Module 1 - Thought and Language Flashcards
what is a phoneme
a single unit of sound that changes the meaning . They are important initial blocks of building blocks
what are morphemes?
are units of language which have meaning, which can only be realised when it is attached to the word
words, suffixes and prefixes are examples of ?
morpheme
content and function words are example of ?
morphemes
what are content words?
these words carry meaning of the sentence
what does semantic processing rely on?
content words
What are function words?
these carry grammatical information, help you understand the relationship between content words
what does syntactic processing rely on?
function words
examples of content words?
- nouns, verbs, adjectives , some adverbs
Examples of function words?
- pronouns, prepositions, conjunctivas
brocas aphasia ?
the inability to produce language
where is broca’s area located in the right handed people?
left hemisphere, mostly lower edge of the frontal lobe and upper edge of temporal lobe
what is syntax refer to?
refers to the structure of language, phrases and sentences
- it refers to the rules for ordering words are learned implicitly
what is syntaxed cued by?
- word order
- word class
what does word order help us identify?
word class i.e subject, object
wernicke aphasia ?
the inability to understand language
where is wernickle area located in right handed people?
left temporal -> next to primary auditory cortex -> translated sounds into meaning
what is a proposition?
statement that expresses an idea
what is surface structure ?
organisation of words at a surface level
What is deep structure ?
meaning of sentence
what does one deep structure but two surface structure ?
words in two sentences are organised differently but underlying meaning is the same
Explain the experiment involved in early infant speech perception?
infants were able to detect the difference between ga and ba. The experiment consisted of infants sucking on the device and the sucking would lead to it making a sound. When they detect a new sound they start sucking hard, when they get used to the sound they stop sucking hard and then again when the sound changed they start sucking hard again
how is phonemic change detected ?
modified by experience
why are infants limited to making limited set of sounds?
- the shape of the infant vocal tract hence less space for tongue to move around
- development of motor cortex
what is the age by which word comprehension precedes productive vocabulary?
an average of 4 months
does phoneme production lag behind comprehension?
Yes
when does the major increase in productive vocabulary acquisition rate happen
after the first 50 words are learned
why is there a major increase in productive vocabulary acquisition rate happen after the first 50 words
- symbolic nature of language
- control over articulation
- easier retrieval
what is underextension?
I.E dog only applies to the family dog but not other dogs
what is overextension?
i.e milk word used for white blanket, puddle as it shares similar characteristics of milk
what are non-verbal function of language ?
convey something to you - i.e pitch, question, statement
what are holophrases?
a single words that stand for an entire statement i.e water
by what age does syntax begins to resemble adult language ?
by 4 years
what are nativist idea of language ?
- children are biologically predisposed to learn language
what are the nativist views of language ? (3)
- children acquire language rapidly
- children acquire language effortlessly
- Children acquire language without being taught
Pidgin languages ?
invented language drawing on words and grammar from a group of language
Creoles languages ?
- when the pidgin is acquired as a native language
- grammatically more complex
what is a sensitive period ?
ideal time for acquiring certain parts of language
what does sensitive period end?
by end of puberty once lateralisation
what was newport 1990 experiment ?
it was in deaf signer individuals, where he exposed the sign language at different times to different groups, it was seen that the earlier the sign language is introduced the more they are able to detect syntax in adults
what are the 3 theories which is believed through which children acquire langauge?
- language is innately acquired
- children learn language through general learning mechanisms
- language is leaned through social interactions
what does the theory of children learn language through general learning mechanisms state?
Children have the ability to pick up on statistical leaning - it is statistical learning through which they learn
what are the general learning capactites?
- children have highly developed pattern recognition systems
- allow children to form language categories through picking up on regularities without resorting to innate language categories
what was the experiment conducted by Saffran et a; 1996
he discovered that in both of his experiment infants listened to novel words
what is social learning ?
social learning is the way child learns to pick up vocal from the people they tend to spend the most time with as children’s vocabulary are strongly associated with the amount of language parents use with their children
what are the social context of early word learning
- parents let child’s behaviour guide their talk
- words refer to things - children learn that gaze and objects are connected
- early words emerge as parts of social routines
properties of independent cultures?
- internal attributes most salient
- self concept seperate from group
- personal goals will take priority over group goals
properties of interindependent cultures?
- social role most salient
- concept is part of the group
- group goals take priority
- relationships crucial
what is child-centred talk ?
adapt talk to child’s level
what is situation centred talk
adapt learns to adapt to situation
what is representation?
knowledge of the world which forms the content of our thoughts
how do you re-present the world to oneself?
