Week 12: Language Flashcards
What is the main capacity of humans regarding language?
Humans have the capacity to use complex language far more than any other species on Earth.
How is language used in human society?
Language is used to communicate and construct social relationships.
What is the ‘common ground’ in a conversation?
Common ground is a set of knowledge that the speaker and listener share.
What is meant by ‘audience design’ in language use?
Speakers design their utterances based on the audience’s knowledge.
What happens to common ground as conversations progress?
Common ground shifts and changes as participants add new information.
True or False: Most conversations occur in groups larger than four.
False
What percentage of everyday conversation is estimated to be gossip?
60%–70%
What is the significance of gossip in human communication?
Gossip helps share representations about social worlds and maintain social relationships.
According to Dunbar’s social brain hypothesis, what is the estimated group size humans can support?
Approximately 150
Fill in the blank: Language, brain, and human group living have _______.
[co-evolved]
What is ‘linguistic intergroup bias’?
A tendency to describe ingroup members positively and outgroup members negatively.
What are situation models in the context of conversation?
Representations about the topic of a conversation.
What does priming in conversation refer to?
Thinking about one concept reminds you of related concepts.
How do people coordinate language use in conversation?
By interactively aligning each other’s actions at different levels of language use.
What is one way that language use can affect social relationships?
It can regulate social dynamics by reinforcing ingroup and outgroup distinctions.
Who proposed the concept that gossip is the human equivalent of grooming in primates?
Dunbar
What is the primary form of language use according to the text?
Interpersonal communication
What is the role of emotional stories in gossip?
They can spread through broader social networks.
According to Semin and Fiedler, what do action verbs convey?
Particularity of an action.
According to Semin and Fiedler, what do adjectives convey?
Permanency of an actor’s tendency.
What is the significance of the Nicaraguan Sign Language example?
It illustrates that language can develop spontaneously among individuals.
What is the relationship between language use and psychological consequences?
Language use can have psychological impacts on individuals and their social interactions.
What is the ingroup bias?
Ingroup members are typically good, and if they do anything bad, that’s more an exception; outgroup members are typically bad, and if they do anything good, that’s more an exception.
How does gossip spread through social networks?
Gossip can be transmitted from one person to another, creating a chain of communication, often spreading emotive stories.
What happens to stories as they travel through communication chains?
They tend to become conventionalized.
What is an example of a mythic tale that transformed through retelling?
The Native American tale of the ‘War of the Ghosts’ transformed from a warrior’s encounter with ghosts to a story of a young warrior going to a battlefield.
What does the term ‘common ground’ refer to?
Information that is shared by people who engage in a conversation.
What was Kashima’s (2000) experiment about?
It involved a story with stereotypical and counter-stereotypical actions, revealing that counter-stereotypical information was often dropped in retellings.
What are the psychological consequences of language use?
Language shapes thoughts and feelings, and can bias memory of experiences.
What effect does verbally explaining emotions have on memory?
It leads to remembering the emotion more intensely.
What brain structure is involved in processing negative emotions?
Amygdala.
How does linguistic labeling of negative experiences affect psychological well-being?
It can improve psychological well-being compared to merely thinking about them.
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
The hypothesis that the language that people use determines their thoughts.
How can language influence memory according to Hoffman, Lau, and Johnson (1986)?
Language can enhance memory retention, as seen in the example of describing Steven in Chinese vs. English.
What is an example of a linguistic practice influencing cultural values?
Pronoun drop in languages like Japanese is associated with collectivistic values.
Fill in the blank: Language is an essential tool that enables us to live the kind of life we _______.
[do].
True or False: Language completely determines our thoughts.
False.
What is ‘audience design’ in language use?
Constructing utterances to suit the audience’s knowledge.
What does ‘lexicon’ refer to?
Words and expressions.
What is ‘linguistic intergroup bias’?
A tendency for people to characterize positive things about their ingroup using more abstract expressions, and negative things about their outgroups using more abstract expressions.
What is a ‘situation model’?
A mental representation of an event, object, or situation constructed at the time of comprehending a linguistic description.
What is the ‘social brain hypothesis’?
The hypothesis that the human brain has evolved to maintain larger ingroups.
What are ‘social networks’?
Networks of social relationships among individuals through which information can travel.
What does ‘syntax’ refer to?
Rules by which words are strung together to form sentences.
