Thought & Language

Question 1

What is the hierarchal nature of language?

Answer 1

Phonemes –> Morphemes –> Words –> Phrase –> Sentence

Question 2

What are phonemes?

Answer 2

They are single units of sounds that changes meaning. (dog –> log)

Typically 40 in English. Not all languages have the same phonemes.

Question 3

What are morphemes?

Answer 3

Smallest language units that carry meaning.

Question 4

Explain the difference between bound and unbound morphemes.

Answer 4

Unbound morphemes can contain function and content words, whilst bound morphemes are function suffixes and affixes.

Bound morphemes serve a functional role, prescribing possession (-‘s in Charlie’s, superlatives (-est in best), comparison (-er in better), plurality (-s in cans)

Question 5

What is the difference between semantic and syntactic processing?

Answer 5

Semantic processing relies on content words, which map onto concepts, which are units of semantic memory, creating categories.

Syntactic processing relies on function words. (pronouns, conjunctives, prepositions)

Question 6

What is the main difference witnessed between Wernicke’s and Broca’s aphasic patients?

Answer 6

Those with Wernicke’s aphasia can speak fluently, but fail in comprehension. Those with Broca’s aphasia struggle with function words, and has laboured speech, but is capable of comprehension.

Question 7

Explain surface vs deep structure.

Answer 7

Surface structure focuses on the word order / organisation of a sentence; the syntax. Meanwhile, deep structure focuses on meaning of the sentence.

Question 8

What do you call a sentence organised the same way, but have multiple meanings?

Answer 8

Ambiguous meaning, singular surface structure with multiple deep structures.

Question 9

What kinds of sounds can newborns perceive?

Answer 9

Many basic phoneme contrasts (diff between sounds) across different languages. They prefer organic speech over artificial sounds.

Question 10

When do children’s perceptions of consonant sounds become categorical?

Answer 10

At 9 months. Detection of phonemic change is modified by experience.

Question 11

What are the 3 types of sounds children make?

Answer 11

Cooing at 2 months, reduplicated babbling at 6 - 7 months (same syllable), variegated babbling (11 - 12 months, syllables w diff consonants & vowels).

At 10 months, babies’ sounds adapt to languages they hear.

Question 12

Why can infants only make a limited set of sounds?

Answer 12

Underdeveloped motor cortex + shape of infant vocal tract

Question 13

What are protowords?

Answer 13

Combination of syllables in replacement of actual words.

Question 14

Compare the rate of comprehending (receptive vocab) and producing (productive vocab) words.

Answer 14

Comprehension precedes production by an average of 4 months.

Initial acquisition rate of comprehension is twice of production.

Even phoneme production lags behind comprehension.

Question 15

When do we witness the Vocabulary Burst, and why?

Answer 15

After the first 50 words, there is major increase in productive vocab. There is easier retrieval (developed memory systems), understanding of the symbolic nature of language and control over articulation due to improved motor abilities.

Question 16

What does it mean when children overextend or underextend the meaning of words?

Answer 16

Under-extension: using the word “dog” to only refer to their dog, not other dogs

Over-extension: using the word “dog” to refer to cats too, “milk” for a puddle or white blankie

Question 17

As children acquire more words, they over-extend the meaning of words less. True or false?

Answer 17

True. They mostly over-extend due to lack of words readily available, hence resorting to closest substitutions.

Question 18

What are holophrases?

Answer 18

A singular word representing an entire statement. (saying “water” to warn you about a puddle, or that it’s gonna rain, or they want water)

Question 19

By 4 years, children’s syntax resembles that of adults’. True or false?

Answer 19

True.

Question 20

When do children begin to combine words?

Answer 20

At 2 years. They have specific meaning relations they like to convey.

Question 21

What are the 3 theories of how children acquire language?

Answer 21

Nativism, general learning capacities and social learning.

Question 22

What is the nativist view of language?

Answer 22

Founded by Noam Chomsky: children acquired language effortlessly and rapidly without teaching.

Question 23

What is the language bioprogram hypothesis?

Answer 23

It is the idea that creole languages share fundamental similarities with children’s, through pidgin language (natural simplified mingling of languages into one) that develops into creoles (more complex grammar).

Question 24

Is there a sensitive period for language, and how can this be demonstrated?

Answer 24

Yes. The period ends by puberty once lateralisation occurs, imposing maturational constraints. (harder to learn afterwards)

Demonstrated through:
deaf signers - those exposed to sign earlier had greater accuracy

isolated children - Genie: diff rates of progress for acquiring words vs syntax

Question 25

What is the theory behind general learning capacities?

Answer 25

Children have highly developed pattern recognition systems:

• statistical learning forms language categories & word boundaries by picking up on regularities without resorting to innate language categories.

Question 26

What is social learning and how much of a role do play in language learning?

Answer 26

Social learning: idea that children learn language from social interactions with parents, whose responses matter. Children’s vocab are strongly associated with amount of language parents use with children.

Manifests in parentese, social cultures and how talk is centred.

Question 27

What is parentese?

Answer 27

It is when parents simplify speech, use exaggerated intonation and gestures to interact with children.

Question 28

What is the difference between child-centred and situation-centred talk?

Answer 28

Child-centred talk involves parents adapting talk to the child’s level, and situation-centred talk involves the child adapting to the situation.

Question 29

What is the concept of representation?

Answer 29

Knowledge of the world forming the content of our thoughts.W

Question 30

What are the 2 types of representation?

Answer 30

Analogical: usually through mental imagery that originates inside brain, rather than external sensory input. Bears many similarities to what it is actually representing.

Symbolic: usually through propositional statements that don’t resemble what they stand for

Question 31

What are propositions?

Answer 31

They assert qualities about a certain subject, and expresses ideas and relationships between concepts, giving us an idea of what to expect from a member of certain categories.

Question 32

What are the 2 forms of reasoning?

Answer 32

Deductive: General principles –> specific instances, validity of conclusions follow from premises (syllogisms: if something is true for all members of a category, and A is part of that category, then it is true for A)

Inductive: usually testing hypotheses; reasoning based from specific experiences (seeing the sun rises every morning –> conclude that it rises every morning)

Question 33

What can impede our logical reasoning?

Answer 33

Belief biases, confirmation biases, social biases and availability heuristic.

Question 34

Explain the difference between belief and confirmation biases.

Answer 34

Belief bias reasons on the basis of plausibility rather than following the actual logic. Confirmation bias reasons based on beliefs we already helm, causing us to seek out information that would confirm rather than falsify our hypotheses.

Question 35

What are heuristics?

Answer 35

They are general rules of thumb commonly used to solve problems, faster and less demanding than applying careful reasoning. (save time, efficient, usually work)

Question 36

What is availability heuristic?

Answer 36

Used to judge the frequency of something happening, it is based on the saliency bias. If something is easier to retrieve, it is seen as more frequent.

Question 37

What is the Whorfian hypothesis?

Answer 37

It is the idea that our different languages affect how we think and problem solve. (colours, time, and culture)

Question 38

What did Samuel Morton believe about intelligence?

Answer 38

Head size determined intelligence. Bigger = smarter, ranked races

Question 39

Paul Broca believed that the weight of the brains determined intelligence. True or false?

Answer 39

True. The heavier, the smarter. Had gender biases.