Ch 9 - Language & Reasoning Flashcards
What are Mental Representations?
They include images, ideas, concepts, and principles. At this very moment, through the printed words you are reading, mental representations are being transferred from our minds to yours. (Textbook author perspective)
Humans have a remarkable ability for mental representation
What is Language?
Consists of a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols.in ways that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings.
Much of our thinking, reasoning and problem solving involve the use of language
Language has been called “the jewel in the crown of cognition” (Pinker, 200)
Chomsky came up with “the human essence”
What did Chomsky believe?
He believed that language was INNATE (You were born with it, and it was passed down)
Psycholinguists
Is the scientific study of the psychological aspects of language, such as how people understand, produce, and acquire language.
Adaptive Functions of Language
The brain probably achieved its present form some 50,000 years ago. Yet it took another 35,000 years before paintings began to appear on cave walls. And another 12,000 years after that before humans developed a way to store knowledge outside the brain in the form of writing.
These time lags tell us that human thought and behaviour depend on more than physical structure of the brain. Although the brain structure hasn’t not evolved much over the past 50,000 years. But cognitive skills clearly have
Through evolution, humans adopted a more socially oriented lifestyle that helped them survive and reproduce.
The use of language evolved as people gathered to form larger social units
As social environments became more complex, the development of language made it easier for humans to adapt to these environmental demands (Pinker, 2003)
The human brain seems to have an inborn capacity to acquire ay of the roughly 5000 or 6000 languages spoken across the globe
Properties of Language
Language is a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of messages and meanings. This definition encompasses FOUR properties that are essential to any language
- Symbols
- Structure
- Meaning
- Generativity.
There is also a fifth property, 5. displacement
Define Grammar and Syntax
Grammar: is the set of rules that dictate how symbols can be combined to create meaningful units of communication.
Syntax: Rules that govern the order of words
“Bananas have sale for I” violates a portion of English grammar called syntax
Grammar rules are different between languages
Language Conveys Meaning (Generatively and Displacement)
Generativity: the symbols of language can be combined to generate an infinite number of messages that have novel meaning.
English has only 26 letters, bug can be combined into more than half a million words, which in turn can be combined to create a virtually limitless number of sentences.
Displacement: refers to the fact that language allows us to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present.
You can discuss the past and the future, as well as people, objects, and events that currently exist or are taking place elsewhere.
Deep and Surface Structure (Structure of Language)
Psycholinguists describe language as having a surface structure and a deep structure
Surface structure consists of the symbols that are used and their order.
In contrast, Deep Structure refers to the underlying meaning of the combined symbols, which brings us to the issue of semantics
In everyday life, when you read or hear speech, you are moving from the surface structure to deep structure
When you express your thoughts to other people, you must transform deep structure (the meaning that you want to communicate) into a surface structure t hat others can understand
Writers have the ability to convert their deep-structure meanings into clear surface-structure expressions.
The Hierarchal Structure of Language (Phonemes, Morphemes, Discourse)
Human language has a hierarchical structure, its most elementary building block is Phonemes
PHONEME: the smallest unit of speech sound in a language that can signal a difference in meaning.
Linguists have identified about 100 phonemes that humans can produce, including the clicking sounds used by some Africans. But NONE use all of these sounds
English used about 40 Phonemes
Phonemes have no inherent meaning, but they alter meaning when combined with other elements.
MORPHEMES: the smallest units of meaning in language.
Phonemes are combined into morphemes
Dog, log, and ball are all morphemes, as are prefixes and suffixes such as pre-, un-, -ed and -ous.
English has 40 phonemes that can be combined into more than 100,000 morphemes
English has a five-step language hierarchy. Beyond this basic hierarchy lies the sixth and most comprehensive level, DISCOURSE. (Figure 9.3)
DISCOURSE: In which sentences are combined into paragraphs,a articles, books, convos, and so forth.
Understanding and Producing Language
Context play a key role in understanding language
One can interpret something different something depending on prior knowledge etc
The Role of Bottom-Up Processing
To understand language, your brain must recognize and interpret patterns of stimuli - the sounds of speech, shapes of letters, movements that create hand signs, or tactile patterns of dots used in Braille - that are detected by your sensory systems
Bottom Up Processing: Individual elements of a stimulus are analyzed and then combined to form a unified perception. ‘
Analyzing the hierarchal structure of a spoken language as a set of building blocks that involve the use of phonemes to create morphemes and the combination of morphemes to create words reflects a bottom-up approach
When we read, specialized cell groups in our brain are
(1) Analyzing the basic elements (Contours, angles of lines) of the visual patterns that are right before your eyes and
(2) feeding this info to tore cell groups that lead you to perceive these patterns as letters
The Role of Top-Down Processing (Inc. Speech Segmentation, and Pragmatics)
Sensory info is interpreted in light of existing knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations. Ex. When tourists interpret “beads” written on a sign as “bread”
Language by its very nature involves top-down processing, because the words you write, read, speak, or hear activate and draw on your knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and other linguistic rules that are stored in you long-term memory
SPEECH SEGMENTATION: Perceiving where each word within a spoken sentence begins and ends.
