Language, thought and communication Flashcards
How do we learn?
Through developing schemas (mental structures)
Define language depends on thought
Thought and understanding first, language develops after
Do young children have language?
They can have language without understanding but will not be able to use it effectively
What happens in the sensorimotor stage?
Children start to speak
What age are children in the sensorimotor stage?
0-2 years
What happens in the pre-operational stage?
Children can talk about things that are not present
What age does the pre-operational stage occur?
2-7 years
What happens in the concrete operational stage?
Children develop own ideas
What age is the concrete operational stage?
7-11 years
What is a strength of Piaget’s theory?
Supporting evidence. The order of children’s two-word phrases shows understanding
What is a weakness of Piaget’s theory?
Language comes first. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis challenges Piaget suggesting that sometimes language comes first
Vocal sign of survival
Vervet monkeys communicate danger with an alarm call
Visual sign of survival
Rabbits lift tail, pin ears back and leap forward
Reproduction
Peacocks stretch out their feathers like an umbrella to communicate genetic fitness
Territory
Rhinos leave piles of dung to communicate territorial boundaries
Food
Ants leave pheromone trail to communicate food source
Differences between animal and human communication: Plan ahead and discuss future events
Humans can discuss things that aren’t present or haven’t happened yet (displacement). Animals are focused on present, eg. Food sources and predators
Human vs animal communication: creativity
Humans have an open system combining many words together. Animals have a closed system using communication for specific events.
Single vs multiple channels
Human language expressed using many channels - spoken, written, sign language, social media. Animals tend to communicate with a single channel, eg. Pheromones
What is eye contact?
When two people look in each others eyes at the same time
Explain regulating flow of conversation
Participants looked away when about to speak and gave prolonged gaze when about to finish (Kendon)
Explain signalling attraction
People who use eye contact are judged as more attractive (Conway et al)
Explain expressing emotion
Participants judged emotions as more intense if faces looking straight at them (Adams and Kleck)
What is one strength of eye contact studies?
Real-world application. People with autism could be taught to increase eye contact to improve social skills
What is one weakness of eye contact studies?
Use of rating scales. Rating ‘attractiveness’ can lack objectivity
What is body language?
Communication through unspoken movements and gestures
What is closed posture?
Crossing arms/legs, shows disgreement
What is open posture?
Uncrossed, shows acceptance
What did McGinley et al find?
Arguments given by people with open posture led to greater opinion change than closed posture
What is postural echo?
Copying each others body position
What were tanner and chartrand’s findings?
Participants rated new drink more highly when presented with postural echo
What is touch?
Includes high fives, slapping etc
What did fisher find?
If librarian touched student on hand when returning library books the librarian was judged more positively
What is a strength of studies of body language?
Real-world application. People can use body language to build good relationships
What is a weakness of studies of body language?
Body language studies lack control. Could be other reasons (EV’s) why participants like or dislike confederates
What is the theory of natural selection?
Genes for behaviours that promote survival are passed on to the next generation
How does non-verbal communication evolve in animals?
It evolved to express emotion. For example, baring teeth is adaptive because it reduces death in a conflict and therefore protects survival of the individual (and group)
Comparisons with human behaviour
In our distant ancestors opening eyes widely was adaptive because they could see a route to safety more easily. This behaviour passed down to humans and continues to express surprise
Serviceable habits
Behaviours used by ancestors to promote survival. Still used by humans but may not serve the same purpose
Evaluate Darwin’s evolutionary theory
Research into facial expressions. A strength is that Ekman found six emotions in all cultures, so must be innate. Research into newborns. Another strength is that babies are born with ability to use eye contact and smile which suggests these NVCs are innate and evolved.
Neonate research
If NVC’s displayed by newborn babies this suggests the behaviour is innate
Social releases
Certain neonate behaviours (e.g. smiling) make others want to provide care. Therefore they are adaptive (Bowlby).
Facial expressions
Neonates display an expression of disgust when given sour tastes (citric acid), suggesting it’s innate (Rosenstein and Oster).
Sensory deprived
An animal or human without a sensory ability. Thompson found that show similar facial expressions to sighted children
Cross cultural research
Comparing behaviours from different cultures to show if they are learned
Contact vs non contact cultures
Contact countries: Mediterranean and Latin America prefer smaller personal space. Non-contact countries: UK and USA prefer larger space.
