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Answer each question based only on what was presented in the video lesson on section 7.2. No outside knowledge is required.
Answer each question using what you learned in the video lesson. Questions progress from recall and understanding to application and analysis — challenge yourself to explain your reasoning in your own words.
This lesson dives into the hidden architecture of human language — how phonemes, morphemes, syntax, and grammar work together to give us an almost infinite capacity for communication. From the Skinner vs. Chomsky debate over how children acquire language to the fascinating case of Genie, Section 7.2 of Psychology 2e unpacks why your brain physically rewires itself around the language you learn earliest. The lesson closes with a mind-bending look at linguistic relativity: does the language you speak subtly reshape how you think about time, color, and reality? In this video: • Language vs. communication: why a dog's hungry stare doesn't qualify as language, and what a 'generative rule system' actually means • The structural hierarchy of language — phonemes, morphemes, semantics, and syntax — explained with a Lego building analogy • Skinner's reinforcement model vs. Chomsky's biologically innate Language Acquisition Device, and why Chomsky's critique was so influential • The critical period hypothesis and the tragic case of Genie, whose brain pruned away syntax pathways after years of language deprivation • How infants start as 'universal listeners' capable of hearing all human phonemes, then specialize to their native tongue by age one — and why babies in sign-language households babble with their hands • Overgeneralization ('gooses,' 'mouses') as evidence that toddlers independently derive grammar rules rather than simply mimicking adults • Linguistic relativity: the Portuguese word saudade, the Dani people's two-word color system, and Boroditsky's research on how English vs. Mandarin speakers process time differently #OpenStax #Psychology #Linguistics #CognitivePsychology #LanguageAcquisition OpenStax Content adapted from "OpenStax Psychology 2e", by OpenStax licensed under CC BY 4.0. Content based on Web Version: Apr 23, 2026. Read the textbook online https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e Music first girl talking to me. by ikkun (ex. Barradeen) | https://soundcloud.com/ikkunwastaken Royalty Free Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
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