Language, Thought and Communication Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is Piaget’s theory of language and thought
Piaget’s theory is that we learn through developing schemas and that thought and understanding comes first and then language develops.
The comments about Piaget’s theory of language and thought.
Piaget’s theory of language and thought.
- Thought and understanding first then language.
- Young children can have language without understanding it but can’t use if effectively.
- Sensorimotor: Children start to speak
Pre-operational: Children can talk about things not present.
Concrete operational stage when children develop their own ideas and start developing logical thought.
The Piaget’s theory of language and thought. Evaluation
iaget’s theory of language and thought. Evaluation:
+ supporting evidence: The order of children’s two word phrases show they understanding.
- Sapir-Whorf theory contradicts Piaget, he suggests that language comes first then understanding.
- Schemas cannot be scientifically measured.
What is the Sapir-Whorf Theory
The Sapir Whorf Theory is that you can’t think about something that you have no words for.
Main attributes of the Sapir-Whorf Theory of language and thought.
Main attributes of the Sapir-Whorf theory are:
- Thinking depends on language.
- Strong version: Language determines thought.
- Weak Version: Language influences thought. You can still imagine things with no word for them (preferred version).
- We have limited memory for things we have no words for.
The Sapir Whorf Theory: Evaluation
The Sapir Whorf Theory: Evaluation
- Differences are exaggerated. Inuit may only have 2 words for snow not 27, English has 4. (Pellum)
- thoughts come before language, if there is a lots of snow then this changes the way we perceive the environment which supports Piaget’s theory.
+ restricted and elaborate code: working class children use restricted language which affects their ability to think, explaining lower intelligence (Benstein)
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Name a cultural study and what did it find.
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Native Americans, The Hopi.
The Hopi don’t distinguish between past, present and future. This affects the way they think about time.
Language and thought. Our view of the world. How does language affect our recall of events.
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Language affecting recall of events.
A study by Carmichael et al found that memory for pictures was affected by the labels given.
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours, name two cultural groups studies
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours:
- Native Americans: The Zuni (one word for shades of yellow and orange)
- The Berinmo people of New Guinea (5 words for colours)
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours, The Zuni
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours.
The Zuni only have one word for for shades or orange and yellow and in a research study had difficulty distinguishing them (Brown and Lenneberg)
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours. The Berinmo
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours.
The Berinmo people had difficulty recalling colours except those that matched the five words for colour they have. (Roberson et al)
1 for green, blue and purple 1 for yellow orange and brown 1 for all dark colours 1 for white and light colours 1 for shades of red and pink
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours, evaluation, The Hopi and Berinmo
Language and thought. Our view of the world. Variation in recognition of colours, evaluation, The Hopi and Berinmo
- difficulty with cross-cultural understanding. Participants from other cultures may misunderstand the task or fail to communicate their answers correctly.
- Opposite results found with the Dani people, who had no problem matching colours even though they only had two words for colour (Rosch and Oliver)
Human and Animal Communication:
Name a study on animal behaviour
Karl von Frisch’s bee study
Human and Animal Communication:
What study did Karl von Frisch undertake
Human and Animal Communication:
Von Frisch’s bee study
Human and Animal Communication:
Von Frisch’s bee study, aim, method, result, conclusion
Human and Animal Communication: Von Frisch’s bee study:
Aim: To describe the dances of honey bees to understand their communication.
Method:
Food placed close the the hive 10-20 metres
Food placed further from the hive upto 300 metres.
Observed bees 6k times over 20 years.
Results:
Round dance: moving in a circle to show pollen less than 100m away.
Waggle dance, side ways figure of eight shape points, waggles on the straight section (middle), direction of straight line shows directly. The slower the waggle dance the further away the food.
Conclusion:
sophisticated communication system exists.
Human and Animal Communication: Von Frisch’s bee study, evaluation.
Human and Animal Communication: Von Frisch’s bee study. Evaluation:
+ Scientific research which opened eyes to the capabilities of animals.
- Sounds matter too. Esch found that dances performed in silence were ignored.
- Other factors are important, Bees don’t respond to the waggle dance if they have to fly over water (Gould)
Human and Animal Communication:
Four functions of animal communication
Four functions of animal communication are:
- Survival
Vocal - Vervet monkeys alarm call
Visual - Rabbits tails lift, pin back ears and leap forward.
Why: Enhanced survival of the individual and group. - Reproduction; peacocks tail display, communication of genetic fitness.
- Territory; Rhino’s leave piles of dung to communicate boundaries.
- Food: Ants pheromone trail to communicate food source.
Human and Animal Communication:
Properties of human communication not present in animal communication
Human and Animal Communication:
Properties of human communication not present in animal communication:
- Plan ahead and discuss future events.
Things that aren’t present or future versus present eg food sources and predators. - Creativity, humans open system, animals closed system.
- Multiple channels of communication versus single channel.
Non Verbal communication: Name the three types
Non Verbal Communications: Three types of non verbal communication are:
- Eye contact
- Body language
- Personal space
Non verbal communication:
Eye contact: three things that using eye contact facilitates
Non verbal communication: Eye contact
- Regulating flow of conversation; Participants loked away when about to speak and gave prolonged gaze when about to finish (Kendon)
- Signalling attraction: People who use eye contact are judged as more attractive (Conway et al)
- Expressing emotion: Participants judged emotions as more intense if face looking straight at them (Adam and Kleck)
Non verbal communication: Eye contact evaluation
Non verbal communication: Eye contact evaluation
+ Real world application: People with autism taught to increase eye contact to improve social skills.
- use of rating scales: rating attractiveness can lack objectivity
- Artificial studies: Studies of eye contract involve artificial tasks which lack validity.
Non verbal communication: 3 types of posture and one gesture.
Non verbal communication: Body language.
Open and closed posture:
McGinley et al: Arguments given by a person with open posture led to greater opinion change than closed posture.
Postural Echo;
Tanner and Chartrand: Participants rated new drink more highly when presented with postural echo.
Touch: includes highfives, slapping etc.
Fisher: If librarian touched students on hand when returning library books the librarian was judged more positively.
Non verbal communication: Body language, evaluation
Non verbal communication: Body language, evaluation.
+ Real world application: People can use body language to build good relationships.
- Body language studies lack control. Could be other EV’s why participants like or dislike confederates.
- Body language studies are unethical. Lack of informed consent for being in field experiments lowers trust in psychologists.
Non verbal communication: Personal space. Three comments about personal space.
Non verbal communication: Personal space.
- Cultural differences:
Sommer: English 1-1.5m and Arabs less
Collett: Arabs liked Englishmen better if they stood closer. - Gender differences:
Fisher and Bryne: Woman feel most uncomfortable when person space invaded from the side for men it’s from the front. - Status difference:
Zahn: People with similar status stand closer than those with unequal status.
