Chapter 7: Language and thought Slides prepared by Randall E. Osborne, Texas State University-San Marcos, adapted by Dr Mark Forshaw, Staffordshire University, UK 1

Language and Communication: Nothing’s More Personal 2

Language and Communication The complex structure of human language: –phoneme –morpheme –phonological rules –grammar –morphological rules –syntactical rules 3

Units of Language 4

Syntactical Rules 5

Language Development At birth - infants can distinguish all contrasting sounds in human language 6 months - can only distinguish those sounds in language being spoken around them 4-6 months - begin to babble speech sounds 6

Language Milestones 7

Fast mapping –Children can ‘glue’ a word onto a concept after hearing it just once Telegraphic speech –Content words only but can convey basic meaning Overgeneralisations –“you eated”, “we ranned”, “he singed all day” 8

Theories of Language Development Behaviourist explanations –principles of operant conditioning –learn to talk through reinforcement, shaping, and extinction –limits: (1)parents don’t spend much time teaching grammar, (2)children generate more grammatical sentences than they hear, (3)errors children make do not duplicate what they hear 9

Theories of Language Development Nativist explanations –language acquisition device (LAD) –“wired” to learn grammar –Those with genetic dysphasia cannot grasp grammar – e.g. the “wug” test 10

Theories of Language Development Interactionist explanations –how does innate, biological capacity for language combine with environmental experience? –parents tailor verbal interactions with children in ways that simplify language acquisition –deaf children NOT taught sign language often develop own system of hand signals 11

Theories of Language Development Neurological specialisation –Broca’s area (involved in language production) –Wernicke’s area (involved in language comprehension) –Aphasia 12

Theories of Language Development Can other species learn human language? Washoe taught sign language –learned 160 words –could construct simple sentences –novel constructions –apes can learn signs for concepts they understand (not abstract) 13

Thought and Language How are thought and language related? Linguistic relativity hypothesis –Inuit: many different words for “snow” is not true Language and colour processing Language and views of time –forward and backward (time is horizontal) –up and down (time is vertical) 14

Concepts and Categories: How We Think 15

Concepts and Categories Concept –fundamental to our ability to think Category-specific deficits –damage to front part of left temporal lobe— difficulty identifying humans –damage to lower left temporal lobe—trouble identifying animals –damage where temporal and occipital lobes meet —trouble naming tools 16

Concepts and Categories Nature of human concepts Early theories focused on rules Later theories focused on “family resemblance” 17

Concepts and Categories Rosch’s Prototype theory –“best” example defines the set –Typicality enables categorisation Medin & Schaffer’s Exemplar theory –We compare new examples with other stored examples, and categorise accordingly. –Explains how we can identify specific dogs, not just prototypical dogs… 18

Judging, Valuing, and Deciding: Sometimes We’re Logical, Sometimes Not 19

Decision making Rational choice theory –likelihood of something happening multiplied by perceived value of that outcome Heuristics Algorithms 20

Heuristics Availability bias Conjunction fallacy –decreasing probability of all things being true of person Representativeness heuristic Framing effects Sunk-cost fallacy 21

Decision making Prospect theory –people simplify available information –choose prospect that offers best value (personal) Frequency format hypothesis –Our minds evolved to notice how often things occur, not how likely they are Decision making and the brain –Prefrontal lobe damage can create inability to judge risk or decide importance of tasks 22

Problem Solving: Working It Out 23

Problem Solving Two major types of problems that complicate our lives: –ill-defined problem (no clear goal or solution) –well-defined problem Means-ends analysis Analogical problem solving 24

Creativity and Insight Analogical problem solving does not work for all problems Research suggests insight is actually incremental Functional fixedness 25

Creativity and Insight Word Association 26

Creativity and Insight Answers 27 Solutions: Card, paper, pawn, carpet, ball, bar

Transforming Information: How We Reach Conclusions 28

Reaching Conclusions Reasoning –practical reasoning –theoretical reasoning Belief bias –focus on conclusions instead of arguments –does the answer ‘ring true’? Syllogistic reasoning –does conclusion follow from statements we assume to be true? 29