20. Take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on this scientific problem solving exercise.

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Psychologists believe that children learn to control their bladders during sleep through classical conditioning, a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate different events. Normally, a wet bed or diaper causes a child to awaken. Through repeated pairings, bladder tension becomes associated with the sensation of wetness and children wake up when they sense that the bladder is full. Imagine that you are baby-sitting a 6-year-old bed wetter who has not yet learned the connection between bladder tension and wetness. In desperation, the child's parents consult a behavioral psychologist who has developed a classical conditioning technique for controlling bed-wetting that utilizes a special sheet containing fine electric wires. When a sleeping child wets the bed, the urine (which conducts electricity) immediately completes an electrical circuit and causes a loud bell to ring, awakening the child. Over time, bladder tension becomes associated with the bell and the child is conditioned to wake up before actually wetting the bed. Although the parents have read a pamphlet that explains the basic principles underlying the conditioning technique, they seek your help in understanding exactly why it works.

1. Can you identify the component parts of classical conditioning for children who learn to wake up before they wet the bed without special training?

Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned response Conditioned stimulus Conditioned response

2. Can you identify the components of classical conditioning for children who are conditioned to wake up with the special sheet and bell?

Unconditioned stimulus

Unconditioned response

Conditioned stimulus

Conditioned response

3. Does the classical conditioning explanation of how children learn on their own to wake up before wetting the bed make sense? Can you explain this learning using principles of operant conditioning ?

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Attempts to explain language development have sparked a spirited intellectual controversy. At the heart of this controversy is the nature-nurture debate. Behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that we can explain how babies acquire language entirely with principles of learn ing, such as the association of objects with the sounds of words, the imitation of language modeled by others, and the reinforcement of correct use of words and syntax by parents and teachers. Linguist Noam Chomsky, who favors the nurture position, believes that much of our language capacity is inborn. According to this perspective, just as "learning" to walk is programmed according to a timetable of biological maturation, so children are prewired to begin to babble and talk.

In this exercise, review each of the following examples of language use by children and decide whether it best supports the position of B. F Skinner or Noam Chomsky. Then explain your reasoning.

1. While Marie and her mother are looking at a book together, Marie's mother shows her a picture of an animal and says "cow" Marie says "cow," and her mother praises her for her correct utterance. Two pages later, Marie spontaneously points to a picture and correctly identifies it as a cow.

Position supported:

Explanation:

2. When his day-care teacher asks 1-year-old Jack what he did last Saturday, he responds with "We goed to the zoo." His teacher smiles, marveling at the fact that all children Jack's age make this type of grammatical error.

Position supported:

Explanation:

3. Nicole, who is deaf and was not exposed to sign language until age 3, lacks the manual language skills of deaf children born to deaf-signing parents.

Position supported:

Explanation:

4. Twelve-year-old Malcolm, who emigrated to the United States when he was 4, understands English grammar much better than 20-year-old Maya, who was first exposed to English when she was 12.

Position supported:

Explanation: