfield's theoretical framework (2009). The findings concerning links between specific sociodemographic features (e.g., commercial activities, schooling) and individual cognition and social behaviour are particularly interesting because they tap the underlying forces that drive human development. To further understand the issues in these studies and in the field, a pluralist‐constructive perspective is discussed, which emphasises the integration of diverse values and practices in both Western and non‐Western societies and its effects on the development of sophisticated competencies in individual adaptation to the changing global community. In addition, several issues are highlighted and some suggestions are provided for future explorations in this field.     

Memory and mystery: the cultural selection of minimally counterintuitive narratives

We hypothesize that cultural narratives such as myths and folktales are more likely to achieve cultural stability if they correspond to a minimally counterintuitive (MCI) cognitive template that includes mostly intuitive concepts combined with a minority of counterintuitive ones. Two studies tested this hypothesis, examining whether this template produces a memory advantage, and whether this memory advantage explains the cultural success of folktales. In a controlled laboratory setting, Study 1 found that an MCI template produces a memory advantage after a 1-week delay, relative to entirely intuitive or maximally counterintuitive cognitive templates. Using archival methods, Study 2 examined the cognitive structure of Grimm Brothers folktales. Compared to culturally unsuccessful folktales, those that were demonstrably successful were especially likely to fit an MCI template. These findings highlight the role of human memory processes in cultural evolution.     

Language and life history: a new perspective on the development and evolution of human language

It has long been claimed that Homo sapiens is the only species that has language, but only recently has it been recognized that humans also have an unusual pattern of growth and development. Social mammals have two stages of pre-adult development: infancy and juvenility. Humans have two additional prolonged and pronounced life history stages: childhood, an interval of four years extending between infancy and the juvenile period that follows, and adolescence, a stage of about eight years that stretches from juvenility to adulthood. We begin by reviewing the primary biological and linguistic changes occurring in each of the four pre-adult ontogenetic stages in human life history. Then we attempt to trace the evolution of childhood and juvenility in our hominin ancestors. We propose that several different forms of selection applied in infancy and childhood; and that, in adolescence, elaborated vocal behaviors played a role in courtship and intrasexual competition, enhancing fitness and ultimately integrating performative and pragmatic skills with linguistic knowledge in a broad faculty of language. A theoretical consequence of our proposal is that fossil evidence of the uniquely human stages may be used, with other findings, to date the emergence of language. If important aspects of language cannot appear until sexual maturity, as we propose, then a second consequence is that the development of language requires the whole of modern human ontogeny. Our life history model thus offers new ways of investigating, and thinking about, the evolution, development, and ultimately the nature of human language.     

Socio-cultural invisibility and belonging: Latin American migrants in the north of England

This paper explores the multiple and simultaneous senses of belonging of Latin Americans in the north of England, a sparse migrant population characterised by a high degree of socio-cultural invisibility, i.e. lack of official recognition and limited cultural/ethnic organisation. It draws on a project conducted with 10 Latin American and Latino British families (totalling 30 adults and dependent children of 8–18 years of age) and 14 other informants and stakeholders in the Yorkshire and Greater Manchester regions. The paper analyses the senses of everyday belonging of the adult participants and the role that conditions of socio-cultural invisibility play in their experiences. Significant here are the lack of ethno-cultural local spaces and reluctance to embrace pan-ethnic identifications, which bring to the fore the relevance of other local social contexts and of transnational ties as sites of everyday belonging. It is argued that by paying attention to the emotions and emotional compromises that constitute migrants' senses of belonging, it is possible to develop nuanced insights into the diversity of ways in which migrants experience processes of incorporation and combine bonds to sending and receiving societies.     

Self-Reliance and Empathy: The Enemies of Poverty—and of the Poor

Starting with a brief review of why all post-industrial societies tend to be inegalitarian, this paper develops two main themes: (1) how the idea that people are individually responsible for their own fates reduces poverty but impedes redistribution, and (2) how both the loose ties of individuals to their societies and the selective nature of their empathy and pity for others reduces compassion for the poor, making redistribution unlikely. The first theme is elaborated through psychological research on dispositional versus circumstantial attributions, showing their effects on the widely shared belief in a just world and more generally on the prevailing theory of the justice of deserts. The attribution-affect-action model is used to show how dispositional attributes evoke either anger or pity for victims and, if anger, then unwillingness to help. The development of the second theme shows how people divorce their own fates from those of their nations, how the basic tendency to favor the familiar and similar limits support for redistribution, how converting concern regarding deprivations of the self to concern for (fraternal) deprivation of people like the self excludes those who most need help, how envy fails to lead to redistribution, and finally, how people's ideas of the privileged and the disadvantaged reflect market values and often mark the poor and the different as overprivileged.     

