9: Language and Thinking

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

Language: a system of symbols (and rules for combining them) which can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings

Question 2

What is Psycholinguistics?

Answer 2

Psycholinguistics: The scientific study of the psychological aspects of language.

• includes how people understand, produce, use and learn language

Question 3

Why is it important to learn about language in a psychology class?

Answer 3

• Much of human cognition involve language
  
  • e.g. thinking, reasoning, problem solving
  • cognition/consciousness may depend on it
    
    • inner voice (self-talking)
• Humans are social creatures
  
  • language allows us to share thoughts, feelings, goals, intentions, etc.
• Language is universal
  
  • all cultures, no matter how remote, have language

Question 4

What is the adaptive function of language in human evolution?

Answer 4

• ​Humans formed larger & larger social groups throughout evolutionary history
  
  • bigger groups helped us survive & reproduce
  • also posed problems:
    
    • different sets of knowledge, customs
    • division of labor, cooperation
    • teaching
• ​Language was an adaptation to these new demands!

Question 5

Define and briefly describe the 5 properties of any language.

Answer 5

1. Symbolic

• Arbitrary symbols represent specific objects, actions
  
  • i.e. words/sounds/signs don’t usually look or sound like the represented object
  • e.g. “Dog”

2. Structured

• Rules for meanings, sound/word/phrase combinations
  
  • ball boy girl green the the the to kicked

3. Conveys Meaning

• ​once people know symbols & rules, able to communicate ideas, thoughts

4. Generative

• symbols of language can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages

5. Permits Displacement

• can refer to objects or events that are not physically present

Question 6

What is the difference between phonemes and morphemes?

Answer 6

Language is hierarchical;

• sounds/letters→words→phrases→sentences→conversation/paragraphs/etc.

Phonemes:

• most basic unit of speech sounds
• specific sets of phonemes in each language
  
  • English: ~45
  • Hawaiian: ~11
• changing phoneme changes meaning of the word

Morphemes:

• smallest units of meaning in a language
  
  • some are words, some are suffixes/prefixes
  • eg. kitchen, bedroom, pig

Question 7

What do the terms syntax, semantics, and pragmatics refer to?

Answer 7

Semantics:

• meaning of words and sentences

Syntax:

• grammatical rules that govern how we organize words into sentences
  
  • related to the fact that language is structured
  • Grammar encompasses both syntax and morphology (study of how we create words by combining morphemes)

Pragmatics:

• knowledge of the practical application of language
  
  • social rules (+context) that can affect understanding and word choice
  • eg. *Do you have the time? * Yes.
    
    • based on context, can infer what the question implies
    • formal vs. informal situations

Question 8

What is the difference between surface and deep structure?

Can a phrase have the same surface and different deep structure (or vice versa)?

Answer 8

Surface structure:

• words that are actually spoken (or written/signed)

Deep structure:

• underlying meaning of the sentence

Question 9

Briefly describe the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing in language comprehension. Examples?

Answer 9

Bottom-Up Processing:

• combine very simple elements into more complex things
  
  • Spoken language:
    ​phonemes→morphemes→words→phrases…
  • Written language:
    contours/line angles→letters→words→phrases…
  • Note: “letters→words” jump can happen directly (visually recognizing pattern of letters) or indirectly (when we sound the letters and recognize the sound of the word in our head)

Top-Down Processing:

• context, attention, organization affects processing; knowledge of what’s likely…
  
  • interpretation of letters on the context (other letters)
  • similarly, context can influence whole words

Question 10

What information do humans use to segment speech into words? Does speech segmentation support bottom-up or top-down models?

Answer 10

• use of top-down knowledge; context helps us perceive speech in our own language
• perceive speech as a series of separate words…
  
  • usually bigger decreases in energy output within words than there are between them
• phonemes overlap & affect each other; while saying one phoneme, your mouth is already starting to form the next one:
  
  • need to know the previous/next phonemes (context) to figure out which phoneme someone was trying to say

Question 11

Language production/comprehension involve which brain areas?

Answer 11

Broca’s Area:

• ​located in the left frontal lobe
• responsible for language production
  
  • ​involved in grammar, finding the right word
  • necessary for articulating/producing words
• Broca’s Aphasia: impairment in language production due to damage to Broca’s area
  
  • can be temporary/permanent
  • damage does NOT affect comprehension

Wernicke’s Area:

• located in the left temporal lobe
• responsible for language comprehension
  
  • necessary for understanding
• Wernicke’s Aphasia: impairment in language comprehension due to damage to Wernicke’s area
  
  • can be temporary/permanent
  • often characterized by “babbling”; words are pronounced correctly, but the meaning is not clear
  • damage does NOT affect language production

Question 12

Describe how language is lateralized (including the functions of each hemisphere). Describe the sex difference in lateralization.

