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Language as a consequence and an enabler of the exercise of higher-order relational capabilities: Evidence from toddlers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

Marilyn Shatz
Marilyn Shatz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043. mshatz@umich.edu
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Abstract

Data on toddler language acquisition and use support the idea of a cognitive “supermodule” that can resolve contradictory claims about human-animal similarities. Examples of imagination, aesthetic evaluation, theory of mind (ToM), and language learning reveal higher-order, relational, abstract capabilities early on. Although language itself may be a consequence of exercising this supermodule, it enables further cognitive operations on indirect experience to go far beyond animal accomplishments.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 145 - 146
Copyright
Copyright ©Cambridge University Press 2008

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