Processing of non-canonical word-order: A case-series on lesion-induced reorganized language and age-effects in typical development

Complex grammatical structures are mastered late in language acquisition. We studied age-effects on performance in object topicalization in 48 typically developing German-speaking participants (aged 8–30 years) and in five patients (children and adolescents) with lesion-induced atypical language representation. Production was tested by a sentence repetition task, comprehension by an acting out task. Three topicalized conditions with differing disambiguation (agreement, case, and case plus agreement) were contrasted with canonical control sentences.     

The Effects of Linguistic Devices on Consumer Information Processing and Persuasion: A Language Complexity × Processing Mode Framework

People—be they politicians, marketers, job candidates, product reviewers, or romantic interests—often use linguistic devices to persuade others, and there is a sizeable literature that has documented the effects of numerous linguistic devices. However, understanding the implications of these effects is difficult without an organizing framework. To this end, we introduce a Language Complexity × Processing Mode Framework for classifying linguistic devices based on two continuous dimensions: language complexity, ranging from simple to complex, and processing mode, ranging from automatic to controlled. We then use the framework as a basis for reviewing and synthesizing extant research on the effects of the linguistic devices on persuasion, determining the conditions under which the effectiveness of the linguistic devices can be maximized, and reconciling inconsistencies in prior research.     

Blazing the trail versus trailing the group: Culture and perceptions of the leader’s position

Research suggests that power triggers assertive action. However, people from different cultures might expect different types of action from powerful individuals such as leaders. In comparing cultural differences in leadership imagery, we find that Americans represent leaders standing ahead of groups, whereas Asians also represent leaders behind groups. We propose that front versus back positions embody two faces of leader action: individual assertion versus group-focused action. Studies 1a and 1b respectively employed etic and emic methods to demonstrate that Singaporeans were more likely than Americans to represent leaders behind groups. In Study 2, Singaporeans evaluated back leaders more favorably than Americans did, and group focus mediated cultural differences. Simulating the conditions under which cultural differences arise, Study 3 demonstrates that a primarily Western managerial sample primed with threat (versus opportunity) preferred back leaders. By describing cultural variations in imagery, we reveal more nuanced implicit theories of leader action.     

Examining Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis as One of the Main Views on the Relationship Between Language and Thought

One of those features that set human societies apart from animal societies is the use of language. Language is a vital part of every human culture and is a powerful social tool that we master at an early age. A second feature of humans is our ability to solve complex problems. For centuries philosophers have questioned whether these two abilities are related and, if so, what the nature of the relationship between language and thought is. At the beginning of the last century psychologists joined this debate and it is a topic that is currently generating a lot of research. Another factor in the study of language and thought is the role of culture. When we study a language from another country we see that it is not just the words and grammar that are different but the customs and traditions as well. Even the ideas of that culture and the way of dealing with life can be different. There are a number of views on the nature of the relationship between language and thought. But here we are going to explore one of those views, the linguistic relativity hypothesis (LRH), concerning that the language a speaker uses influences the way the speaker thinks.     

The relationship between motor development,gestures and language production in the second year of life: A mediational analysis

This longitudinal study investigated the relationships between motor, gestural and linguistic abilities using two parent report instruments. Motor skills at 12 months significantly correlated with language production at 16, 20 and 23 months, but these associations were mediated by the use of representational gestures.     

A preliminary study on the relationship between characteristics of TV content and delayed speech development in young children

Our previous population survey of 18-month-old children suggested an association between delayed language development and heavy TV viewing. We therefore collected all 85 videos described as children's favorites in that questionnaire to examine relationships between the characteristics of habitually viewed videos and language development. In the language delayed group, compared to the non-delayed group, the types of videos preferred more were “realistic animations” and “baby education” and the characteristics of videos were contained few close-ups of characters facing viewers, continued uninterruptedly between stories, had constant movement or transformation of characters, had a high frame rate of animation, and that adults readily kept on watching the videos even with the sound off. These characteristics were seen more in videos the above two types. These findings imply that habitual television/video viewing with characteristics that are not apt to elicit parent–child communication for long hours may affect delayed language development in young children.     

Finding one's meaning: a test of the relation between quantifiers and integers in language development