What is theory of mind?
The capacity to perceive and understand mental states
Theory of mind involves a range of psychological processes essential for social life.
Why is theory of mind critical in social life?
It helps infer what others are thinking and feeling, facilitating complex social interactions
This includes activities like teaching, collaborating, and sharing experiences.
How do individuals with autism differ in their processing of others’ minds?
They often have difficulties with automatic processing of facial expressions and inferring intentions
This can lead to a more analytical and slower processing of social interactions.
What is the role of theory of mind in language acquisition?
It is considered a prerequisite for natural language acquisition
Understanding mental states aids in learning words and their meanings.
What is the significance of understanding intentionality?
Intentionality involves recognizing that behaviors can be goal-directed and require specific beliefs
It helps differentiate between intentional actions and those resulting from luck.
Fill in the blank: The capacity to understand others’ minds is often referred to as _______.
[theory of mind]
What are some components of the theory of mind?
- Agents
- Goals
- Intentionality
- Imitation
- Empathy
- Joint attention
- Visual perspective taking
- Simulation
These components range from simple, automatic processes to more complex, deliberate ones.
What is the relationship between imitation and empathy?
Imitation can lead to automatic empathy by mimicking emotional expressions
This process allows individuals to feel emotions similar to those being expressed by others.
True or False: Theory of mind is a single, well-defined process.
False
It is a complex set of processes and tools for understanding mental states.
What is joint attention?
The shared focus of two individuals on an object
It is critical for learning object meanings and language.
What is visual perspective taking?
The ability to consider another person’s viewpoint in determining spatial relationships
It helps in understanding how the world appears from someone else’s perspective.
Fill in the blank: The process of using one’s own mental states as a model for understanding others is called _______.
[simulation]
What is the impact of synchrony in social interactions?
Increased synchrony can enhance enjoyment of interactions
It occurs when individuals unconsciously mimic each other’s behaviors.
What is simulation in the context of understanding others’ mental states?
Using one’s own mental states as a model for others’ mental states
This allows individuals to imagine how they would feel in another’s situation.
What is the ‘like-me’ assumption?
The inclination to assume that others think, feel, and want what we do
This can lead to egocentrism in perspective taking.
What is egocentrism in perspective taking?
The failure to recognize that others have different perspectives from our own
It can result in misjudging others’ thoughts and feelings.
What does the Sally-Anne task assess?
Children’s ability to pass a false-belief test
It tests whether a child understands that others can hold beliefs that differ from their own.
What is the primary challenge in understanding others’ mental states?
Separating one’s own knowledge, feelings, and beliefs from those of the other person
This requires recognizing that others may have different perspectives.
What are some tools humans use to understand other minds?
Motion, faces, gestures, imitation, joint attention, projection, simulation, mental-state inference
These tools help link observed behavior to inferred mental states.
What is a folk explanation of behavior?
Natural explanations for why somebody acted or felt a certain way
This differs for unintentional versus intentional behaviors.
What is intentionality?
The quality of performing a behavior intentionally, with skill and awareness
It involves executing an intention based on a desire and relevant beliefs.
What is the role of joint attention in social interaction?
Two people focusing on the same object and being aware of each other’s focus
This facilitates shared understanding and communication.
What are mirror neurons?
Neurons that fire both when an action is performed and when it is observed in others
They play a role in understanding others’ actions and intentions.
What does projection refer to in social perception?
Assuming that another person wants, knows, or feels the same as oneself
This can lead to inaccurate assumptions about others’ mental states.
What is the definition of simulation in social understanding?
The process of representing the other person’s mental state
It allows individuals to empathize and understand others’ experiences.
What is the significance of theory of mind?
The capacity to understand minds and infer mental states
It encompasses concepts like agent, intentionality, and processes like empathy and perspective taking.
Fill in the blank: Automatic empathy is when a social perceiver unwittingly takes on the _______ of another person.
[internal state]
True or False: The need to explain behaviors is absent when it comes to understanding a criminal’s actions.
False
People feel compelled to find meaning in all behaviors, including puzzling ones.
What cognitive effort is typically required for adults to recognize false beliefs?
Adults often need to engage in cognitive effort to infer another’s false belief
This process can be challenging even for adults.
What is visual perspective taking?
Perceiving something from another person’s spatial vantage point or inferring their mental state
It involves effortful mental state inference.
