Language, thought and communication Flashcards
What is piaget’s theory of language
Thoughts comes before language
How is language developed in the sensorimotor stage
- Babies copy sounds they hear others make
- Start talking at the end of their first year
How is language developed in the preoperational stage
- Can talk about things not present (feelings/future etc)
- Language is egocentric
How is language developed in the concrete operational stage
- Mature and logical language
- Not egocentric
- Creates their own ideas
How is language developed in the formal operational stage
- Language used to talk about abstract/theoretical ideas
Strengths of Piaget’s language theory
- Was done on his own children (all behaviour was natural
Limitations of Piaget’s language theory
- May be biased, may have not recorded any date that didn’t fit his theory
- Was only done on middle class swiss children, can’t generalise to other cultures/upbringings
Sapir-Whorf language theory
Language influences thoughts
Strong version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- If your language has no word for something it’s impossible to think about it (why its difficult to translate concepts between languages
- The Inuits have 27 different words for snow, the way they think about snow is different to someone who only speaks English
Weak version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- Words help “carve up” the world (you can still imagine something and have no word for it)
- e.g. English speakers can think of different types of snow without having words for the
variations, but having words for the different types of snow makes it easier to
tell them apart - This version is preferred
Strengths of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- Has supporting research
- Tribes who have less words for different colours are slower at recognising certain colours
- How a word is described can influence how participants recall them, eg glasses/dumbell
Limitations of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
- Makes assumptions - lacks validity
- There is little difference between amount of english and inuit words for snow, but the inuit language uses suffixes (polysynthesis)
Aim of Von Frisch’s bee study
To investigate how bees communicate the location of food with each other
Method of Von Frisch’s bee study
- Bees were kept in a glass hive to be observed
- Bees were fed sugar water from different locations, either 10m from the hive, or 300m
- After they ate they were marked with paint so they can be identified
Results of Von Frisch’s bee study
- The bees danced differently depending on how far the food was
- Food was closer = round dance
- Food was far = waggle dance (figure of 8)
- 60% of bees who saw the dances found the food, indicating they understood the signals
Conclusion of Von Frisch’s bee study
Bees use a variety of different movements to communicate to each other the distance and direction of food sources
Strengths of Von Frisch’s bee study
- Major contribution to science for animal communication (won a nobel prize)
- Has been replicated many times and made more natural (wooden hives, flowers and pollen for food) and results were the same
Limitations of Von Frisch’s bee study
- Unnatural environment: bees don’t usually eat sugar water, live in glass hives or get painted
- Could have altered their natural behaviour
Functions of animal communication
Survival - monkeys use alarm signals to warn others of predators
Food - bees dance to show the location
Territory - rhinos produce 20-30 piles of dung to mark territory
Reproduction - peacocks stretch feathers to attract a female
What features of human communication are not present in animals
Planning ahead (eg a weekend trip) - animals communicate about the present
Creativity - humans are constantly making new sentences, but bees only have 2 dances
Multiple channels - animals only use dance and sounds, humans use multiple languages, body language, writing etc
How does eye contact link to conversations
Eye contact helps us understand when we need to speak in a conversation (people look away when about to finish, prompting the other person to start)
How does eye contact link to attraction
Research found people are seen as more attractive when holding eye contact
How does eye contact link to emotions
Eye contact (or lack of) can influence how strongly we view the emotion
- Joy and anger are more intense with a direct gaze
- Fear and sadness are more intense with an averted gaze