- analogical representations
2. Symbolic representation
what are analogical representation?
mental images
what are symbolic representations?
propositional thoughts - internal statement
what is mental imagery ?
a representation of a stimulus that originates inside your brain, rather than from external sensory input.
what was the mental rotation study?
Participants are shown a stimulus i.e R which is rotated between 0 and 360 degrees and decide whether the letter is normal or mirror image.
The results were that how long it takes them to decide is dependent on how much the letter is rotated
analogical mental representation ?
representation itself resembles in some way what is happening outside, what it is, your representing
what are symbolic representations?
represents any kind of content but don’t resemble what it is they stand for
what are propositions?
these are statements that express ideas. They are made of concepts
what are concepts ?
an um-ambigous internal representation that defines a group or set off objects or events . Concepts are mental representations of categories
what does categories is useful ?
it allows us to know what to expect each time you encounter a member of the category.
statement that express ideas…..
express the relationship between concepts
what are propositions?
are made up of a subject, and whats being asserted about that subject (predicate)
semantics?
a network between concepts
what is reasoning ?
- intelligent thought
- making decision , problem solving
- drawing implication from our beliefs
what is deductive reasoning ?
the validity of a conclusion follows from the premises
- starts with a belief and the goes on - what are the implications of those beliefs
example of deductive reasoning?
- all people in location C of the cave need to dive to exit
- the children are in location C
- therefore the children need to dive to get out
- initial premised need to be correct
what is inductive reasoning ?
- start with specifics and infer general principles
e.g of inductive reasoning ?
pieces of data - you ate two pineapples, both of which were sour
conclusion - pineapples as a rule are sour
what influences our ability to reason deductively?
- belief bias
- confirmation bias
- the content of what we are reasoning about matters
belief bias?
people judge whether the conclusion is plausible on is own, rather than following the logic
confirmation bias ?
seek information that confirms what one already believes
- people prefer to seek confirmation than to falsify hypotheses
what is informal reasoning?
making judgements - drawing conclusion from exerpience
what is availability heuristics ?
probability estimated are influenced by how easy it is to retrieve information
what is problem solving ?
- overcoming an obstacle to reach a goal
- beginning and an end goal
- includes procedures to get from start to end
basic steps tp follow to solve a problem ?
- understand the problem
- generate possible solutions ( hypotheses)
- test these solutions
- evaluate results, and revise if necessary
what are the general strategies for problem solving ?
- trial and error
- algorithm
- heuristics - mean and analysis
algorithm?
a rule that guarantees a solution
heuristic?
a strategy that doesn’t guarantee a solution, but often they work, they save time
what is mean end analysis ?
- its a process in which you have to work step by step to get closer to your goal as you solve the problem
i. e tower of hanoi
what is the technique hill climbing ?
you change the present state of the problem so that you are one step closer to solving the problem
- When we move away from the solution, we find it hard , gives cognitive insight on how do we stricture our solution and problem solving
what is divergent thinking?
generating multiple solutions to one problem
dunckers 1945 radiation problem ?
people were able to solve the problem easier when they were presented with an analogy before telling them the radiation problem
what are the obstacles to problem solving
mental set, functional fixedness
what is the mental set?
habits and assumptions you bring to solving a problem
how to overcome obstacles ?
- take a break, it might release you from a mental set
- practice divergent thinking
list 5 things to successful problem solving ?
- practice and expertise
- analyse , plan and evaluate
- thinking of different ways to represent a problem
- look for analogies
- watch out for pitfalls such as functional fixedness and mental set
what is position one of language and thought
language is independent of cognition
what is position two of language and thought
language influences cognition
what is the Whorfian hypothesis
having a specific language determines (strong version ) or influences(weak version) how we think.
what do we have more evidence for the whorfian hypothesis
on the weak version that language might influence or shape how we think
3 points of evidence which support the weak version
- colour processing
- space and time
3 culture and thinking style
name the person who carried out studies which provided evidence against the whofian hypotheses
- eleanor rosch
what did eleanor rosch study consisted of and the results and what did she want to prove
- studied the Dani tribe, they only used 2 colour term - light and dark
- she wanted to prove that colour cognition was inherently hardwired.
results- perception , memory and discrimination of focal colours were similar to speaker whose language coded many colour terms and not just light and darlk
name 2 studies which provided evidence against the whorfian hypotheses
- the dani tribe
- russian blue
what did the russian blue study consist of, - state the hypothesis
does the lack of colour name influence the perception of colour?