Answer 12

Both Broca’s & Wernicke’s areas = left hemisphere
∴abilities specific to language are lateralized on left

Problems:

1. Some people are less laterlized

• women & left-handed people are less laterlized
  
  • eg. women with L. hemisphere stroke show less language impairment than men w/ same damage

2. Recent studies shows that the right hemisphere has specific functions in language too!

• left hemisphere:
  
  • _​_heavily involved in speech perception
  • more active when searching for word meanings, reading high-imagery sentences
• right hemisphere:
  
  • _​_involved in linking elements of a story together
  • becomes activated to help resolve ambiguities

Question 13

Briefly outline the evidence that language has a biological foundation and the evidence for a social learning component.

Differentiate between the LAD and LASS.

Answer 13

​Nature and Nurture:

Biological Foundations:

1. Innate ability for children to learn language

• young children are limited in terms of complex thought
• learn language quickly/easily

2. All children develop language

• progress through the same stages of language development - regardless of language

3. Chomsky suggested all languages share a “universal grammar” of noun & verb phrases

• Born w/ Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
  
  • can be “programmed” for any specific language

Social Learning Process:

Social environment builds upon the biological foundation w/ a social suppot system for learning; Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)

1. Child-directed speech (“motherese”)

• high-pitched sing-song used all over the world

2. Direct teaching of vocabulary

• direct attention and say word “cat”

Question 14

Describe how children’s phoneme discrimination supports both aspects of both biological and social environments.

Answer 14

Phoneme discrimination:

• No language uses all of the possible phonemes
• HOWEVER, up to 6 months of age, *all *kids can discriminate ALL THE WORLD’S phonemes - even those that aren’t used in their language!
  ⇒ Biological ability
• Between 6-12 months old, children lose this ability, and learn to focus only on the phonemes of their environment
  ⇒ Social influence​

Question 15

Describe each stage of the developmental timeline for language learning, including the typical ages for each stage.

Answer 15

Children of all cultures go through the same stages when learning their 1st language:

1. Cooing; (1-3 mo.)

• able to distinguish speech from non-speech

2. Babbling; (4-6 mo.)

• able to vocalize in response to others

3. “Lalling” (7-11 mo.)

• begins to use tongue (“lalling”)
• phoneme discrimination narrows only to those phonemes of the others in the environment

4. First word (12 mo.)

• usually familiar person/object

5. Single-word requests (12-18 mo.)

• eg. “milk” or “out”

6. Telegraphic speech (18-24 mo.)

• “want cookie!” or “mommy drive car”
• non-essential words are left out

7. Vocabulary explosion! (2-4 yrs.)

• more complete sentences, w/ only fairly minor grammar violations
• eg. “Ginger is playing with two fishes!”

8. Complete sentences (4-5 yrs.)

• sentences complete w/ correct (basic) grammar

Question 16

Briefly outline the costs & benefits of learning a second language.

Answer 16

Pros:

• score higher in most performance tests than monolinguals = better grades
• higher self-esteem, controlling attention & thought - better at tuning out irrelevant info ∵ must inhibit one language while speaking the other
• tend to have lower incidences of demential & Alzheimer’s disease

Cons:

• tendency to have smaller vocabulary for each language than monolinguals
• adults have more tip-of-the-tongue experiences
• slower, less accurate in naming pictures or making word/non-word judgments

Question 17

Is there a critical (or sensitive) period for learning a second language?

Answer 17

Earlier is better:

• Childhood learning → better performance
  
  • even with equal “years of exposure”
• Not an OFF-switch at a certain age, though
  
  • learning before teens = better performance
  • teens > 20s > 30s > 40s
• Suggested that there may be some kind of sensitive period for learning additional languages, which extends through adolescence

Question 18

Are there differences in the brain areas recruited by a second language?

Answer 18

People who are….

• highly proficient in both languages (esp. if they learned 2nd language early in life)
  ⇒use same brain areas for both languages
• less proficient ⇒ less overlap of brain regions
  
  • common area of difference:
    bottom of the temporal lobe (inferior temporal gyrus)

Question 19

Briefly describe the Linguistic Relativity (Whorfian) Hypothesis. Outline some of the evidence that language influences how we think. Give an example.

