Language, thought and communication Flashcards
What is communication?
Passing information from one person (or animal) to another.
What is language?
A system of communication used by a specific group of people.
What has research found about animals?
Research has found that animals use communication.
What has the research on communication revealed about language in animals?
Although research has found that animals use communication, they do not use language like humans do.
What are animals unable to do?
They are unable to use complex thought.
What is thought?
The mental activity of thinking, which involves reasoning and considering, and that produces ideas and opinions.
What conclusion has been drawn from the fact that animals use communication but do not use language?
This may mean that these two skills are somehow connected.
What are the two different ideas regarding the relationship between language and thought that we need to know?
- Piaget’s theory.
- Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
How did Piaget help us in understanding how humans develop cognitively?
He believed that cognitive development leads to the growth of language. This means that we can only use language at a level that matches our cognitive development.
What are the four stages, according to Piaget’s theory, that children develop language in?
- Sensorimotor.
- Preoperational.
- Concrete operational.
- Formal operational.
What are features of the sensorimotor stage?
In the sensorimotor stage, babies are discovering what their bodies can do, and this includes the ability to make sounds. Babies then learn to copy the sounds they hear others making.
What are features of the preoperational stage?
Children are egocentric and focused on themselves. They use language to voice their internal thoughts, rather than to communicate with other people.
What are features of the concrete operational stage?
The ability to use language has developed a lot but it is only used to talk about actual, concrete things.
What are features of the formal operational stage?
Language can be used to talk about abstract, theoretical ideas.
What did Piaget believe about the concept of these stages?
Piaget believed that while all children move through these stages, some people do not get to the formal operational stage.
What is an advantage of Piaget’s theory?
Piaget did many of his observations on his own. When the participants in his research were his own children, they were unlikely to realise that they were being observed. This means that their behaviour was probably natural.
What are disadvantages of Piaget’s theory?
- His research would be more reliable if he had carried out his observations with another researcher, so that they could compare the results afterwards to check if they were similar and had inter-observer reliability.
- When Piaget’s participants were his own children, hey may have allowed his personal biases to affect his judgement. This lack of objectivity would affect the validity of his findings.
- Because Piaget’s sample was very small, and much of his research was based on observing his own children, his findings cannot be generalised because they cannot be said to apply to all children.
What is other research to support other theories about language and thought?
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
What was the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis developed on?
It was developed from the ideas of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf.
What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis state?
The hypothesis states that our thoughts and behaviours are affected and formed by the language that we speak.
Due to this hypothesis, what is said about language and culture?
This means that cultures with different languages and vocabulary will also have different ways of thinking and understanding things.
What is culture?
A group of people who share similar customs, beliefs, and behaviour.
What will language therefore lead us to do?
- Lead us to focus on certain ways of seeing and understanding things.
- Make some ways of thinking easier and more likely than others.
- Lead to memory bias, where the ability to recall or retrieve certain information is increased or decreased.
How did Sapir and Whorf provide evidence for their ideas?
By studying indigenous (native) languages. Whorf compared Native American languages with English. He used the Hopi’s use of different types of words for time and the Eskimo’s large number of words for snow to support his claim.