In the Russian language light blue and dark blue are two different distinct categories whereas in English it is not .
So the hypothesis is that if they are siting in the different category, it is much easier to distinguish between them then if it is perceived when the are sitting in one categories
what were the results of the russian blue experiment
4
- high accuracy
2. russian speakers were faster to discriminate colours between categories than within categories
3. english speakers showed no categorical advantage
4. russian speakers discrimination affected by verbal interference but not english speakers
what does space and time reinforce of the weak version
spatial metaphors reinforce habitual ways of thinking about time
what are temporal relation often marked with
spatial metaphors
what was the boroditsky 2001 ?
studied how spatial metaphors of time how one thinks about time
- had 2 different language speakers - english and mandarin
- Mandarin - think about time vertically
- English speakers - think about time horizontally
what is the eastern holistic style ?
- emphasising contexts and relations between elements
what is the western analytic style ?
focus on objects and properties
what does the eastern thinking style entail?
preference for dialectical (compromise) approaches and tolerance contradictions
what does the western thinking style entail?
preference for avoiding contradiction, determining which position is correct.
how does your language affect ones thinking
the language one speaks can generate a specific style of thinking
what is intelligence?
the ability to acquire knowledge, to think and what reason effectively and to deal adaptively with the environment
what were Samuel morton early ideas?
- believed head size is related to intelligence - the bigger the better
what were paul borca’s ideas?
- heavier brain = more intelligent
what is the modern idea of intelligence ?
examine correlations between IQ and brain imaging - the belief is that brains of an intelligent individual will be more efficient
The modern idea around brain function is to do with efficient brain functioning rather than size and weight
what was sir francis galtons idea?
- intelligence is hereditary
- the building blocks of intelligence are
- ability to perceive something
- quickness of response
- strength (believed in the weaker sex)
what did francis galton examine and what did he find?
- examined whether performance on tasks related to how smart other people think a person is
Results - no relation to social class
- developed statistical techniques - pearsons r correlation coefficient
what did afred binet do?
- developed a test to predict schools sucscess
what did alfred binet believe?
- he believed that intelligence was based in how well a child could do complex tasks with many difficult levels
- believed that intelligence was a general ability, not just the accumulation of knowledge
how to measure IQ
(mental age / chronological age ) x 100
mental age ?
average age at which children achieve a particular score
chronological age
real age of the child
what did lewis terman and henry goddard promote ?
mass testing
what was the implication of intelligence test?
People who would be immigrant, the first thing they would get was the pen and paper to test their IQ after being days on a boat - so not efficnicet results
what are the subscales of IQ
Verbal and perfomance IQ
examples of perceptual reasoning
- block design
- matrix reasoning
- visual puzzles
what are the 2 sub categories under verbal iq
verbal comprehension and working memory index
what are the 2 sub categories under perfoemance IQ
perceptual organisation index and processing speed
examples of processing speed ?
- symbol search
- coding
examples of verbal comprehension?
- vocab - “define table”
- comprehension
- information
examples of working memory?
- digital soen
- arithmetic
what is the difference between contemporary IQ test and early IQ test
mental age replaced with standardised score
what is the flynn effect ?
He discovered when he was looking the data they was increases of IQ between 5-25 points per generation
does correlation imply causation?
No
what was spear-mans two factor theory ?
If you do well on one subset, you will also do well on the another hence postitive correlation
consists of
g - general factor
s - specific factor
what goes the g factor underlie
- underlies the performance on all intelligence subtests
what does the s factor underlie
s is specific to type of task ( computation, vocabubulary)
what are 2 forms of g
fluid and crystallised intelligence
what is fluid intelligence?
ability to learn, perceive relationships, deal with new problems
- stops increasing and begins to decline after adolscence
crystallised intelligence?
acquired knowledge from culture.
- continues to increase with age
what do intelligence scores predict ?
- job performance
- creativity
- health and wellbeing
what is sternbergs triarchic theory
4 ways to achieve intelligence
- creative skills
- analytic skills
- practical skills
- wisdom based skills
define analytic skill?
assessing the value of the idea
- compare and contrast
define creative skill?
generate ideas
define practical skill?
carry out the idea
- use what you have learned
what is gardners theory?
he believed that are there is no such thing as single unified intelligence, there are many types of intelligence. Some people may be high in some and low in some
cultural variations in the definition of intelligence ?
- talking verus listening
- skills that foster stable intergroup relations
- social competence over intellectual ability
- relative importance of intelligence
