Cognition is the act or process of gaining knowledge. During the sensorimotor stage there are slight differences between cultures. If a child starts to babble and it resembles the language that they are being raised in, then the babbling sounds will be celebrated by the parents. If the babbling doesn't resemble the language then it is thought to be babbling by the parents and not encouraged. Soon the child will get bored and won't babble.
2. Discuss the relationship between culture, cognition and language. Describe the Sapir-Whorf ("linguistic relativity") hypothesis. What are its explanatory strengths and weaknesses.
Linguistic relativity hypothesis supports the idea that our language shapes the why we think. This can be seen by the way English and Navajo translate the sentence "I was riding a horse". In English, the horse is the object. In Navajo that sentence would be "The horse and I would be moving about". The horse isn't the object; it is the subject along with "I". The linguistic relativity hypothesis would state that the two cultures perceive relationships with animals differently. The researchers now believe that language we speak doesn't shape the way we think, but how we speak reflects the way we think.
3. Identify examples of Vygotsky's contextualist approach during language acquisition and the importance of scaffolding in parent-infant interaction.
Vygotsky believed a theory he called "Talking to Learn". This theory states that children talk to internalize language and organize their thoughts. Research shows that when parents interact with their children, they teach their children their language and help to socialize them into their culture. In scaffolding, the parent can help the child become encultured.
4. Identify examples of dialectical thought and adaptive logic in early adulthood and discuss how each might be conceptualized and measured in different ecocultural systems.
Adaptive logic involves "balancing critical analyses of objective observations with one's subjective reactions to these observations". Dialectical thought "suggests that for every viewpoint there is an opposing viewpoint and these two can be considered simultaneously".
5. Distinguish between fluid and crystallized intelligence and comment on cultural variations in the way wisdom and experience are viewed in terms of different societies' unique developmental niches.
Fluid intelligence is "the ability to form concepts, reason abstractly, and apply material to new situations". Crystallized intelligence "refers to an individual's accumulated knowledge and experience in a particular culture". Fluid intelligence is not influenced by culture. It is the biological knowledge. Fluid intelligence may decrease with age and crystallized intelligence increases with age. There are variations to this depending on the culture and how they view the speed of cognitive response. In some societies, older people are thought to be wise and a characteristic of wisdom is patience and contemplation.