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Exam 2 Results
• Top Score: 50
• Mean: 40
Thinking and Language • Median: 40
• Mode: 46
Chapter 9 • N: 47
Psy12000
• SD: 12.3
• Top Cumulative Score: 97
Objectives Language
Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the
• What are the basic structures of language way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others.
• Describe development of language in children
• Can/do animals communicate?
• What is the relationship between language and
thinking? Is one necessary for the other to
occur?
M. & E. Bernheim/ Woodfin Camp & Associates
• What are different types of thinking? How
accurate are they? How quick are they?
Language transmits culture.
4
Noam Chomsky (1972) The Importance of Language
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
“When we study v=OuUAPVFFCRQ&feature=fvwrel
human language we
are approaching what
some might call the
‘human essence,’ the
qualities of mind that
are, so far as we know,
unique to humans”
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Recommended YouTube
Language Structure
Videos on Language
Phonemes: (phonema [Greek]: a sound uttered)
Language Acquisition 1-4
The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken
• http://www.youtube.com/watch? language. For example:
v=PZatrvNDOiE&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=dsaqD9FVRsM&feature=related bat, has three phonemes b · a · t
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oimnxkEj4ns
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTbI- chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t
G42JoY&feature=related
• Genie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXeJ6qnsdD4
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Language Structure Structuring Language
Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. Basic sounds (a bit more than 40 in
Phonemes English) … ea, sh.
It may be a word or part of a word. For example:
Smallest meaningful units (100,000) …
Morphemes un, for.
Milk = milk
Meaningful units (290,500) … meat,
Pumpkin = pump . kin Words pumpkin.
Unforgettable = un · for · get · table
Composed of two or more words
Phrase (326,000) … meat eater.
Composed of many words (infinite) …
Sentence She opened the jewelry box.
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Grammar Semantics
Grammar is the system of rules in a language that Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive
enable us to communicate with and understand meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.
others. For example:
Grammar
Semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word
laugh means that it happened in the past.
Semantics Syntax
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Syntax Language Development
Syntax consists of the rules for combining words Children learn their native
into grammatically sensible sentences. For example: languages much before
learning to add 2+2.
We learn, on average (after
In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come age 1), 3,500 words a year,
before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; amassing 60,000 words by
Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images
casa blanca. the time we graduate from
high school.
Earrings Tiny Red Two
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When do we learn language? When do we learn language?
One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around his first
Babbling Stage: birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and
Beginning at 4 months, is able to make family members understand him. The
the infant spontaneously word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.
utters various sounds,
like ah-goo. Babbling is
not imitation of adult
speech.
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When do we learn language? When do we learn language?
Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year a child starts Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech, children
to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech begin uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball) with
is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks syntactical sense, and by early elementary school
like a telegram: “Go car,” means I would like to go they are employing humor.
for a ride in the car.
You never starve in the desert because of all the
sand-which-is there.
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When do we learn language? Question?
Is it through nature or nurture that
we learn how to speak?
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Explaining Language Development Explaining Language Development
1. Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed 2. Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959,
that language development may be explained on 1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that
the basis of learning principles such as the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it
association, imitation, and reinforcement. cannot be explained through learning principles,
and thus most of it is inborn.
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Explaining Language Development Language & Age
3. Statistical Learning and Critical Periods: Well Learning new languages gets harder with age.
before our first birthday, our brains are
discerning word breaks by statistically analyzing
which syllables in hap-py-ba-by go together.
These statistical analyses are learned during
critical periods of child development.
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Another Interview with Noam
Animals & Language
Chomsky
Do animals have a language?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOIM1_xOSro Honey bees communicate by dancing. The dance
moves clearly indicate the direction of the nectar. 26
Do Animals Exhibit Language? The Case of Apes
There is no doubt that Chimps do not have a vocal apparatus for human-
animals communicate. like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951). Therefore,
Gardner and Gardner (1969) used American Sign
Language (ASL) to train Washoe, a chimp, who
Vervet monkeys, whales learned 182 signs by the age of 32.
and even honey bees
communicate with
Copyright Baus/ Kreslowski
members of their species
and other species.
Rico (collie) has a
200-word vocabulary
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Teaching Language to
Gestured Communication
Chimpanzees
• Video on animal Animals, like humans, exhibit communication
through gestures. It is possible that vocal speech
language developed from gestures during the course of
evolution.
Many psychologists study nonverbal and paraverbal
communication
Washoe (1965-2007)
See also:
Lucy Temerlin (1964-1987) http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2010/oct/13/ 30
chimpanzee-gorilla-vocalisation-body-language
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Sign Language Computer Assisted Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is instrumental Others have shown that bonobo pygmy chimpanzees can
in teaching chimpanzees a form of develop even greater vocabularies and perhaps semantic
nuances in learning a language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991).
communication.
Kanzi and Panbanish developed vocabulary for hundreds of
words and phrases.
