Učení, rozvoj a konceptuální změna Série

Before Steven Pinker became known for his bestsellers on language and human nature, he authored several influential technical monographs on language acquisition. His 1989 work, which integrates two significant topics—how children learn their mother tongue and how the mind categorizes fundamental concepts like space, time, causality, agency, and goals—has become a classic in cognitive science. Children exhibit remarkable subtlety in language use; for instance, phrases like "pour water into the glass" sound natural, while "pour the glass with water" does not. This raises the question of how children make these distinctions without consistent correction or merely mimicking their parents. Pinker addresses this paradox through a theory on how children grasp the meanings and applications of verbs, delving into its implications for language, thought, and their interrelation. In a new preface, he reflects on how the ideas explored in this work inspired his later bestseller, which examines language as a lens into human nature. He emphasizes that these technical discussions offer valuable insights into not only language acquisition but also literary metaphor, scientific understanding, political discourse, and societal views on sexuality and obscenity.

Argues for an interactionist approach to spatial development that incorporates and integrates essential insights of the Piaget, Nativist, and Vygotskyan approaches.

In Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development, Frank Keil develops a coherent account of how concepts and word meanings develop in children, adding to our understanding of the representational nature of concepts and word meanings at all ages.

Jak děti zjistí, že slovo „pes“ označuje psa a ne třeba kočku, auto anebo člověka? Jak poznají, co znamenají slovesa „myslet“ nebo „věřit“, přídavná jména „dobrý“ či „bílý“, anebo třeba slova označující abstraktní jevy, jako jsou „hypotéka“ nebo „příběh“? Děti si slova osvojují poměrně rychle, obvykle bez toho, aby je to někdo explicitně učil. Porozumění významům slov je jedním ze základních problémů současného zkoumání lidského myšlení. Paul Bloom zastává přístup, že učení se významům slov je výsledkem interakce rozličných kognitivních a jazykových schopností, mezi něž patří schopnost porozumět záměrům druhých lidí, schopnost osvojit si abstraktní pojmy, schopnost porozumět syntaktické struktuře a určité obecnější schopnosti týkající se paměti a učení. Ačkoli ostatní vědci dosud spojovali učení se slovům s některou z těchto dovedností, Bloom je první, kdo ukazuje, že k úplnému porozumění slovům je potřeba všech těchto lidských schopností. Na to, aby si děti – ale i dospělí – osvojili i ta nejjednodušší slova, potřebují bohaté pojmové, sociální a jazykové dovednosti, které se vzájemně doplňují.

The book presents and defends the "theory theory" of cognitive and semantic development, suggesting that infants and young children learn about their environment by forming and adjusting theories, akin to scientific inquiry. This perspective offers significant insights into the origins of knowledge and meaning, influencing the field of cognitive science and reshaping our understanding of child development.

Beginning to Read reconciles the debate that has divided theorists for decades over what is the right way to help children learn to read.

The book explores the integration of two theories of mind: one viewing it as a computer-like symbol manipulator and the other as a network of neurons. Gary Marcus challenges the prevailing notion that these concepts are mutually exclusive, proposing that neural systems can be structured to effectively manipulate symbols. He argues that such systems are better suited for language and cognition. The work concludes with insights on the evolutionary development of symbol manipulation in neural systems, shaping the future direction of cognitive neuroscience.

Alvin Liberman and his colleagues at the Haskins Laboratory in New Haven created the techniques, the methods, and the insights appropriate to the study of speech perception. This volume brings together a carefully edited collecton of twenty-three of their most important research articles, along with an introduction by Liberman that charts the progress of the research—the errors as well as the hits—over the past five decades.Liberman has been the main analytic and synthesizing scientist in the development of a field that must hold a fascination for those interested, most generally, in the place of speech in the biological scheme of things. The more specific implications cover a broad range: at the one extreme, the problems associated with the machine production and recognition of speech; at the other, our understanding of how children learn to read its alphabetic transcriptions, and why some can't.Major Sections: On the Spectrogram as a Visible Display of Speech. Finding the Cues. Categorical Perception. An Early Attempt to Put It All Together. A Mid-Course Correction. The Revised Motor Theory. Some Properties of the Phonetic Module. More about the Function and Properties of the Phonetic Module. Auditory vs. Phonetic Modes. Reading/Writing Are Hard Just Because Speaking/Listening Are Easy. Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change series