 Briefly describe three ways we solve problems according to cognition.

AP PsychologyMs. Desgrosellier

 language: our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

 Objective: SWBAT describe the basic structural units of a language.

 Phonemes: in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.  English has about 40 phonemes; researchers have found about 869 different phonemes in human speech.  Changes in phonemes cause changes in meaning.  C-A-T vs. B-A-T

 Morpheme: in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning.  It may be a word or part of a word (like a prefix).  E.g. pre, re, etc.

 Grammar: in a language, the system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

 Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language.  Also the study of meaning.  E.g. adding –ed to a word to indicate the past tense.

 Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.  “They are hunting dogs.”

 Objective: SWBAT trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling stage through the two-word stage.

 Babies begin to read lips and discriminate speech sounds by 4 months old, marking the beginning of receptive language.  Babbling stage: beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

 By about 10 months, babblings changes to resemble the sounds of the household language.  Phoneme sounds and recognition outside the native language begin to disappear.  We become functionally deaf to speech sounds outside our native language.

 One-word stage: the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.  By about 18 months, word learning expands from a word per week to a word per day.

 Two-word stage: beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.  Telegraphic speech: early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs, and omitting auxiliary words.

 Once children move out of the two-word stage, they quickly begin speaking longer phrases, but they still might be telegraphic.

 Objective: SWBAT discuss Skinner’s and Chomsky’s contributions to the nature-nurture debate over how children acquire language, and explain why statistical learning and critical periods are important concepts in children’s language learning.

 B. F. Skinner believed that we can explain language development with familiar learning principles, like association, imitation, and reinforcement.  e.g. children with deaf parents learn signing on a normal schedule, but learn spoken language more slowly because their exposure is more passive (minimal reinforcement).

 Noam Chomsky said that children acquire untaught words and grammar at too fast a rate for it to all come from the environment and learning.  Some of it is inborn.

 They can generate all sorts of sentences they have never heard (e.g I hate you, Mommy).  Many of the errors young children make come from overgeneralizing logical grammar rules (e.g. adding –ed to make the past tense; held vs. holded).

 Chomsky felt that language will naturally occur if it is properly nurtured.  He believes that there is a universal grammar that is the basis of all human language  All languages have the same grammatical building blocks, like nouns and verbs.  No matter what language you are first learning, you start with nouns.

 Language acquisition device: In Chomsky’s theory, the sort of switch box that we are born with that allows for developing language quickly and naturally.

 Surface structure: according to Chomsky, the basic parts and rules of language and grammar.  deep structure: according to Chomsky, the meanings of language.

 Research has shown that infants have an incredible ability to learn statistical aspects of human speech, like recognizing syllables that go together repeatedly, or simple sentence structures.

 critical period: during childhood, when it is possible to master certain aspects of language.  e.g. people who learn a second language often speak with the accent of their native language.  After age 7, the window for learning language begins to close.

 Genes design complex brain wiring that prepares children to learn language as they interact with their caregivers.  Skinner’s emphasis on learning helps explain how infants acquire their language as they interact with others.  Chomsky’s emphasis on our built-in readiness to learn grammar rules helps explain why preschoolers acquire language so readily and use grammar so well.

 Language Influences Thinking  Objective: SWBAT summarize Whorf’s linguistic determinism hypothesis, and comment on its standing in contemporary psychology.

 linguistic determinism: Benjamin Lee Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.  Different languages impose different conceptions of reality.

 This concept is easier to see for people who speak two different languages.  e.g. English with its large vocabulary for self- focused emotions versus Japanese, which has more words for interpersonal emotions.

 Our words influence what we think.  Expanding language, including abstract terms, expands the ability to think.  bilingual advantage: children who are able to learn to inhibit one language while using their other language are also better able to inhibit their attention to irrelevant information.

 Do Animals Think?  Objective: SWBAT list five cognitive skills shared by the great apes and humans.

 Animals, especially the great apes, display an amazing capacity for thinking.  Research has shown that they can create concepts.

 Chimpanzees can use tools.  There are at least 39 local customs related to chimp tool use.

 Chimps, orangutans, and dolphins have been observed using mirror to inspect themselves and touching a colored spot that the researcher has put on their body.  Chimps and baboons have been observed using deception.  Many researchers believe that these observations indicate that primates are capable to self-recognition and of comprehending others’ perceptions.

 Objective: SWBAT outline the arguments for and against the idea that animals and humans share the capacity for language.

 Only humans can master the verbal or signed expression of complex rules of syntax.  Many animals can communicate, like bees dancing to indicate the direction and distance of food.

 Dogs can comprehend and respond to complicated human commands.  Several species of ape can communicate with humans using sign language or pushing buttons on a computer.