Paul Fusco/ Magnum Photos
Copyright of Great Ape Trust of Iowa
When asked, this chimpanzee uses
a sign to say it is a baby. 31 32
Criticism Language & Thinking
1. Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great Language and thinking intricately intertwine.
deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop
vocabularies at amazing rates.
2. Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward,
just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a
reward. However, pigeons have not learned a
language.
3. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack
Rubber Ball/ Almay
syntax.
4. Presented with ambiguous information, people tend
to see what they want to see.
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Language Influences Thinking Language Influences Thinking
Linguistic Determinism: Whorf (1956) suggested that When a language provides words for objects or events, we can
language determines the way we think. For example, think about these objects more clearly and remember them. It is
easier to think about two colors with two different names (A)
he noted that the Hopi people do not have the past
than colors with the same name (B) (Özgen, 2004).
tense for verbs. Therefore, the Hopi cannot think
readily about the past.
Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941) 35 36
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Word Power Linguistic Determinism Questioned
Increasing word power pays its dividends. It pays for Although people from Papua New Guinea do not use
speakers and deaf individuals who learn sign our words for colors and shapes, they still perceive
language. them as we do (Rosch, 1974).
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Thinking in Images Images and Brain
To a large extent thinking is language-based. When Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain
alone, we may talk to ourselves. However, we also regions as when actually performing the activity.
think in images.
We don’t think in words, when:
Jean Duffy Decety, September 2003
1. When we open the hot water tap.
2. When we are riding our bicycle.
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Language and Thinking Concept
Traffic runs both ways between language and The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
thinking. There are a variety of chairs but their common features define the
concept of a chair.
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Category Hierarchies Development of Concepts
We organize concepts into category hierarchies. We form some concepts with definitions. For
example, a triangle has three sides. Mostly, we
form concepts with mental images or typical
examples (prototypes). For example, a robin is a
prototype of a bird, but a penguin is not.
J. Messerschmidt/ The Picture Cube
Daniel J. Cox/ Getty Images
Courtesy of Christine Brune
43 Triangle (definition) Bird (mental image) 44
Algorithms Heuristics
Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust Heuristics are simple,
all possibilities before arriving at a solution. thinking strategies that
Computers use algorithms. allow us to make
judgments and solve
problems efficiently.
SPLOYOCHYG
B2M Productions/Digital Version/Getty Images
Heuristics are less time
consuming, but more
If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word error-prone than
using an algorithmic approach, we would face algorithms.
907,208 possibilities.
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Heuristics Insight
Heuristics make it easier for us to use simple
principles to arrive at solutions to problems. Insight involves a sudden
novel realization of a
solution to a problem.
SPLOYOCHYG Humans and animals have
insight.
S
PPSY
LOCY
HOOC
LHOGY
Put a Y at the end, and see if the word
begins to make sense. Grande using boxes to
47 obtain food 48
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Fixation Functional Fixedness
Fixation: An inability to see a problem from a fresh A tendency to think only of the familiar functions of
perspective. This impedes problem solving. Two an object.
examples of fixation are mental set and functional
fixedness. ?
Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by
The Matchstick Problem: How
would you arrange six matches
to form four equilateral
triangles?
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/621789/
how_do_you_make_4_triangles_with_6_matches/ Problem: Tie the two ropes together.
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Use a screw driver, cotton balls and a matchbox.
Functional Fixedness Using and Misusing Heuristics
Use the screwdriver as a weight, and tie it to the end Two kinds of heuristics, representative heuristics and
of one rope. Swing it toward the other rope to tie the availability heuristics, have been identified by
knot. cognitive psychologists.
?
of Louisville and the Tversky family
Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University
of Louisville and Daniel Kahneman
Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University
The inability to think of the screwdriver as a weight is
functional fixedness. 51
Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman
52
Representativeness Heuristic Availability Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms Why does our availability heuristic lead us astray?
of how well they seem to represent, or match, a Whatever increases the ease of retrieving information
particular prototype. increases its perceived availability.
If you meet a slim, short, man who wears glasses and
Probability
likes poetry,that
whatthat
doperson is a his
you think truck driver is would
profession far greater
be?
How is retrieval facilitated?
than an ivy league professor just because there are more How recently we have heard about the event.
truck drivers than such professors.
An Ivy league professor or a truck driver? How distinct it is.
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Overconfidence Exaggerated Fear
Intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and the The opposite of having
inclination to explain failures increase our overconfidence is having an
overconfidence. Overconfidence is a tendency to exaggerated fear about what
may happen. Such fears may be
overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and unfounded.
judgments.
The 9/11 attacks led to a decline
in air travel due to fear.
At a stock market, both the Yet, dying in automobile
AP/ Wide World Photos
seller and the buyer may be accidents is far more probable
than dying in an airplane crash.
confident about their
decisions on a stock.
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