Psycholinguists have discovered that we use several cues to tell when one spoken word ends and another beings. We learn that certain sequences of phonemes are unlikely to occur within the same words. So we perceive them as ending or beginning of a new word
Availability of context makes identifying individual words easier
PRAGMATICS: The Social Contex of Language
Pragmatics: The Social Context of Language
Pragmatics: A knowledge of the practical aspects of using language.
Language occurs in a social context, and pragmatic knowledge not only helps you understand what other people are really saying, but also helps you make sure that other people get the point of what you’re communicating.
Pragmatics is another example of how top-down processing influences language use
Ex. When you ask someone while walking on the st. “What is the time”? You don’t say, “I don’t have a watch, what is the time”. After the first question, the prior knowledge of the person already figures you don’t have a watch, and already answers the question for you.
Language Functions, the Brain, and Sex Differences
Brocas area (located in the left hem of the frontal lobe), is most centrally involved in word production and articulation. This area is also involved in hand motor-control system. Which is why people “talk with their hands”
Wernickes area is involved with speech comprehension. (Located in the rear portion of the temporal lobe)
People who damage one or both areas typical suffer from aphasia
Aphasia: an impairment in speech comprehension and/or production that can be permanent or temporary
Men exhibited greater left-hemisphere activation during the language tests, whereas women’s brain activation occurred in both the left and right hemispheres.
Men and women brains differ overall in some aspects of language processing, this finding does not establish by itself whether the sources of those differences lies in our genes or possible gender-differences in language socialization
Acquiring a First Language
Biological Foundations, LAD, Social Learning Processes, and LASS
Language acquisition is one of the most striking evens in human congni development. It represents the joint influences of BIO (nature) and ENVIRO (Nurture)
Experts believe that humans are born linguists, inheriting a biological readiness to recognize and eventually produce the sounds and structure of whatever language they are exposed to
BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
Children begin to master language early in life without any formal instruction
Language acquisition thus represents the unfolding of a biologically primed process within a social learning environment
Young infants can perceive the entire range of phonemes found in the worlds languages. But at 6-12 months, the begin to discriminate only those sounds that are specific to their native language
Ex. In Japan children cant distinguish between “R” “L” bc their language doe not make this phonetic distinction
Japanese speaking children also use different synaptic rules, the put the object before the verb “Ichiro the ball hit”, whereas in English its the opposite
CHOMSKY proposed that humans are born with a language acquisition divide (LAD)
LAD: an innate biological mechanism that contains the general grammatical rules common to all languages.
SOCIAL LEARNING PROCESSES
Social learning plays a central role in acquiring languages
Parent “Child-directed” speech is a high pitched intonation that seems to be used all over the world
Pointing out objects and naming them, by reading aloud
Children’s language development is strongly governed by adults positive reinforcement.
Modern psycholinguists doubt that operant learning principles alone can account for language development
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION SUPPORT SYSTEM (LASS): TO represent factors int he social environment that facilitate the learning of a language
When LAD and LASS interact in a mutually supportive fashion, normal language development occurs
What is the development timetable and sensitive time periods?
Children progress from reflexive crying at birth through stages of cooing, babbling, and one word utterances. By two years of age, children are uttering sentences called TELEGRAPHIC SPEECH that at first consist of a noun and a verb (want cookie)
In the short span of five years, we can come to understand and produce a complex language
Some linguists are convinced there is also a sensitive period from infancy to puberty during which the brain is most responsive to language input from the environment
The importance of early language exposure applies to any language, not just spoken language. Because sign languages share the deep-structure characteristics of spoken language
Learning a Second Language
A second language is learned best and spoken fluently when it is learned during site period of childhood.
A language can be learned at any age, but mastery of the syntax or grammar depends on early acquisition.
Children will confuse the two languages, but they begin to differentiate their two languages by two years of age.
More recent research has found that bilingual children actually show superior cognitive processing when compared with their monolingual peers
Bilingual children better understand the symbolic nature of print, even before they can read
Bilingual children also perform better than monolingual children on perceptual tasks that require them to inhibit attention to an irrelevant feature of an object and pay attention to another feature
The example in class where coloured font of words of the names of colours is an example, children that are bilingual perform better at this.
