THOUGHT & LANGUAGE Flashcards
language hierarchy
sentence- phrase- word- morpheme- phoneme
phonemes (sounds)
single unit of sound that changes meaning (e.g. dog vs. log) → about 40 in English
- not all languages have the same phonemes
morphemes
the smallest language units that carry meaning are morphemes
unbound/ free morphemes
words (function and content)
bound morphemes
affixes and suffixes (function)
semantic processing
processing content words, the meaning of these content words
- maps onto concepts, and concept is a unit of semantic processing
syntactic processing
processing function words (grammatical function: and, or, she, it, etc)
semantics distinction/ syntax: content words
– nouns (dog, book, peace, student)
– verbs (walk, swim, sleep, teach, learn)
– adjectives → modify nouns (warm, beautiful, good, kind)
– some adverbs → modify verbs (well, poorly)
semantics distinction/ syntax: function words
– pronouns (she, he, it, we, they)
– prepositions (in, of, on, out, at, by)
– conjunctives (and, but, or)
– words such as that, this, a the, if
broca’s asphasia
the inability to produce and understand language
language-relevant brain areas:
- right-handed people: left hemisphere, mostly lower edge of frontal lobe and upper edge of temporal lobe
broca’s area: located near areas that control speech muscle
syntax
- refers to the structure of language→ phrases and sentences
- rules for ordering words are learned implicitly
- some sequences of words are allowed, but others are not
word class
ie. adjective, noun, verb → word order helps us identify the word class
word order
who is doing what to whom
- languages differ their word order
wernicke’s aphasia
the inability to produce and understand language
language-relevant brain areas:
- right-handed people: left hemisphere, mostly lower edge of frontal lobe and upper edge of temporal lobe
wernicke’s area: left temporal lobe → next to primary auditory cortex → translates sounds into meaning
proposition
statement that expresses an idea
- action –> verb
surface structure vs deep structure
surface: organisation of words at a surface level
deep: meaning of sentence
- one deep structure but two surface structures
categorical speech perception
- perception of consonant sounds becomes categorical → different categories of sound
- detection of phonemic change is modified by experience
- 9 months: children fine tune their perception to the language they are growing up in
VOT
time interval between release of consonant and onset of voicing
what are the 3 infant sounds
cooing (2 months), reduplicated babbling (6-7 months), variegated babbling (11-12 months)
what causes infant speech production
- the shape of the infant vocal tract
- development of motor cortex
comprehension vs production
- word comprehension (receptive vocabulary) precedes productive vocabulary by an average of 4 months
initial acquisition rate for comprehension is twice that of production - even phoneme production lags behind comprehension
the vocabulary burst
major increase in productive vocabulary acquisition rate after first 50 words are learned
why?
- symbolic nature of language
- control over articulation
- easier retrieval
underextension
“dog” only for family dog but not other dogs
overextension
- “dog” to refer to dogs and cats
- “moon” for orange, lamp, fingernail clipping
- “milk” for white blanket, puddle
protowords
pre-word word
non-verbal functions of language
pitch and turn-taking
holophrases
word in place of entire statement (playground)
early sentences
- 2-year-olds begin to combine
- possession, naming, attributes, action
nativist language
children are predisposed to learn language
- language bio program hypothesis children are innately predisposed to acquire the syntax of language
language acquisition device (noam chomsky)
- acquire quickly
- acquire effortlessly
- acquire without being taught
creoles language
language drawing on words and grammar from a group of languages
pidgin language
when a pidgin is acquired natively, grammatically more complex
sensitive period in learning language
the ideal time for acquiring certain parts of language
- ends by puberty
- genie – poor language ability due to isolation during sensitive period. intensive language therapy, different acquisition of words vs. syntax
- deaf signers – better at detecting syntax errors when exposed to sign earlier
transitional probabilities of words
- probability of 1= denotes a word
- eg., tu always followed by piro
- probability of 0.33= denotes a word boundary
- eg., ro could be followed by go, bi or pa
parentese
simplified speech and exaggerated intonation
context of word learning
- child behaviour guides talk
- words refer to things: gaze and objects are connected
- words come from social routines
western cultures and feedback in language
- more independent
- internal attributes are salient
- self-concept is seperate from group
- personal goals take priority
- “child-centred talk”
interdependent cultures and feedback
- social roles are most salient
- self-concept is part of the group
- group goals is part of the group
- group goals are prioritised
- relationships are crucial
- “situation-centred talk”
representation
knowledge of the world which forms the content of our thoughts
analogical representations
mental images: picture of dog represents concept of dog
symbolic representations
propositional thoughts- “internal statements”
mental imagery
a representation of a stimulus that originates inside your brain, rather than from external sensory input
deductive reasoning
start with a belief → what are the implications of those beliefs
move from general principles or rules to specific instances
logic problems: validity of conclusion follows from the premises
syllogism (if/ then problems)
- all animals have 4 legs premise
- fluffy is an animal premise
- fluffy has 4 legs conclusion
conclusions follow from the premises – valid
logical rule for syllogisms
if something is true for all members of a category and A is a member of that category, then
that something will also be true for A
move from general principles or rules to specific instances
inductive reasoning
- test hypotheses from data to theories
- start with specifics and infer general principles
what influences our ability to reason deductively?
