1. GCSE Psychology Unit 2: Language, Thought & Communication

2. What do YOU think these words mean?

4. Which comes first, language or thought?

5. Two conflicting theories…

6. Piaget’s Theory: Language Depends on Thought
THINKING COMES FIRST!

7. Piaget’s Theory: Language Depends on Thought
Piaget though that children develop and think about schemas, and then develop the language to talk about it, e.g. they will think about a dog and develop a schema about dogs and only then will they be able to use language to communicate about dogs.
Children can be taught language before having a schema, but in this case they are just using language like a ‘parrot’ and not understanding its meaning (i.e. not using language properly). E.g. a Year 6 child can be taught the word ‘respiration’ but they will not be able to use that language properly until Year 9 when they study the topic and apply meaning to the word

8. Piaget’s Theory: Language Depends on Thought
Cognitive development leads to the growth of language
We can only use language that matches our cognitive development
In the sensorimotor stage babies are discovering what their bodies can do – they can make sounds and copy sounds (approx. 1 year old)
In the pre-operational stage children are egocentric and focussed on themselves. They use language to voice their internal thoughts rather than to communicate with other people (aged 2+)
In the concrete operational stage language has developed a lot but can only be used to talk about actual, concrete things
In the formal operational stage language can be used to talk about abstract, theoretical ideas. Not all people get to the formal operational stage
Piaget’s Theory: Language Depends on Thought

9. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Thinking Depends on Language
LANGUAGE COMES FIRST!

10. Language influences the way people perceive and think about the world
Differenced between languages can determine the types of thoughts people are able to have
There are certain thoughts an individual has in one language that cannot be understood by those who live in a different society that uses a different language
The way people think is strongly affected by their native language
The language we speak may lead to memory bias where our ability to recall information is increased or decreased
They used Native American language with different words for time and an Inuit language for large numbers of words for snow to investigate claims
There are two versions of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:
The strong version says that language determines thought
The weak version says that language influences thought (this version was preferred by Sapir and Whorf)