Positive correlates of bilingualism, such as greater flexibility in thinking and better performance on standardized intelligence tests, have been discovered
Age of Acquisition
The “Age of Acquisition” can easily be confounded with years of exposure and practice”
Well known study, Jacqueline Johnson and Elissa Newport (1989), studied faculty members and students that immigrated to america from Korea or China. 3 to 16 years old (early arrivals) or 17 to 39 year olds (late arrivals)
The early arrivals performed far better than the late arrivals. Those who had arrived by age seven mastered English
Whereas immigrants who had arrived between the ages of 8 and 10 and between 11 and 16 did progressively worse on the grammar test.
These findings suggest that because late arrivals had missed a critical period for learning a second language. it mattered little at what age they started to acquire language
Better grammar proficiency of early vs late arriving immigrants seemed to be due not to biological critical period but to the greater amount of formal education in English that the early arrivals had received.
Data suggest that there may at least be a sensitive (rather than a critical) period for learning a second language that extends through mid-adolescence
Linguistic Influences on Thinking (Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis)
Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis: that language not only influences but also determines what we are capable of thinking
Psycholinguists do not agree with Whorf’s strong assertion that language “determines how we think”. They would say instead that language can INFLUENCE how we think, categorize info, and attend to our daily experiences.
Language not only influences how we think but also may influence how well we think in certain domains.
ex. English speaking children consistently score lower than children from asian countries in math
The american children fail to grasp the base-10 system by age 5; in contrast, the Chinese children understand this concept, enabling them to do math with greater ease. In english, the teens have names for the numbers, in china 11 is (10 - one)
Thought, Brain, and Mind (Propositional Thought, Imaginal Thought, and Motored Thought)
Lundemo’s was a patient of an experiment where his thoughts moved the cursor in particular directions.
The pattern of brain activity changes when he has a thought that moves the cursor in a different direction.
Thinking may seem like an internal language (inner speech), but it actually includes several mental activities.
One mode of thought does indeed take the form of verbal sentences that we say or hear in our minds called PROPOSITIONAL THOUGHT because it expresses a proposition , or statement (“im hungry”)
Another thought mode is IMAGINAL THOUGHT, which consists of images that we can see, hear, or feel in our mind.
The third mode is MOTORED THOUGHT, which releases to mental representation of motor movements.
All three modes of thinking enter into our abilities to reason, solve problems, and engage in many forms of intelligent behaviour.
What are Concepts, Propositions, and Prototypes?
PROPOSITIONS: statements that express ideas. (Much of our thinking occurs in his form)
CONCEPTS: are basic units of semantic memory - mental categories into which we place objects, activities, abstractions, and events that have essential features in common.
Many concepts are difficult to define, but you are familiar what a “vegtable” for ex looks like. Many concepts are defined as prototypes
PROTOTYPES: the most typical and familiar members of a category of a class
The use of prototypes is perhaps the most elementary method of forming a concept. Children early concept are based on prototypes of the objects and people they encounter personally
Types of Reasoning
DEDUCTIVE REASONING: we reason from the top down, that is, from general principles to a conclusion about a specific case. When people reason deductively, they begin with a set of premises (propositions assumed to be true) and determine what the premises imply about a specific situation.
Logicians regard it as the strongest and most valid form of reasoning because the conclusion cannot be false if the premises (factual statements) are true.
INDUCTIVE REASONING: We reason from the bottom up, starting with specific facts and trying to develop a general principle
After Ivan Pavlov observed repeatedly that the dogs in his laboratory began to salivate when approached by the experimenter who fed them, he began to think in terms of a general principle that eventually became the foundation for classical conditioning
An important difference between deductive and inductive reasoning lies in the certainty of the results. Deductive conclusions are certain to be true IF the premises are true, but the inductive reasoning leads to likelihood rather than certainty.
Stumbling Blocks in Reasoning (Belief Bias)
The ability to reason effectively is a key factor in critical thinking.
Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant info can be challenging.
BELIEF BIAS: is the tendency to abandon logical rules in favour of our own personal beliefs.
Johnson-Laird (2001) suggests that errors in deductive reasoning often occur because ppl fail to consider all possible models.
Lauer and colleagues (2000) suggested that belief bias occurs when people construct only one mental model representing the premises and the conclusion
Emotions and Framing
FRAMING: refers to the idea that the same info, problem, or options can be structured and presented in different ways.
