Domain-specific learning

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Domain-specific learning theories of development hold that we have many independent, specialised knowledge structures (domains), rather than one cohesive knowledge structure. Thus, training in one domain may not impact another independent domain. [1] Domain-general views instead suggest that children possess a "general developmental function" where skills are interrelated through a single cognitive system. [2]  Therefore, whereas domain-general theories would propose that acquisition of language and mathematical skill are developed by the same broad set of cognitive skills, domain-specific theories would propose that they are genetically, neurologically and computationally independent.

Contents

Domain specificity has been supported by a variety of theorists. An early supporter was Jerry Fodor, who argued that the mind functions partly, by innate, domain-specific mental modules. [3] In Modularity of Mind, Fodor proposed the Hypothesis of Modest Modularity, stating that input systems such as perception and language are modular, whereas central systems such as belief fixation and practical reasoning are not. [4] By contrast, evolutionary psychologists have supported the Massive Modularity Hypothesis, arguing that the mind is not just partially, but completely modular, [5]  composed of domain-specific modules genetically shaped by selection pressures to carry out innate and complex functions. [6] [7]  Core knowledge theorists such as Elizabeth Spelke hold that knowledge can be separated into a few, highly specialised, domain-specific bodies. [8]

Domain-specific learning mechanisms

Language

The Poverty of the Stimulus (PoS) argument proposed by Noam Chomsky takes a nativist view towards language acquisition suggesting that innate, domain-specific knowledge structures help us to navigate tough linguistic environments. This flows contrary to empiricist views that learning and knowledge derive from our sensory experiences. [9]  The PoS argument maintains that there is a mismatch between the linguistic knowledge that we acquire, and how much information is available to us in the environment. [9] [10]

Chomsky believed that children cannot be empiricist learners of language, because many linguistic principles are neither simple nor natural to acquire. Therefore, a sufficient linguistic environment would be required to facilitate a full understanding of language. However, the data needed to grasp these linguistic principles is not always available due to different environmental conditions. Despite this, all normal children are still able to formulate an accurate representation of grammar which led Chomsky to theorise that children must have an innate, domain-specific capacity for language. [9]

Further support for nativism

1. Biological time-clock

Evidence shows that children go through similar stages of language development at similar times, leading to many linguists advocating for an innate and pre-determined linguistic schedule. [11]

Table 1 - The rough milestones of language development
Language stageBeginning age
CryingBirth
Cooing6 weeks
Babbling6 months
Intonation patterns8 months
1-word utterances1 year
2-word utterances18 months
Word inflections2 years
Questions, negatives21⁄4 years
Rare or complex constructions5 years
Mature speech10 years

2. Predictability of error

Children explore a diverse range of grammars in their environment as they develop. Under empiric learning, this would likely cause them to make all kinds of unpredictable linguistic errors. [9]  However, children make errors that exhibit regularity. When expressing verbs in past tense form, they often overgeneralise irregular forms such as came and saw into comed and seed to match "regular" forms such as loved and worked. [11] The way children deal with environmental irregularity has therefore led to the proposition of a domain-specific language hypothesis space.

3. Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

A dissociation between intelligence and linguistic functioning has been shown in people with SLI. [12]  Evidence has also indicated that people with Grammatical-SLI experience grammar-only deficits. [13]  The case of SLI may therefore indicate an independent linguistic system.

Criticisms

Many critics have argued against the convincingness of the PoS argument, stating that Chomsky's theory is vague, incoherent and untestable. [9]  Therefore, debate still remains about the extent to which language learning is an innate, domain-specific process.

Socialisation

Socialisation is integral to a child's ability to acquire the necessary skills to function in a social environment. It has commonly been viewed as a product of domain-general learning, with the same organisational principles applying to child development, regardless of setting, task or developmental stage. Objections have therefore been raised on its unitary approach and lack of consideration for variation across contexts. [14]

Instead, researchers have proposed a socialisation process involving five domains, stating that different parent-child relationships serve different functions, rely on different ways to bring about behavioural change, and have different outcomes. [15]

1. Protection

Primarily responsible for giving the child a sense of security through adopting a comforting parenting style. This results in children being able to better manage stress knowing that support will be available to them.

2. Reciprocity

Mutual compliance forms this relationship where parent and child fulfil each other's desires and treat each other as equals. The reciprocity domain nurtures a child's tendency to reciprocate, which can predict pro-social behaviour.

3. Control

The control domain involves parents who modify their child's behaviour through exerting the necessary amount of authority to achieve the socialisation agent's goals. Consequently, outcomes involving a child's ability to suppress conflicting desires to make the correct moral and principled judgements are typical.

