Chapter 8: Language and thought Flashcards
What is cognition?
The mental process of acquiring knowledge > thinking
What was the initial research method for cognition?
introspection
What is language?
symbols that convey meaning + the rules for combining those symbols that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages
What are the critical properties of language?
1- symbolic: representative sounds + written words
2- Semantic: meaningful
3- Generative: limited # of symbols can be combined
4- Structured: rules govern arrangement
What is the structure of language?
Phonemes> morphemes>word>phrase>sentence
What are phonemes and morphemes?
phonemes: smallest speech units in a language > raw sounds
morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language > un, s, er. friend, etc.
What are semantics?
Area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and combos
> denotation vs conotation
What is syntax?
System of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences
> underlie all language use
What’s the special thing that babies can do up to three months?
distinguish phonemes of all languages
> disappears 4-12 months
What can babies do at 8 months?
recognize and store common word forms
What was Werkers theory re baby language aqcuisition?
Babies have a perceptual bias that facilitates acquisition of phonology
What are the main language dev phases?
0-3 months: phoneme recognition
0-6 months: crying, cooing, laughter
6- 18months: babbling that corresponds to phonemes and consonant-vowel combos
10-13 months: sounds correspond to words> first words resemble syllables most babbled
13-18 months: vocab grows > understand more than speak
18-24 months vocab spurt > 2 yr old can learn 20 words a week
What is the importance of babbling and what are the two theories of origin?
- Babbling considered monumental milestone of language acquisition
- 1) babbling is motor achievement to practice and develop mechanics of speech > byproduct of brain development
-2) babbling is mechanism that affords opportunity to produce patterned structure of natural language
> signing babies match signed babbling
What type of words are typically first words?
Nouns > because they are concrete objects and are easier to encode
What is fast-mapping?
Process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept
Why is there a vocab spurt at 2 yrs?
- increase in articulation
- increase in understanding
- increase in cognitive development
What are common toddler language errors?
Overextension: when a child uses one word to describe a wider set of objects
Underextensions: when a child uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects
When do children start combining words?
End of second year
What is telegraphic speech?
consists mainly of content words
> less critical words ommitted
When do children start speaking complex ideas?
End of 3rd year
> plural and past tense
What is overregularization and when does it occur?
when grammatical rules are applied to exceptions incorrectly (foots > feet)
> start correctly, then wrong, then must correct again over time
- occurs as children learn grammar
What is the process of language refinement?
When children start appreciating and playing with language > developing metalinguistic awareness
> occurs at school age
What is metalinguistic awareness?
ability to reflect on and play with the use of language
> puns, metaphors
At what ages do kids start appreciating irony and sarcasm?
6-8
What is irony vs sarcasm?
- irony: conveying an implied meaning that is opposite of statements literal meaning
- sarcasm is similar but caustic and directed at someone
What are advantages of bilingualism?
- higher cognitive flexibility
- analytical reasoning
- attention
- metalinguistic awareness
What are the 3 hypotheses re bilinguial processing?
1- bi kids should develop executive process control earlier
2- bi adults should therefore have advantage in cognitive tasks using executive processing
3- bi adults should show delayed decline in executive processes and it’s usually first to go
What physiological effects are documented with bilingualism?
Higher grey matter density in left perietal cortex
What are negative effects of bilingualism in minority chlidren?
exclusive education in majority language undermines self-esteem and heritage language proficiency
What are the 3 factors in second language acquisition?
- Age> ideal prior to age 7
- Acculturation> degree of integration in new culture
- Motivation> attitude of learner
What it integrative motivation?
willingness to be like valued members of a language community
Why don’t chimps speak?
No vocal apparatus
> little evidence rules of language learned with ASL
What research indicated that chimps could learn rules?
Pygme chimps> ability to understand English
> skepticism re assessment
What has imaging shown?
That neurological substrates underlying language may be present in chimps and ability to use language is not entirely unique to humans
What is Pinker’s language evolution theory?
Language as product of natural selection
> enables acquisition of knowledge
> removes need for trial and error
How did Dunbar challenge Pinker?
How did Pinker rebutt?
- Suggested language developed as a device to build and maintain social conditions
- small adaptive disparities are sufficient to fuel evolutionary change >genees will explain
What is the behaviourst language theory?
Skinner- environmental factors govern language dev
> imitation, reinforcement and other conditioning principles
> children learn correct meanings and pronunciations from parental reinforcement
> reinforcement teaches syntax
What is the nativist language dev theory?
Chomsky- humans equipped with language acquisition device (LAD) which is innate mechanism that facilitates the learning of language
> challenges skinner with overregularization problem
> children acquire language quickly and effortlessly regardless of environment
> dev of language similar across cultures
What is the LAD supposed to be?
brain structures + neural wiring that enable humans to discriminate phonemes, fast-map morphemes, etc
> not detailed, criticised as too vague
What are the 3 types of interactionist theories?
Biology + experience, beliwve human equipped for language learning but social exchange is critical
1- cognitive theories> language part of cog dev
2- Social communication> functional value of interpersonal communication and social context
3- Emergentist theory> neural circuits supporting language are not prewired but emerge in response to language learning experience
How does a cultural group’s language determine their thoughts?