Answer 19

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis suggests language determines how we think

Ex. Sexist language example (p. 317)

Language affects…

• Colour Perception:
  
  • different languages have different names for colours and divides the spectrum differently (or have different number of “basic” colours)
• Categorization:
  
  • Winawer et al. (2007):
    
    • 3 coloured squares
  • ​Gilbert et al. (2006):
    
    • “oddball task”

Language also affects how well we think:

• Math skills:
  
  • _​_Asian children score higher in basic math skills like addition/subtraction (by age 5) bc asian language makes it easier to learn base-10 system;
    
    • ten-one, ten-two, ten-three vs. European languages “eleven”, “twelve”

Question 20

Name and define the 3 modes of thought

Answer 20

Propositional

• Essentially the “inner speech” type of thought

Imaginal

• Images that we picture in our mind

Motoric

• Mental representations of motor movements

Question 21

What are concepts and propositions?

Answer 21

Concepts:

• Mental categories
• e.g. “professors” “birds” “books” “teach”

Propositions:

• Express ideas that link different concepts
• e.g. professors ARE boring; owls LIKE reading

Question 22

How is prototype theory different than classical categorization?

Answer 22

Classical Categorization (“Definitional Approach”):

• categorize according to specific rules/definitions
  
  • eg. triangle = 3-sided polygon
• Fuzzy Boundaries
  
  • ​suggests category members have typical or characteristic features, rather than defining ones
• Graded Membership
  
  • ​some items are “better” members in their category

Prototype Approach:

• suggests that we categorize things based on their similarity to a category “prototype”
• Prototype:
  
  • ​mental representation of the typical/average member of the category
  • can account for graded membership;
    
    • items that better resemble the prototype are considered “better” members of the category:
      High vs. Low “prototypicality”
  • typicality effect:
    
    • ​objects that are “more prototypical” are verified as vcategory members more quickly
    • sentence verification technique:
      
      • ​say “yes” if the sentence is true

Question 23

What’s the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning? Give examples.

Answer 23

Deductive Reasoning:

• Taking general principles and reasoning about a specific case
• Typically involves syllogisms
  
  • ​sets of 3 statements: 2 premises stated as facts & logical conclusion
    
    • premise 1: **all birds are animals;
      premise 2: all animals eat food;
      conclusion: therefore, all birds eat food

​Inductive Reasoning:

• Taking specific cases and reasoning about a general principle
  
  • generalize based on a limited # of observations
  • conclusions are less certain; more about what’s likely
    
    • observation: sun has risen every morning of my life
      conclusion: it is likely that the sun will rise tomorrow
  • ​Use inductive reasoning when past observations are used to predict future

Question 24

Describe how the belief bias, framing, and irrelevant information can affect reasoning using examples.

Answer 24

Belief Bias:

• Tendency to abandon logic when something contradicts our own personal beliefs
• Often confuse logical correctness (validity) with factual correctness (truth)
  
  • validity: conclusion is logical, based on premises
  • truth: conclusion is false, because premise 2 is false

Emotions & Framing:

• Tendency to abandon logic in favour of emotions, or the way info is presented (“framed”)
• Often used in advertising/lotteries
  
  • group A being told winning rate is 50% vs. group B being told losing rate is 50% ⇒ group A more likely to buy

Irrelevant Info:

Question 25

What are the 4 stages of problem solving? Briefly describe each.

Answer 25

1. Frame the problem

• how we think of (interpret/understand) the problem
• ie. what am I being asked? How will I go about solving this?

2. Generate potential solutions
   * which solution might work, based on info given?
3. Test solutions
   * can you come up with a test to see if 2 (equally good) solutions might be correct?
4. Evaluate results
   * perform the test, and choose best solution

Question 26

What is a problem-solving schema?

• What is a mental set?
• What is functional fixedness?
• Examples?

Answer 26

Problem Solving Schemas:

• Mental blueprint for how to go about solving a particular type of problem
  
  • eg. “How to succeed in a university course” OR “How to pick up a cute guy”

Mental Set:

• Preconceived notions of how to solve a problem based on past experiences
• eg. Luchins’ Water Jug Problem

Functional Fixedness:

• Specific type of mental set
• Restricting the potential uses of an object to its familiar functions
• eg. the 2 string problem

Question 27

Distinguish between algorithms and heuristics.
Describe the means-end and subgoal analysis heuristics.