4. Guided learning

Aims to effectively guide children's learning through strategies and feedback to help acquire the target knowledge and skills.

5. Group participation

Parents attempt to encourage shared identity for the child through promoting routines and rituals that reflect group norms. Successful outcomes involve children conforming to and adopting group values that build on their notions of social identity.

Further research

Although these five domains have demonstrated initial evidence for input and output differences in socialisation, additional research is required as the taxonomy of domains remains disputed. [14] [15]

Opposition to domain-specific learning

Although some arguments have supported domain-specific learning, there still remains debate about how we truly learn and develop. [16]

Support for domain-general learning include theories from Jean Piaget and Charles Spearman. Piaget argued that developments in domain-general cognitive architecture drives learning and conceptual change in his theory of cognitive development. [17]  Similarly, Spearman proposed an underlying, domain-general g-factor (general intelligence) to explain one's performance on all types of mental tests. [18]

However, research has also introduced the possibility of a combination of domain-specific and domain-general learning mechanisms. In the mathematical field, it has been hypothesised that both mechanisms are at work and target arithmetic skills differently. [19]  It has further been suggested that the magnitude of each mechanism in determining mathematical achievement varies across grades. [20] Therefore, research is needed to better understand our learning across a wide range of fields.

See also

Related Research Articles

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal grammar</span> Theory of the biological component of the language faculty

Universal grammar (UG), in modern linguistics, is the theory of the innate biological component of the language faculty, usually credited to Noam Chomsky. The basic postulate of UG is that there are innate constraints on what the grammar of a possible human language could be. When linguistic stimuli are received in the course of language acquisition, children then adopt specific syntactic rules that conform to UG. The advocates of this theory emphasize and partially rely on the poverty of the stimulus (POS) argument and the existence of some universal properties of natural human languages. However, the latter has not been firmly established, as some linguists have argued languages are so diverse that such universality is rare, and the theory of universal grammar remains controversial among linguists.

Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are considered as psychologically real, and research in cognitive linguistics aims to help understand cognition in general and is seen as a road into the human mind.

Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind and brain; that is, the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend, and produce language.

Elizabeth Ann Bates was a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego. She was an internationally renowned expert and leading researcher in child language acquisition, psycholinguistics, aphasia, and the neurological bases of language, and she authored 10 books and over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these subjects. Bates was well known for her assertion that linguistic knowledge is distributed throughout the brain and is subserved by general cognitive and neurological processes.

Modularity of mind is the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of innate neural structures or mental modules which have distinct, established, and evolutionarily developed functions. However, different definitions of "module" have been proposed by different authors. According to Jerry Fodor, the author of Modularity of Mind, a system can be considered 'modular' if its functions are made of multiple dimensions or units to some degree. One example of modularity in the mind is binding. When one perceives an object, they take in not only the features of an object, but the integrated features that can operate in sync or independently that create a whole. Instead of just seeing red, round, plastic, and moving, the subject may experience a rolling red ball. Binding may suggest that the mind is modular because it takes multiple cognitive processes to perceive one thing.

Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning — otherwise referred to as L2acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. The field of second-language acquisition is regarded by some but not everybody as a sub-discipline of applied linguistics but also receives research attention from a variety of other disciplines, such as psychology and education.

Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged. Cognitive development is defined as the emergence of the ability to consciously cognize, understand, and articulate their understanding in adult terms. Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors. There are four stages to cognitive information development. They are, reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. These stages start when the baby is about 18 months old, they play with toys, listen to their parents speak, they watch tv, anything that catches their attention helps build their cognitive development.

Developmental robotics (DevRob), sometimes called epigenetic robotics, is a scientific field which aims at studying the developmental mechanisms, architectures and constraints that allow lifelong and open-ended learning of new skills and new knowledge in embodied machines. As in human children, learning is expected to be cumulative and of progressively increasing complexity, and to result from self-exploration of the world in combination with social interaction. The typical methodological approach consists in starting from theories of human and animal development elaborated in fields such as developmental psychology, neuroscience, developmental and evolutionary biology, and linguistics, then to formalize and implement them in robots, sometimes exploring extensions or variants of them. The experimentation of those models in robots allows researchers to confront them with reality, and as a consequence, developmental robotics also provides feedback and novel hypotheses on theories of human and animal development.

Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development, physical abnormality of the speech apparatus, autism spectrum disorder, apraxia, acquired brain damage or hearing loss. Twin studies have shown that it is under genetic influence. Although language impairment can result from a single-gene mutation, this is unusual. More commonly SLI results from the combined influence of multiple genetic variants, each of which is found in the general population, as well as environmental influences.

The language module or language faculty is a hypothetical structure in the human brain which is thought to contain innate capacities for language, originally posited by Noam Chomsky. There is ongoing research into brain modularity in the fields of cognitive science and neuroscience, although the current idea is much weaker than what was proposed by Chomsky and Jerry Fodor in the 1980s. In today's terminology, 'modularity' refers to specialisation: language processing is specialised in the brain to the extent that it occurs partially in different areas than other types of information processing such as visual input. The current view is, then, that language is neither compartmentalised nor based on general principles of processing. It is modular to the extent that it constitutes a specific cognitive skill or area in cognition.

Poverty of the stimulus (POS) is the controversial argument from linguistics that children are not exposed to rich enough data within their linguistic environments to acquire every feature of their language. This is considered evidence contrary to the empiricist idea that language is learned solely through experience. The claim is that the sentences children hear while learning a language do not contain the information needed to develop a thorough understanding of the grammar of the language.

In the field of psychology, nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities are "native" or hard-wired into the brain at birth. This is in contrast to the "blank slate" or tabula rasa view, which states that the brain has inborn capabilities for learning from the environment but does not contain content such as innate beliefs. This factor contributes to the ongoing nature versus nurture dispute, one borne from the current difficulty of reverse engineering the subconscious operations of the brain, especially the human brain.

Neuroconstructivism is a theory that states that phylogenetic developmental processes such as gene–gene interaction, gene–environment interaction and, crucially, ontogeny all play a vital role in how the brain progressively sculpts itself and how it gradually becomes specialized over developmental time.

The generative approach to second language (L2) acquisition (SLA) is a cognitive based theory of SLA that applies theoretical insights developed from within generative linguistics to investigate how second languages and dialects are acquired and lost by individuals learning naturalistically or with formal instruction in foreign, second language and lingua franca settings. Central to generative linguistics is the concept of Universal Grammar (UG), a part of an innate, biologically endowed language faculty which refers to knowledge alleged to be common to all human languages. UG includes both invariant principles as well as parameters that allow for variation which place limitations on the form and operations of grammar. Subsequently, research within the Generative Second-Language Acquisition (GenSLA) tradition describes and explains SLA by probing the interplay between Universal Grammar, knowledge of one's native language and input from the target language. Research is conducted in syntax, phonology, morphology, phonetics, semantics, and has some relevant applications to pragmatics.

Domain specificity is a theoretical position in cognitive science that argues that many aspects of cognition are supported by specialized, presumably evolutionarily specified, learning devices. The position is a close relative of modularity of mind, but is considered more general in that it does not necessarily entail all the assumptions of Fodorian modularity. Instead, it is properly described as a variant of psychological nativism. Other cognitive scientists also hold the mind to be modular, without the modules necessarily possessing the characteristics of Fodorian modularity.

The critical period hypothesis or sensitive period hypothesis claims that there is an ideal time window of brain development to acquire language in a linguistically rich environment, after which further language acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful. It is the subject of a long-standing debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to age. The critical period hypothesis was first proposed by Montreal neurologist Wilder Penfield and co-author Lamar Roberts in their 1959 book Speech and Brain Mechanisms, and was popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967 with Biological Foundations of Language.

In linguistics, the innateness hypothesis, also known as the nativist hypothesis, holds that humans are born with at least some knowledge of linguistic structure. On this hypothesis, language acquisition involves filling in the details of an innate blueprint rather than being an entirely inductive process. The hypothesis is one of the cornerstones of generative grammar and related approaches in linguistics. Arguments in favour include the poverty of the stimulus, the universality of language acquisition, as well as experimental studies on learning and learnability. However, these arguments have been criticized, and the hypothesis is widely rejected in other traditions such as usage-based linguistics. The term was coined by Hilary Putnam in reference to the views of Noam Chomsky.

Domain-general learning theories of development suggest that humans are born with mechanisms in the brain that exist to support and guide learning on a broad level, regardless of the type of information being learned. Domain-general learning theories also recognize that although learning different types of new information may be processed in the same way and in the same areas of the brain, different domains also function interdependently. Because these generalized domains work together, skills developed from one learned activity may translate into benefits with skills not yet learned. Another facet of domain-general learning theories is that knowledge within domains is cumulative, and builds under these domains over time to contribute to our greater knowledge structure. Psychologists whose theories align with domain-general framework include developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized that people develop a global knowledge structure which contains cohesive, whole knowledge internalized from experience, and psychologist Charles Spearman, whose work led to a theory on the existence of a single factor accounting for all general cognitive ability.