Gestures
Pointing index finger is offensive in Hindu culture (Black)
Define language
a communication system in which a limited number of symbols can be combined according to agreed upon rules to produce an infinite number of messages
Define thought
The process of using your mind to consider something, can also be a product of that process
Define communication
The process of exchanging messages and information
Outline Piaget’s theory of language and thought
thought and understanding occur before language development
children learn a concept (schema), they then learn to express it in words
children must have schemas before language is taught (understaning of words is dependant on where they are in the stages of cognitive development)
language can exist without thought (children repeating what their parents are saying)
when children understand what they are saying, they use language properly
Example of not having the word to describe something
shadenfreude - german word for damaged joy, finding pleasure in others misfortune
fago - ifaluk word for ‘love’, ‘compassion’ and ‘sadness’
What did Sapir and Whorf believe?
we are unable to think about things if we don’t have the words to describe them
thoughts, memories, perceptions are influenced by words
Sapir-whorf weak hypothesis
Language influences thought
Sapir-whorf strong hypothesis
Language defines thought
Strength of Sapir-whorf hypothesis
real life application (there are words that can’t be directly translated - Shadenfreude)
Gordon (2004) a tribe couldn’t count beyond 2 because they didn’t have the word for it
Weakness of Sapir-whorf hypothesis
other people have felt shadenfreude and been able to explain it with other words that they know
Language and thought - colours
different cultures have different words for colours (in russia there are two different words for light blue and dark blue so they are likely to sort them into different piles)
The variation in recall events - the hopi
(benjaminn wharf)
language doesn’t have the concept of time (‘i left after a week’ but ‘I left on the seventh day’)
Argued that because they couldn’t talk about time passing it influenced the way they thought about time
Evaluation of The variation in recall events - the hopi
some people argue that the way they recall events isn’t too different from the way english speakers, suggesting his conclusion lacked a firm basis
The variation in recall events - language
(leonard carmichael)
the way we describe something can influence the way it is remembered
shown ambiguous figures, told they were different things ( O-O = eyeglasses or dumbells = redrawn respectivly O⌒O or O=O)
suggest memory of picture was influenced by the verbal label that participants heard
supports that language influences memory
Evaluation of The variation in recall events - language
artificial task
The variation in recognition of colours - the zuni
(Roger Brown and Eric Lenneberg)
argued if a basic colour word is absent it would affect ease of recall + recognition of that colour
the zuni only had one name for shades of yellow / orange
they mad more difficulty recalling these colours compared to english speakers
Why did Frisch study bees?
Disagreed with previous research that bees are colourblind, he instead believed they were attracted the most colourful flowers
What did Frish notice about the bees?
that bees do a ‘dance’ - ground breaking research that change the way we thought about animal communication
Aim of Fricsh’s bee study
to carefully describe the dances that are performed by bees and explain how these enable bees to communicate with each other
Procedure of Frisch’s bee study
(controlled natural observation) sometimes would change features of their environment (would put food sources close to the hive (20-30 metres)
and one far away (up to 300 metres)), made over 6000 observations over 20 years
Results of Frisch’s bee study
worker honey bees tell other worker honey bees where other pollen sources are by a sequence of movements
the round dance - food is less than 100 metres away, instructs bees to fly close to the hive until they find it
the waggle dance - figure of 8, waggles abdomen in the middle section indicates direction of pollen, the slower the dance, the further away the pollen is
60% of bees watching dance went to food source indicated
Conclusion of Fricsh’s bee study
bees have sophisticated form of animal communication (speed and accuracy), bees signalling system has evolutionary value because it helps survival
Strenth of Fricsh’s bee study
(high applicability) important contribution to the understanding of animal communiation
Weakness of Fricsh’s bee study
(low validity) sound was overlooked, if dance was performed in silence, other bees wouldn’t go
(low reliability) bees don’t always respind to the bee dance, suggest other factors are important too
Define social learning theory
the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished
Aim of Yuki’s study of emoticons
previous research which suggested that Japanese people tend to focus on peoples eyes when they judge emotions, In contrast American people were more likely to focus on the mouth when interpreting emotional
states. They aimed to find out if ths difference would be roflected in how different emoticons are understood by people in the Cast (apan) and the West (America)
Method of Yuki’s study of emoticons
This was a cross-cultural study using a group of 95 students from Japan and 118 students from America (an independent groups design) All participants were presented with a sot of six emoticons, The omoticons featured different combinations of eyes and mouths, some of the mouths were happy, some sad’ and some “neutral’ (neither happy nor sad) The participants had to rate each emoticon for how happy they thought it was.
This was done on a 9-point scale (9 = very happy 1
= very sad) The average ratings for each moticon were worked out for lapanese participants and for American
participants
Results of Yuki’s study of emoticons
The Japanese partopants gave higher ratings to faces with happy epes than the American participants.
This was particularly true when the mouth was sad (emoticon 3 above) The American participants gave higher ratings when the mouths were happy even
when the eyes were sad (as in emoticon 6 above)
Conclusion of Yuki’s study of emoticons
Yuki et al ‘s study suggests that Japanese and American people interpret facial expressions (at least in emoticons) differently lapanese people are more likely to focus on the eyes when interpreting emotion whereas American people pay more attention
to the mouth This difference may be due to cultural norms and expectations. American people
may be brought up to express their emotions more openly. using both their eyes and mouths to do this. Japanese people may be brought up to hide their emotions and use the eyes are a better way of telling how they are feeling
Strength of yuki’s study of emoticons
(high objectivity) used questionaires, can’t be interpretted
Weakness of yuki’s study of emoticons
number scale might not be complex enough to capture the complexity of emotion