We explored children’s early interpretation of numerals and linguistic number marking, in order to test the hypothesis (e.g., Carey (2004). Bootstrapping and the origin of concepts. Daedalus, 59-68) that children’s initial distinction between one and other numerals (i.e., two, three, etc.) is bootstrapped from a prior distinction between singular and plural nouns. Previous studies have presented evidence that in languages without singular-plural morphology, like Japanese and Chinese, children acquire the meaning of the word one later than in singular-plural languages like English and Russian. In two experiments, we sought to corroborate this relation between grammatical number and integer acquisition within English. We found a significant correlation between children’s comprehension of numerals and a large set of natural language quantifiers and determiners, even when controlling for effects due to age. However, we also found that 2-year-old children, who are just acquiring singular-plural morphology and the word one, fail to assign an exact interpretation to singular noun phrases (e.g., a banana), despite interpreting one as exact. For example, in a Truth-Value Judgment task, most children judged that a banana was consistent with a set of two objects, despite rejecting sets of two for the numeral one. Also, children who gave exactly one object for singular nouns did not have a better comprehension of numerals relative to children who did not give exactly one. Thus, we conclude that the correlation between quantifier comprehension and numeral comprehension in children of this age is not attributable to the singular-plural distinction facilitating the acquisition of the word one. We argue that quantifiers play a more general role in highlighting the semantic function of numerals, and that children distinguish between numerals and other quantifiers from the beginning, assigning exact interpretations only to numerals.     

Exploring the dynamics of development and evolution: comment on Blair and Raver (2012)

Blair and Raver (2012) have provided an organism-in-environment conceptualization of the development of stress response physiology and its relation to the development of self-regulation. They argue that we must consider the context in which self-regulation and stress reactivity occur to understand their implications for developmental outcome. More generally, they present a cogent argument for why it is necessary to think developmentally when considering the effects of early experience on subsequent physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development. Blair and Raver's article also highlights a persistent challenge for developmental theory--how to make sense of the relationship among the various timescales over which phenotypes develop and change occurs. Their efforts to identify the factors involved in the variability and stability of self-regulation over different timescales demonstrate the dividends of integrating developmental and evolutionary perspectives to better understand the malleability of phenotypic development.     

God’s categories: The effect of religiosity on children’s teleological and essentialist beliefs about categories

Creationism implies that God imbued each category with a unique nature and purpose. These implications closely correspond to what some cognitive psychologists define as an essentialistic and teleological stance towards categories. This study assessed to what extent the belief in God as creator of categories is related to the mappings of these stances to categories in different domains. Israeli secular and orthodox Jewish 1st and 5th graders responded to questions assessing these three types of beliefs. The results revealed that secular children did not differ from orthodox children with respect to their essentialist beliefs about the stability of animal category membership, and their teleological construal of artifacts. In turn, secular children did differ from orthodox children with respect to their essentialist beliefs about the stability of social category membership, and their teleological construal of both animal and social categories. These findings intimate that while essentialist beliefs about animals, and teleological beliefs about artifacts do not require cultural input in order to emerge, essentialist beliefs about social categories, and teleological beliefs about both animal and social categories do.     

Contrast of hand preferences between communicative gestures and non-communicative actions in baboons: Implications for the origins of hemispheric specialization for language

Gestural communication is a modality considered in the literature as a candidate for determining the ancestral prerequisites of the emergence of human language. As reported in captive chimpanzees and human children, a study in captive baboons revealed that a communicative gesture elicits stronger degree of right-hand bias than non-communicative actions. It remains unclear if it is the communicative nature of this manual behavior which induces such patterns of handedness. In the present study, we have measured hand use for two uninvestigated behaviors in a group of captive olive baboons: (1) a non-communicative self-touching behavior (“muzzle wipe” serving as a control behavior), (2) another communicative gesture (a ritualized “food beg”) different from the one previously studied in the literature (a species-specific threat gesture, namely “hand slap”) in the same population of baboons. The hand preferences for the “food beg” gestures revealed a trend toward right-handedness and significantly correlated with the hand preferences previously reported in the hand slap gesture within the same baboons. By contrast, the hand preferences for the self-touching behaviors did not reveal any trend of manual bias at a group-level nor correlation with the hand preferences of any communicative gestures. These findings provide additional support to the hypothesized existence in baboons of a specific communicative system involved in the production of communicative gestures that may tend to a left-hemispheric dominance and that may differ from the system involved in purely motor functions. The hypothetical implications of these collective results are discussed within the theoretical framework about the origins of hemispheric specialization for human language.     

The decline of cooperation,the rise of competition: developmental effects of long‐term social change in Mexico

Using Greenfield's theory of sociocultural change and human development as a point of departure, we carried out two experimental studies exploring the implications of decades of globalised social change in Mexico for children's development of cooperation and competition. In rural San Vicente, Baja California, the baseline was 1970 and the historical comparison took place 40 years later. In Veracruz, the baseline was 1985 and the historical comparison took place 20 years later. In Veracruz, children were tested in both rural and urban settings. We hypothesized that cooperative behavior would decrease in all three settings as a result of the sociocultural transformations of the past decades in Mexico. The Madsen Marble Pull Game was used to assess cooperative and competitive behavior. As predicted by Greenfield's theory of social change and human development, the Marble Pull procedure revealed a striking decrease over time in levels of cooperative behavior, with a corresponding rise in competitive behavior, in all three settings.