Statistical language acquisition, a branch of developmental psycholinguistics, studies the process by which humans develop the ability to perceive, produce, comprehend, and communicate with natural language in all of its aspects through the use of general learning mechanisms operating on statistical patterns in the linguistic input. Statistical learning acquisition claims that infants' language-learning is based on pattern perception rather than an innate biological grammar. Several statistical elements such as frequency of words, frequent frames, phonotactic patterns and other regularities provide information on language structure and meaning for facilitation of language acquisition.

References

  1. ↑ Siegler, R. (2006). How Children Develop: Exploring Child Develop Student Media Tool Kit & Scientific American Reader to Accompany How Children Develop. New York: Worth Publishers. ISBN   0-7167-6113-0.
  2. ↑ Bjorklund, D.F. & Causey, K.B. (2017). Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences. Sage Publications. pp. 154-155 ISBN   9781506334349
  3. ↑ Fodor, J.A. (1983). The Modularity of Mind. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp.119-128 ISBN   9780262260701
  4. ↑ Robbins, P. (2017). "Modularity of Mind". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2019-03-18. ISSN   1095-5054
  5. ↑ Samuels, R. (1998). Evolutionary Psychology and the Massive Modularity Hypothesis. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 49(4), 575-602. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/49.4.575 ISSN   0007-0882
  6. ↑ Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (2013). Evolutionary Psychology: New Perspectives on Cognition and Motivation. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 201-229. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131628 ISSN   1545-2085
  7. ↑ Cosmides, L., Barrett, H.C. & Tooby, J. (2010). Adaptive specializations, social exchange, and the evolution of human intelligence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 107(Supplement 2), 9007-9014. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914623107 ISSN   1091-6490
  8. ↑ Spelke, E.S., & Kinzler, K.D. (2007). Core knowledge. Developmental Science, 10(1), 89-96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00569.x ISSN   1467-7687
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Laurence, S. & Margolis, E. (2001). The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 52(2), 217-276. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjps/52.2.217 ISSN   0007-0882
  10. ↑ Berwick, R.C., Pietroski, P., Yankama, B. Chomsky, N. (2011). Poverty of the Stimulus Revisited. Cognitive Science, 35(7), 1207-1242. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01189.x ISSN   1551-6709
  11. 1 2 Aitchison, J. (1989). The articulate mammal: An introduction to psycholinguistics (3rd ed.). Routledge. pp. 66-90 ISBN   0-415-16791-4
  12. ↑ Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. Penguin Books. pp. 25-54. ISBN   0-14-017529-6
  13. ↑ Van der Lely, H.K.J. (2005). Domain-specific cognitive systems: Insight from Grammatical-SLI. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(2), 53-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.12.002 ISSN   1364-6613
  14. 1 2 Bugental, D.B. (2000). Acquisition of the Algorithms of Social Life. Psychological Bulletin, 126(2), 187-219. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.2.187 ISSN   0033-2909
  15. 1 2 Grusec, J.E. & Davidov, M. (2010). Integrating Different Perspectives on Socialization Theory and Research: A Domain-Specific Approach. Child Development, 81(3), 687-709. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01426.x ISSN   1467-8624
  16. ↑ Sloutsky, V. M. (2010). Mechanisms of Cognitive Development: Domain‐General Learning or Domain‐Specific Constraints? Cognitive Science, 34(7), 1125-1130. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01132.x ISSN   1551-6709
  17. ↑ Carey, S., Zaitchik, D., & Bascandziev, I. (2015). Theories of development: In dialog with Jean Piaget. Developmental Review, 38, 36-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.003 ISSN   1090-2406
  18. ↑ Gray, P.O. & Bjorklund, D. (2018). Psychology. New York: Macmillan Learning. pp.382-386 ISBN   978-1-319-15051-8
  19. ↑ Cowan, R. & Powell, D. (2014). The Contributions of Domain-General and Numerical Factors to Third-Grade Arithmetic Skills and Mathematical Learning Disability. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(1), 214-229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0034097 ISSN   0022-0663
  20. ↑ Geary, D.C., Nicholas, A., Li, Y. & Sun, J. (2017). Developmental Change in the Influence of Domain-General Abilities and Domain-Specific Knowledge on Mathematics Achievement: An Eight-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(5), 680-693. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037%2Fedu0000159 ISSN   0022-0663
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