Answer 27

Algorithms:

• formulae or procedures guranteed to produce the correct solution (eventually)

Heuristics:

• General “this would be a good idea” strategies
  
  • Educated guess - not guaranteed to solve the problem, but much less time-consuming
• “Special” Heuristics:
• Means-ends analysis:
  
  • ​What is the present state, and what is the goal state?
  • Then, make changes to keep reducing the difference
  • ex. 11 years ago, me & cute blonde:
    
    • starting state: she barely knows me
    • goal state: wedding bells
  • Typically involves…
  • ​sub-goal analysis:
    
    • ​Rather than just jumping from starting to goal state, identify smaller goals that will get you there
      
      • ex. introduce self, trick her into dating you…

Question 28

How are *creativity, divergent thinking, *and *incubation *related?

Answer 28

Creativity:

• ceating something new and valuable
• requires Divergent Thinking:
  
  • ​coming up with new ideas that are different from the norm
• Sometimes solutions arise after Incubation:
  
  • ​giving up or otherwise setting the problem aside (eg. resting)
    
    • maybe because mental sets and biases dissipate and new solutions are able to come fwd

Question 29

Describe the Representativeness and Availability heuristics. How do these heuristics distort our judgments of probability/likelihood?

Answer 29

Availability Heuristic:

• Events that are more easily remembered are judged to be more likely/probable/common

Representativeness Heuristic:

• Likelihood that A is a member of a particular group/category depends on how well A resembles the properties we typically associate with the group
• Conjunction Rule: the probability of 2 events cannot be higher than the probability of either event alone
• need to know base rate:
  
  • _​_relative proportions of different groups of items

Question 30

Describe the relationship between overconfidence and confirmation bias.

Answer 30

Confirmation Bias:

• Tendency to seek, favour, and selectively attend to info that conforms to our beliefs - and ignore contradictory info
• Partially stems from overconfidence in our own level of knowledge and decision-makingabilities
• Example study: Lord et al (1979)
  
  • Ppl in favour & against of capital punishment, both groups given descriptions of research studies on capital punishment - some articles showing decreased crime and others showing no effect
  • Responses were in line with people’s initial beliefs; “convincing” vs. “not” depended on prior beliefs!

Question 31

What is the difference btween a schema and a script?

Answer 31

Knowledge = building schemas

Schema:

• mental framework or model of some aspect of the world
  
  • +models of concepts/categories
  • +frameworks to help solve problems
    ie. algorithms, heuristics

Script:

• special type of schema for series of events
• eg. script for “going on a date” or “going out to dinner” or for “attending class”

Question 32

Recall Chase & Simon’s study of chess players. What was the study, and the outcome?

How do experts differ from novices?

Answer 32

Chase & Simon studied expert and novice chess players (10000 hrs vs. <100 hrs. experience)

• 5 sec to encode chess board with ~24 peices on it
• try to remember the exact positions of the pieces

Result:

• Experts were much better at recalling mid-game arrangements
• Experts & novices were equally bad at remembering random arrangements

Conclusion:

• Experts did not have “better memory” overall
  
  • experts used schemas and chunking to organize the meaningful board into patterns to aid encoding
    
    • stonewall attack vs. alekhine defense

​Experts differ from novices in 2 main ways:

• developed more schemas as they gain expertise
• better at deciding when one schema vs. another should be applied
  
  • choosing the correct strategy helps them solve problems in their domain much more efficiently
  • novices either choose incorrectly, or must use more general problem-solving schemas
    
    • tend to rely more on Working memory ⇒ errors

Question 33

What is wisdom, and what are its 5 major components?

Answer 33

Wisdom = knowledge about the meaning & conduct of life

Baltes’ 5 Components of Wisdom:

1. Rich factual knowledge about life
   * Human nature, social relationships, major life events
2. Rich procedural knowledge about life
   * Strategies for decisions, conflict resolution, giving advice
3. Understanding of lifespan contexts
   * Life involves all of family, friends, work, leisure
4. Awareness of relativism of values/priorities
   * Different priorities for different people/cultures
5. Can recognize & manage uncertainty
   * Future cannot be fully known

Question 34

What is a mental image? Are mental images only visual?

Answer 34

Mental image:

• representation of a stimulus that originates inside the brain, rather than from external sensory input
  
  • most focus is on visual imagery
  • auditory imagery is also relatively common
  • can even have tactile, olfactory, gustatory imagery

Question 35

What is the basic question of the imagery debate? Briefly describe the 2 major positions in this debate.