- belief bias
- confirmation bias
- the content of what we are reasoning about matters
belief bias
reason on the basis of plausibility rather than logical rules
- all humans are capable of evil
- children are human
= all children are capable of evil
people judge whether the conclusion is plausible
on its 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
heuristics
shortcuts that are correct much of the time (fast thinking) that helps conserve cognitive resources
availability heuristic
probability estimates are influenced by how easy it is to retrieve information
- used to judge the frequency of something happening
strategies for problem solving and making decisions
- trial and error
- algorithm
- heuristics (means-end analysis)
problem solving
- overcoming obstacles
- beginning and an end (goal
- includes procedures
hill climbing in problems
- changes the present state of the problem (make subgoals) to move step-by-step to the big goal
- doesn’t always work - Inconsistent with classic farmer problem (as moving away from overall goal)
examples of divergent thinking
- 9-dot problem
- matchstick problem
- 3 cut, 8 slice cake
examples of searching for an analogy
- radiation problem
- parallelogram –> arrow area problem
- inspired by nature –> velcro
language position 1
language is independent of thought/ cognition
- powerful abstract thinking can take place without language
- babies have concepts before language
language position 2
language influences cognition
- language profoundly influences how we think
- children’s conceptual development correlates strongly
with language development
whorfian hypothesis
having specific language determines or influences how we think
berlin & kay: focal colour
the most representative colour of the colour category
- examined the colour terms of 20 languages
- languages vary widely in the number of colour terms they have
- set of basic colour terms
- evolution of colour names is systematic
russian blues
- two words for blues – goluboy and siniy
- russian speakers have greater discrimination speed between categories of blue
- when forced to verbalise, russian speakers lost advantage
heider: dani tribe theory
dani tribe only use two colour names: light and dark- evidence against whorfian hypothesis
ego moving
- present to future
- wednesday to friday
time moving
future to past
- wednesday to monday
spatial prime
- riding chair (ego moving) vs. pulling chair (time moving)
- spatial prime influences thought about lecture date being moved 2 days
boroditsky spatial metaphor study
mandarin (think about time vertically) vs. english (think about time horizontally)
- primed with spatial prime
- speakers faster when primed with spatial prime that matches their language
intelligence
the ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively and to deal adaptively with the environment
intelligence and head size
samuel morton (1820s‐1850s):
- believed head size related to intelligence (the more the better)
- ranking of races
intelligence and brain weight
paul broca (1824‐1880):
- weighed brains of cadavers
- compared groups
- believed heavier brain = more intelligence
- corrected for body size
- gender biases
francis galton
- IQ is hereditary
- first attempts to measure intelligence
- perception
- quick responding
- strength
- found no relation between social class and performance
correlation between IQ and brain efficiency
cortex of highly able children starts off thinner at age 7, reaches peak thickness later –> extended window of opportunity for developing high-level cognitive circuits?
alfred ginet
- stanford binet IQ test – psychological construct
- test to predict school success
- intelligence is performance on complex tasks, multiple levels of difficulty
- believed it was a general ability – not accumulation of info
- excluded tasks that did not correlate with school performance
intelligence quotient calculation for children
(mental age/chronological age) x 100
- allowed comparisons among individuals
sternberg’s triarchic theory
- seek to achieve goals = be successful
- adapt to environment
- three circles: analytic, creative, practical
- and… wisdom-based skills
the correlation coefficient (r)
- r measures the magnitude of the relation
between two variables - r ranges from –1.00 to +1.00
gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences
- no such thing as unified intelligence
- many types, some may be high and others low:
> linguistic
> musical
> logical
> spatial
> bodily
> inter/intrapersonal
influence from culture on intelligence
different cultures value different intelligences
> talking versus listening
> skills that foster stable intergroup relations
> social competence over intellectual ability
> relative importance of intelligence
spearman’s two factor theory
intelligence consists of:
- g (general) factor
- s (specific) factors
- g underlies performance on all intelligence subtests
- s specific to type of task (computation, vocabulary, digit
span)
the bell curve (1994, hernstein & murray) claimed that:
- IQ tests measure what most people think of as intelligence
- psychologists agree that a general factor (g) exists
- IQ is almost impossible to modify through education and special training
- IQ is mostly genetically determined
- racial differences in IQ are the result of heredity
- US govt wasting money with enrichment programs
DEEPLY FLAWED
genes vs environment: genes
- inherited diseases
- PKU, tay sachs
- non-inherited influences
- down’s syndrome
genes vs environment: environment
- teratogens
- nutrition
- stimulation
- trauma
- schooling
- poisons (lead, mercury)
abecedarian project – 1970s
- low SES individuals – developmental intervention pre-K –> 5 y/o (lots of stimulation!)
- differences between two groups significant, intervention improved functioning
- 70% of intervention went to higher education or skilled labour (vs. 40%)
- language development crucial
- showed that intelligence is not fixed (despite heritability)l
evidence for environment effects on IQ
- mean difference in IQ between groups is changing
- african and Euro-American scores changing
- immigrant groups in US
- environment can influence the development of particular cognitive abilities
- african-American children adopted into high SES families show significantly higher IQ scores than those who remain in lower SES homes
*heritability estimates vary as a function of SES
*stereotype threat – making stereotype salient can negatively impact performance
