Language, Thought and Communication Flashcards
What was Piaget’s theory?
- Thought comes before language
- Language develop in 4 stages
- Language is developed through development stages in our childhood
- Conducted research using his own kids
- We learn through schemas
What is the sensorimotor stage?
- 0-2 yrs
- Making sounds and copy sounds others make
What is the preoperational stage?
- 2-7 yrs
- Kids are egocentric
- They use language to voice their internal thoughts > communicate with others
What is the concrete operational stage?
- 7 - 11 yrs
- Kids have the ability to apply logic to physical concrete objects to solve probs
What is the formal operational stage?
- 11+ yrs
- Solve probs in a systematic way
- Apply logic in an abstract way eg mental calc
Whats language?
System of communication used by specific group of ppl
Whats thought?
Mental activity of thinking which involves reasoning, considering and producing ideas and opinions
Limitations of Piaget’s Theory
- The sample he used - used his own kids when conducting experiments - small sample, cant be generalised to the whole pop - has an effect on his findings due to observer bias, HOWEVER natural behaviour
- He carried out observations by himself - no inter - observer reliability, reduces reliability of observations + validity
What is Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
- States our thoughts and behaviours are affected and formed by the language we speak
- Means that diff cultures with a diff lang and vocab will have diff ways of thinking and understandings than we do
- Lead to a memory bias where the ability to recall/retrieve certain infor is increased/decreased
Strength of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
- There is evidence to support it -Compared Native American Lang with English and found out they have 1 word for blue whereas we have 2 separate words - due to out lang we view the 2 colours as diff and they dont - adds validity, furthermore English hash diff shades for each colour due to their lang ability
Limitations of Sapir-Whorf’s Hypothesis
- Methods are unreliable - Eskimo’s have nearly same number of words for snow as ppl who speak English - Whorf has never met anyone from the Hopi tribe
- Books and other forms of written literature can be translated into completely different languages without them losing their meaning to readers - lowers validity
- Doesnt consider ppl who dont have the ability to speak like ppl with a stroke - theory states that lang comes before cognition and lang dictates the way we understand things - prob cuz it reduces calidity doesnt reflect how ppl irl think and behave - still able to think
Whats posture?
Positioning of the body, often regarded as a non-v communication signal
Whats territory?
An area defended by an animal or group of animals against others
Touch
non-v com. in which info in conveyed by physical contact between ppl
Diff between human and animal communication
Animals use vocalisations ( com. by sound)
What types of msgs do animals communicate through their vocalisations?
- Expressing interest in a mate
- Showing alarm/ telling others to back off
Similarities between human non v com. and animals
- Facial expressions to show emotion
- Body posture to show dominance/submission
- Use of touch for bonding/reassurance
4 main reasons why animals communicate
- Survival
- Reproduction
- Territory
- Food
Examples of survival
- Alarm calls to signal presence of predators + threat signals to warn others to back off
Examples of territory
- Monkeys use eye contact to show dominance
- Unbroken eye contact makes them aggresive
Examples of reproduction
- Colours to attract a mate - peacocks + warn off predators
Examples of food
- Bees dance (movement) to tell where food is
- Ants send chemical smells (pheromones) to send msgs and location of food
Properties only part of human communication
- Productivity - abillity to create unlimited number of diff msgs - allowed lang to be used creatively
- Displacement - abaility to comm. about things in the future, planning ahead
Limitations of Design Features of Lang
- We don’t know which properties of language are desgin features used only by humans cuz we dont fully understand animal com - research constantly being changed
- Although some animals, such as Koko the gorilla, can use the same properties of communication as humans, this behaviour is not naturally occurring behaviour and such animals may therefore be simply imitating humans.
- Ethical concerns, keeping wild animals and training them to behave in ways is ethically cruel
Aim of Von Frisch’s Bee Study 1950
Investigate how bees ocmmunicate the location of a food source to each other
Methods of Von Frisch Bee Study
- Food sources for a hive of bees were created by placing glass containers of sugar water at diff locations
- HIve with glass sides used so bees can be observed
- When bees visitied containers of sugar, they were marked with diff coloured paints
- Made it easy to identify which container to went to when they reached the hive
Dependant variable of Von Frisch
How bees communicate the location of a food source to each other
Independant variable of Von Frisch
Location of sugar water
Type of experiment and why - Von Frisch
Field - water has deliberately been placed in a certain location, no naturally occuring
Results of Von Frisch
- Bees made diff movements that seemed to depend on how far away the fource source was from the hive
- Food less than 100m = round dance, turning rapidly in circles to the right then left
- Food more than 100m = waggle dance
- Straight part of the dance to communicate where food was in relation to current position of the sun
Strengths of Von Frisch
- Von Frisch’s research is important as it was one of the primary studies into animal communication and influenced other researchers to conduct research into animal communication.
- Reliable, others have recreated it, similar results, reliability = trustworthy and valid results