Framing influences how we perceive info and can interfere w logical reasoning
Ex. “There is a 50% success rate” VS “There is a 50% failure rate”
Problem Solving
People can systematically use inductive and deductive reasoning to solve problems. Such problem solving proceeds through four stages. How well we carry out each of these stages determines our success in solving the problem
Stage 1: Interpret (frame) and understand the problem
Stage 2: Generate hypotheses or possible solutions
Stage 3: Test the solutions, hypotheses, seeking to disconfirm one or more of them
Stage 4: Evaluate results and, if necessary, revise steps 1, 2, or 3
Our initial understanding of a problem is a key step toward a successful solution. If we frame a problem poorly, then we can easily be led into a maze of blind alleys and ineffective solutions.
Generating Potential Solutions to Problems
Once we have interpreted the problem, we can begin formulate potential solutions or explanations
- Determine which procedures and explanations will be considered
- Determine which solutions are consistent with the evidence that has so far been observed. Rule out any solutions that do not fit the evidence
Testing the Solutions of Problems (Mental Set)
Mental Set: The tendency to stick to solutions that have worked in the past - can result in less-effective problem solving
The Role of Problem-Solving Schemas (Algorithms, Heuristics, Subgoal Analysis)
PROBLEM-SOLVING SCHEMAS: are like mental blueprints or step-by-step scripts for selecting info and solving specialized classes of problems
ALGORITHMS: Are formulas or procedures that automatically generate correct solutions.
HEURISTICS: Are general problem-solving strategies that we apply to certain classes of situations.
MEANS-END ANALYSIS is one example of a heuristic
Means End Analysis: we identify differences between the present situation and the desired state, or goal, and then make changes that will reduce these differences.
Heuristics enter not only into problem-solving strategies but also into decisions and judgements about other people, to judgements about our own health, to decisions about buying products. As we shall see, heuristics can also contribute to error in judgement
SUBGOAL ANALYSIS: formulating subgoals, or intermediate steps, toward a solution.
Ex. When writing a paper, you break it up into picking a topic, doing library research, organizing facts, writing draft, and redefining first draft.
What is the Representativeness Heuristic?
we use this to infer how closely something or someone fits our prototype for a particular concept, or class, and therefore how likely it is to be a member of that class.
What is the Availability Heuristic?
Which causes us to base judgements and decision on the availability of info in society.
Overconfidence
The tendency to overestimate one’s correctness in factual knowledge, beliefs, and decisions, is another reason people do not challenge their beliefs
Schema
Is a mental framework, an organized pattern of thought about some aspect of the world.
Another type of schema, called the SCRIPT, Is a mental framework concerning a sequence of events that usually unfolds in a regular, almost
standardized order.
THE NATURE OF EXPERTISE
Schemas help to explain what it means to be an expert. Masters and grand masters in chess can glance at a chessboard and quickly plan strategies.
The worlds best players can store in memory as many as 50,000 board configurations
Applying the correct mental blueprint provides a proven route to solving a problem quickly and effectively.
Wisdom
Represents a system of knowledge about the meaning and conduct of life.
Baltes and Staudinger, 2000 concluded that wisdom has 5 major components
1) Rich Factual Knowledge about Life: This includes knowledge about human nature, social relationships, and major life events.
2) Rich procedural knowledge about life: such knowledge includes strategies for making decisions, handling conflict, and giving advice.
3) An understanding of lifespan contexts: this includes an awareness that life involves many contexts, such as family, friends, work, and leisure
4) An awareness of relativism of values and priorities: this includes recognizing that values and priorities differ across people in societies
5) The ability to recognize and manage uncertainty: this ability stems from an awareness that the future cannot be fully known
Mental Imagery
is a representation of stimulus that originates inside of your brain rather than from external sensory input.
Metacognition: Knowing Your Own Cognitive Abilities
Metacognition: refers to you awareness and understanding of your own cognitive abilities
Metacognition has to do with truly knowing whether you do or do not understand the concept.
Metacomprehension: people who display good metacomprehension are accurate in judging what they do or don’t know
Metamemory: represents your awareness and knowledge of your memory capabilities
As student, your ability to effectively monitor what you do and don’t know is an important ingredient for studying efficiently
Kanzi Documentary
Kanzi speech/ documentary:
- He can comprehend language and do more complicated actions like understanding understanding syntax [generitivity] ; He has genertivive communication
- The board where there’s arbitrary symbols and he can relate the words to the symbols (symbolically arbitrary)
- Pressing buttons to communicate –> more buttons pressed in one sequence
- When kanzi was younger he acquired language just by hearing other researchers talking [like human children]; His mom was older therefore harder for her to learn language (being young is important for language acquisition)
- Another bonobo knowing language-like abilities shows that language can be acquired by other bonobos as well
- Kanzi picks up things that are not in his immediate sensory environment [displays capacity for that]
