Chapter 9: Language And Thought Flashcards
Every species ______
Has its own ways of communication
Language
System for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules to grammar and that convert meaning
Grammar
A set of rules that specify units (bitdone)
Human language has unique characteristics
1) express wide range of ideas, generate infinite number of sentences
2) use words/ language to refer to abstracts
3) use language with reference to our own thoughts
50 years ago, there were how many languages
7,000 living human languages
Now a days, how many languages?
Half of those exist
1/3 of the half is endangered
Language is
The collective heritage of humanity
It reflects increasing reduction of bio
A flash of human spirit
A way that the soul and knowledge of a culture comes to the material world
Importance of indigenous
All languages share basic structure
They have a set of sounds and rules for combining sounds to produce meaning
Basic characteristics of language
1) Phoneme
2) phonological rules
3) Morphemes
4) Morphological
5) Syntactical rules
Phoneme
Smallest unit of sound recognized as speech rather than a random noise
A and I used rather than an e or p
Phonological rules
Rules about combining speech sounds
(We learn this without instruction)
Example. Adding s makes a word plural
Morphemes
Smallest meaningful unit of language. A meaningful unit of language that cannot he further divided
Children —> child
Morphological rules
How we combined morphemes
Example “s” makes things plural
Syntactical rules
How to combine words into sentences
Semantics
The meaning of words
Syntax Vs. Semantics
Form of an atterance =\ meaning
Language development
3 things
1) We learn languages at a fast rate
2) when we learn we make few mistakes
3) passive mastery develops faster than active mastery
How many words do we know at age 1 compared to 2
10 words we know at one
10,000 words we know at 2
At birth, a baby can distinguish all _______
Languages
Develop
4-6 month babies
They babble
All babies go through the same ______
Babbling sequence
Regardless of culture
Babies may valve phenomes that do not occur in their learned language
Babies say daddy before mommy
Know this
Even ____ babies ____ sounds
Deaf, babble
If parents use sign language
Babies babble with their hands
Theories of language development
Behaviourist explanations
We certainly do encourage some words and discourage others
Nativist explanation
Genetic dysphasia
Unable to learn language but have norms intellegence
Broca’s area
Help in producing coherent speech
Wernickes area
Helps in speech processing
Can species learn human language?
Chimps can mimick or guess what to say but it’s all a shame
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
Language shapes the nature of thought
Benjamin Whorf
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
Lanaguages and culture
Guagu Yimithirr language
No words for left or right
They use north east south west
Rational choice theory
We make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging by the value of the outcome and multiplying the two
We are pretty good at judging ______
Frequencies!
Example: 10/100 people die from this
We are terrible at judging ______
Probabilities!
10% of people die from this
It is better to phrase questions in terms of _____ and not _______
Frequencies and not probabilities
We tend use to use a number of shortcuts when making ______
Decisions
Heuristics
Fast, efficient strategies that may facilitate decision making
- usually work
- no guarantee of solution
- mental shortcuts or rules of thumb
Algorithm
Sequence of procedures, sets, or rules that guarantee a solution to a problem
We usually use ____ when making decisions and choices
Heuristics
Availability bias
Items more easily accessible in memory are judged by occurring more frequently
Conjunction fallacy
Thinking that specific conditions are more probable than a single general condition
Representative heuristic
Making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event
Framing effect
Giving different answers to the same problem depending on the the problem is phrased or framed
The people dying test we did in class
The sunk cost fallacy
Making a decision about a current situation on purely the basis of whether they have previously invested in that situation
Spend 10,000$ on school to drop out
Optimism bias
Believing that compared to other people, you are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future
Eg. running into a black swan
Optimistic people
- live longer
- less distress
- better immune response
- less likely to be substance addicts
- more problem solving
Unrealistic or extreme optimists
- higher level of stress
- reduces performance
- don’t try as hard
- more likely to smoke
Realistic optimism
Be optimistic and make an effort to make things happen
-don’t ignore negative, but don’t focus on it
Who thought of Prospect theory
Daniel Kahnman and Amos Tversky
What is prospect theory
We take risks when evaluating potential losses or whenever outcomes are bad, we reject them a take a risk
Parental lobe damage
Known to engage in risky behaviours and have impulse control problems
How old are you when your Brain is full developed
24 baby
Problem Solving ninjas
Well defined problems
How to move a chair; easy and simple
I’ll-defined problems
Do not have clear goals or well defined solution paths
Means end analysis
What are the steps or means to get you from here to solving the problem
Steps to take for means end analysis
1) what is my end goal
2) what is your current state
3) steps to get from step two to step one
3 ways to solve a means end analysis
Take a direct route
Make sungoals
Find similar problems and apply those solutions
Analogical problem solving
Solve a problem by finding a similar problem with a solution and applying that solution to the current problem
Practical application
It is all about the gist, the essence, the generalities that are similar
The more problems you solve, the greater your ability to recognize general principles of your problem
Know this
Fresh perspective
Talk to others outside of dicipline
Holliannes friend fixing the furnace
Functional fixedness
Stops you from having innovative ideas
Cognitive bias
Drives people to use objects in traditional standards ways
Mental set
Solve this problem once, always use it like that
Oven racks for walls
Reasoning
Organizing information or beliefs into series of steps to reach conclusions
Logic usually involved (although we don’t use it)