Answer 35

1. Perceptual Position

• Suggests that imagery involves many of the same processes as physical perception
• Specifically, mental images retain visuospatial info (distance/direction)

2. Propositional (Language) Position

• Suggests that the mental representation of something is stored as language (not as a picture)
  
  • may feel like seeing a mental picture, but what is seen is just a byproduct of the deeper, linguistic representation
• So, mental images have no true visuospatial component;
  
  • Imagery processes are NOT similar to perceptual processes

Question 36

Describe the mental rotation task, the predictions of the 2 sides of the imagery debate, and the result of the study.

Answer 36

Mental Rotation Task (Shepard & Metzler (1971))

• “Are the objects below the same object that has simply been rotated?”
  
  • Measured accuracy, and reaction time
  • SAME objects differed by 0, 20, 40, 60…. 180 deg.

1. Perceptual Position:

• If a mental image is like a physical object or picture, then people should make judgments about the mental picture just like they do for the physical object
  
  • i.e. it will take longer to make larger rotations

2. Propositional Position:

• Would predict similar reaction times, no matter the degree of angular difference
  
  • Language-like description wouldn’t vary with rotation

Result:

• Greater the angular difference, longer rxn time
  
  • Near perfect linear trend
  • Just like it would be if you were turning the objects in “real life”
• Supports the Perceptual Position
• Showed ppl are capable of using mental imagery to help solve problems
• Showed that “private” cognitive processes could actually be studied scientifically;
  
  • objective data, NOT subjective reports (or introspection)

Question 37

Describe Kosslyn’s Mental Scanning task and results.

Answer 37

Kosslyn’s Mental Scanning Task:

• Person creates a mental image of something, then scans it in their mind’s eye
• eg. “Memorize this map”
  
  • 7 locations on island
  • 21 “trips”;
    eg. “Focus on the beach…now scan the map until you reach the rocks. Once you’ve found them, press the button”

Result:

• Longer the distance between points, more time to scan
  
  • just like “real” distances takes time to travel

Question 38

Briefly outline the neuroscience research on Imagery Debate. Specifically, are the same neurons/brain regions that are involved in perception also involved in mental imagery?

Answer 38

Imagery & Neurons

Kreiman et al. (2000):

• Seizure patients with electrodes in brain
• Certain neurons respond to seeing specific objects
  eg. baseball, but not faces
• Same neurons active when imagining the object!
  
  • ​Supports perceptual position

LeBihan et al. (1993):

• Compared activation in the visual cortex for perception vs. imagery of the same objects
• Activation in higher-order visual areas increased under both conditions!
  
  • ​Supports perceptual position

Question 39

What is unilateral (visual) neglect? Do the same symptoms occur for imagery as for perception?

Answer 39

“Does brain damage affect perception and visual imagery in the same way?”

Unilateral Spatial Neglect (Visual Neglect)

• Unilateral damage → Ignore opposite side
  
  • eg. woman who ate food on one side of her plate

Recall studies (ie. mental rotation, mental scanning..etc):

• Studies showed that perception and mental imagery are very similar, and there are LOTS of overlap in the brain regions, suggesting that there is much similarity in the mechanisms of imagery and perception (ie. spuport perceptual position)

Question 40

What is metacognition, and why is it so important to university success?

Answer 40

Metacognition:

• Understanding of your own (personal) cognitive abilities
  
  • How accurately you judge your own level of knowledge
    (“I understand this well” or “not at all”)
  • Critical ability when studying ⇒ allows you to focus on material you don’t understand very well

Question 41

Describe the study by Thiede & Anderson and their results. Which group showed the most accurate metacomprehension?

Answer 41

Thiede & Anderson (2003)

• Intro Psych students read 6 passages of text material
• Assigned to one of 3 groups:
  
  • No Summary (control)
  • Immediate Summary
    
    • Read passage A, summarize; read B, summarize…
  • Delayed Summary

​Results:

• No differences in test scores overall;
  
  • All groups’ beliefs were in line with performance
  • i.e. positive correlations show they were somewhat OK at guaging comprehension
• BUT Delayed Summary group’s beliefs were much more accurate
  
  • knew which sections they needed to study more.

Question 42

What are 3 suggestions for improving metacomprehension (and therefore university success)?

Answer 42

Practice Tests & Study Guides

• Help identify broad areas of strength/weakness
• Can also help if you rate your confidence when you give you answers
  
  • You may score 100% on a practice exam, but have guessed for every single answer…

Summarize the chapter/section/lecture