Learning Theory of Language Development » Goldstein et al. Social Feedback Study

Where this study fits

The last two lessons showed that the learning theory says children learn language from their environment, by copying others and by being reinforced. A theory needs evidence. The named study for this argument is Goldstein, King and West (2003). Its topic is speech and social feedback.

It looks at the babbling stage, when babies make speech-like sounds such as "ba-ba" and "da-da". Babbling comes before first words.

Key terms:

• Social feedback: the way other people respond to what we do, for example by smiling, touching or moving closer.
• Timed (contingent) response: a response that comes straight after the behaviour it is responding to.
• Mature babbling: speech-like babbling made of syllables such as "ba" or "da", which is closer to real speech.

Aim

The researchers wanted to find out whether the way a mother responds to her baby affects how the baby babbles. In particular, they tested whether social feedback that is timed to the baby's babbling changes the baby's sounds. If it does, then babies are shaped by the people around them, as the learning theory says.

Procedure

The participants were mothers and their babies, and the babies were 8 months old. Each mother and baby played together while the baby's sounds were recorded.

The only difference between the groups was the timing of the mother's response. This is the key idea. Both groups of babies got the same kinds of attention. Only one group got attention that was connected to their babbling.

How the data was collected: the babies' sounds were recorded and then sorted by the researchers. They looked at how many were mature, speech-like sounds (syllables such as "ba" or "da") and how many were less mature sounds.

Results

The babies whose mothers responded straight after their babbling made more mature, speech-like babbling. The babies whose mothers gave the same responses at the wrong moments did not. A simple table shows the main finding:

Group	Mother's response	Babbling
Group 1	Timed to the babbling	More mature, speech-like
Group 2	Not timed to the babbling	Less mature

On a bar chart, the bar for mature, speech-like sounds would be taller for Group 1 than for Group 2. In an exam, you may be asked to read results like these and say what they mean.

Conclusion

Babies change their babbling when social feedback is timed to it. Timed feedback from a mother helps a baby move towards more mature, speech-like sounds. Feedback that is not linked to the babbling does not have the same effect.

How it is used as the argument for the theory

The learning theory says language is learned from the environment. This study supports it because:

• The babies' babbling changed because of what their mothers did. The environment affected the speech.
• A smile or touch straight after a sound made speech-like sounds more likely. This fits the idea of reinforcement.
• Both groups got the same kinds of response, so it was the timing that made the difference. This shows that language develops through interaction with other people.

So the study is used as support for the learning theory: speech is shaped by social feedback from other people.

Exam-style question

Goldstein, King and West (2003) studied mothers and their 8-month-old babies.

(a) State the aim of the study. [1 mark]

(b) Describe how the mothers in one group behaved towards their babies. [2 marks]

(c) Explain how the results of this study support the learning theory of language development. [3 marks]