In lecture, Dr. Schreier (October 20, 2016, Language and Cognition) presented the case study of Genie. The case study stated that there appears to be some sensitive or critical period for language development. According to the film, Genie supports this hypothesis by showing her language skills throughout the film (Garmon, 1994). Many researchers tried to teach Genie language but could not get her to use correct grammar. While Susan Curtiss, a researcher, was working with Genie she stated,” ‘What red blue is in?’ Does that make sense? Is that a silly question?” Genie understood vocabulary and concepts, but could not put sentences together. Another researcher, Stacy Keach, stated that, “Genie didn 't seem to be able to put words together in a normal, grammatical way. This seemed to support the idea of a critical period for acquiring language (Garmon,1944).” Unfortunately, Genie never did learn how speak English in a normal grammatical way. However, the vocabulary Genie learned showed steps toward language development. She learned many words and was able to convey what she wanted to say by having the correct content in her sentences, this stage of language development is telegraphic speech (October 20, 2016, Language and Cognition). In the film, Susan Curtiss states that, “In Genie 's case, the vocabulary was what she was good at. Conveying messages is what she was good at. But if you look at a sentence that she would utter, it wouldn 't be grammatical, so she might say things like, "Spot chew glove," "Applesauce buy store," where the message was clear. You know, the dog named Spot chewed the glove, or we need applesauce, we need to buy applesauce at the store (Garmon,1994).” Genie could make sentences, that we would expect how babies would talk, eventually being able to use correct English grammar and be clear in what they want to say. This is a clear example of how Genie did not know how to use syntax. Syntax is the structure of a language, underlying rules of order/function for how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences (October 20, 2016, Language and Cognition). Genie’s inability to form sentences illustrated that she could not past the telegraphic speech level, which does not follow syntax. Although Genie did not have a strong finish in learning the English language, she did learn how to fast map. Fast mapping is when children may add words to their vocabularies after one exposure (October 20, 2016, Language and Cognition). In the Children’s hospital Genie talks for one of the first time, repeating words that she hears from Jean Butler, “You do it, and we can tell Dr. Kent what you can do. Genie: Doctor. Dr. Kent,
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Based on operant conditioning, I would enhance Genie’s language skills, by using reinenforcements for the consequences. When Genie learns a word I would have gave her words of encouragement. I would have given her words of affirmation and would have encouraged her to move at her own pace. When she achieved exceeding well in one area of the language I would build confidence up in that area and then move on to a new area, like learning new words to practicing writing and reading books. Genie would receive positivity at all times, which would be my response. Genie would be encouraged and would try her best on each activity, which is her behavior. The contingency of this experiment would be for Genie to effectively convey herself in the English language with …show more content…
One of the guidelines is that the subject’s participation should be voluntary and based on informed consent. It also states that she should be able to withdrawal from the research whenever she wanted, no one ever told Genie this. However, Genie did not give her consent in this case, because she did not know how to speak. The researchers never asked Genie if she wanted to stop being visiting by some many researchers. She was experimented on against her will, someone should have asked Genie to express her feelings about how she felt about the research. Even further into the experiment where Genie could convey some messages with grammatical errors, no one asked Genie how she felt. I believe the researchers only saw Genie as an experiment and when they were done with the experiment they abandoned
Based on operant conditioning, I would enhance Genie’s language skills, by using reinenforcements for the consequences. When Genie learns a word I would have gave her words of encouragement. I would have given her words of affirmation and would have encouraged her to move at her own pace. When she achieved exceeding well in one area of the language I would build confidence up in that area and then move on to a new area, like learning new words to practicing writing and reading books. Genie would receive positivity at all times, which would be my response. Genie would be encouraged and would try her best on each activity, which is her behavior. The contingency of this experiment would be for Genie to effectively convey herself in the English language with …show more content…
One of the guidelines is that the subject’s participation should be voluntary and based on informed consent. It also states that she should be able to withdrawal from the research whenever she wanted, no one ever told Genie this. However, Genie did not give her consent in this case, because she did not know how to speak. The researchers never asked Genie if she wanted to stop being visiting by some many researchers. She was experimented on against her will, someone should have asked Genie to express her feelings about how she felt about the research. Even further into the experiment where Genie could convey some messages with grammatical errors, no one asked Genie how she felt. I believe the researchers only saw Genie as an experiment and when they were done with the experiment they abandoned