Linguistic relativity hypothesis> one’s language determines nature of one’s thoughts
>applies to colour and colour names
> debate re how strong or weak
What is problem solving?
The active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable
What are the 3 classes of problems?
1- inducing structure: relationships among #s, words, symbols
2- arrangement: arrangements of parts of a problem in a way that satisfies a criterion > burst of insight
3- Transformation: sequence of transformations to reach goal
What are the barriers to problem solving?
- Irrelevant information: all info given is necessary
- Functional fixedness: perceive item as its most common use
- Mental set- rigid thinking > persist in familiar strategies
- Unnecessary constraints > assuming constraint exists
What is a spatial metaphor used to help solve problems?
Problem space: set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver
What are the common approaches to solving a problem?
> Trial-and-error
Algorithm: trying all possible alternatives, slow, don’t exist for everything, effective for fewer solutions, can be inefficient
Heuristics: rule of thumb/shortcut, narrows problem space
Incubation: period of not consciously thinking about it
What are common heuristics?
- forming subgoals
- working backward
- search for analogies
- changing representation/envisioning of problem
What illustrates the primary cultural difference in problem solving?
Field dependence-independence: individual’s tendency to rely on external vs internal info for reference when orienting themselves in space
What is the difference between field dependence and independence?
- field dependence> rely on external physical environment for cues > focus on total context of problem, more common in agrarian and conformist societies
- field independence> rely on internal frames of reference> analyse or reconstruct physical environment > focus on specific features of a problem and component parts
How do Eastern vs Western cultures relate to field dep/ind?
Eastern cultures have a holistic cognitive style> field dependent
Western have analytic cognitive style > field independent
What tends to happen when people have lots of choice?
They struggle to choose
What are decisions mostly based on these days?
- preferences
- cognitive biases
- irrational
- emotional
What are the typical decision making strategies?
- Additive strategy- list attributes and assign value > good for simple choices
- Elimination by aspects- alternative eliminated by evaluating by attribute in turn > final choice depends on order of elimination > good for complex choices
What is general rule of decision making?
As complexity of decision increases so does the simplicity of the approach
What are common decision making quirks?
- emotion influences D-M
- Comparative evaluations yield different results than evaluation in isolation
- people avoid uncertainty and will choose known quantity
- judgements of quality can be swayed by extraneous factors
- sometime unconscious thought out-performs conscious deliberation
- intuition can be superior to logic and reflection
What is risky decision making?
making choices under conditions of uncertainty
> working out expected value can help
> replacement of objective value with subjective utility
What is subjective utility and subjective probability?
subjective utility- what outcome is worth to a person
subjective probability- personal estimates of probabilities of events
What are the heuristics of judging probabilities?
- Availability heuristic: basing probability on how easily relevant examples come to mind
- Representativeness: basing probability on how similar it is to the typical prototype/schema > ignores base rates and underestimates personal irsks
- Conjunction fallacy: when people estimate that the odds of 2 uncertain events happening together or greater than either happening alone
What is behavioural economics?
study of the effects of people’s actual decision making processes re economic decisions
> psychology + economics
What is the theory of bounded rationality?
people tend to use simple strategies in DM that often result in irrational decisions that are less optimal
How does framing affect decisions?
Decision issues are posed and choices structures can influence outcome
What is the evolutionary analysis of DM?
1- traditional research imposed unrealistic standards of rationality
2- humans only seem irrational because cog psychs ask wrong questions unrelated to adaptive problems
Wht do Cosimedes and Tooby say about evolutionary DM?
decision making has been tailored to handle real-world adaptive problems vs contrived cognitive problems
What are fast and frugal heuristics?
inferences from memory in testing using their own knowledge vs givens
> can be effective
> recognition heuristic: if one of two options is recognized assume that known to have higher value
>one-reason DM just as accurate as deliberation
What is the dual-process theory?
That people depend on
- one mode that is quick, simple and automatic/intuitive
- second mode that is slower, deliberate, controlled judgement that monitors an correct first and takes over in more complex situations
What can help in reducing DM errors?
Increased awareness of common reasoning short-comings
What is the Gambler’s Fallacy?
the belief that the odds in a chance event increase if the event hasn’t occurred yet
> representativeness heuristic
> can be applied to string of spins but not individual
What is the law of small numbers?
assumption that results are based on small samples are representative of the population
What is overestimating the improbable?
tendency to overestimate liklihood of dramatic events
>availability
What is confirmation bias?
seeking info that supports one’s decisions while ignoring disconfirming info
What is myside bias?
tendency to evaluate in a manner slanted in favour of one’s own opinions
What is belief perseverance?
tendency to hang on to beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence
What is the overconfidence effect?
When people put too much faith in their estimates when they should know better
What is semantic slanting?
deliberate choosing of words to create specific emotional responses
What is namecalling?
a way of labelling and categorizing others
What is an implied threat?
when something you do will result in the application of negative labelling to you> anticipatory name-calling
