Chapter 8

Language and Thought

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The Cognitive Revolution

19th Century focus on the mind– Introspection

Behaviorist focus on overt responses – arguments regarding incomplete picture of human

functioning Empirical study of cognition – 1956 conference

– Simon and Newell – problem solving– Chomsky – new model of language– Miller – memory

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Language: Turning Thoughts into Words

Properties of Language– Symbolic– Semantic– Generative– Structured

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The Hierarchical Structure of Language

Phonemes = smallest speech units– 100 possible, English – about 40-50

Morphemes = smallest unit of meaning– 50,000 in English, root words, prefixes, suffixes

Semantics = meaning of words and word combinations– Objects and actions to which words refer

Syntax = a system of rules for arranging words into sentences– Different rules for different languages

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Language Development: Milestones

Initial vocalizations similar across languages– Crying, cooing, babbling

6 months – babbling sounds begin to resemble surrounding language

1 year – first word– similar cross-culturally – words for parents– receptive vs. expressive language

2 years – two words 3 years – complete sentences

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Language Development: Milestones Continued

18-24 months – vocabulary spurt– fast mapping - children map a word onto an underlying

concept after only one exposure.– Overextentions – all balls are footballs– Underextensions – only their dog is a dog

End of second year – combine words – Telegraphic speech – “Want ball”, “Give cookie”– Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) – measured in morphemes

End of third year – complex ideas, plural, past tense– Overregularization

• ex. ‘he goed home’

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Bilingualism: Learning More Than One Language

Research findings:– Smaller vocabularies in one language, combined

vocabularies average– Higher scores for middle-class bilingual subjects on

cognitive flexibility, analytical reasoning, selective attention, and metalinguistic awareness

– Slight disadvantage in terms of language processing speed– Second languages more easily acquired early in life– Greater acculturation facilitates acquisition

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Language Development

Skinner: Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner believed that we can explain language development with familiar learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.

Language is learned.

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Language Development

Chomsky: Inborn Universal GrammarNoam Chomsky believes that children are biologically prepared to learn words and use grammar.

Our language acquisition capacity is like a box– a “language acquisition device” (LAD) in which grammar switches are thrown as children experience their language.

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Language

Linguistic Determinism Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that

language determines the way we think The Hopi have no past tense for their

verbs. Therefore, a Hopi could not so readily think about the past.

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Cognitive Theory

Cognitive abilities make language development possible

Children are active participants in language learning

Piaget believed cognition precedes language

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Theories of Language Acquisition

Interactionist - biology and experience both make important contributions. - Social communication - interpersonal communication has

functional value and emphasizes the social context in which language evolves.

- Emergentist theories - neural circuits supporting language are not prewired, but rather emerge gradually in response to learning experiences via incremental changes in connectionist networks.

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Critical Period Hypothesis

Eric Lenneberg (1967) States that there is a

sensitive (critical) period for language development when learning a language is easier

What happens if a human misses that period?

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Can Animals Develop Language?

Dolphins, sea lions, parrots, chimpanzees– Vocal apparatus issue– American Sign Language

Allen and Beatrice Gardner (1969)– Chimpanzee - Washoe– 160 word vocabulary

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh– Bonobo chimpanzee - Kanzi– Symbols– Receptive language – 72% of 660 requests

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Problem Solving: Types of Problems

Greeno (1978) – three basic classes Problems of inducing structure

– Series completion and analogy problems Problems of arrangement

– String problem and Anagrams• Often solved through insight

Problems of transformation– Hobbits and orcs problem– Water jar problem

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Effective Problem Solving

Well defined vs. ill defined problems Barriers to effective problem solving:

– Irrelevant Information– Functional Fixedness– Mental Set– Unnecessary Constraints

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Approaches to Problem Solving

Algorithms– Systematic trial-and-error– Guaranteed solution

Heuristics– Shortcuts– No guaranteed solution

• Forming subgoals

• Working backward

• Searching for analogies

• Changing the representation of a problem

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Decision Making: Evaluating Alternatives and Making Choices

Simon (1957) – theory of bounded rationality Making Choices

– Framing effect is an example of cognitive bias, in which people react differently to a particular choice depending on whether it is presented as a loss or as a gain.

– Additive strategies– Elimination by aspects– Risky decision making

• Expected value – what you stand to gain

• Subjective utility - personal worth

• Subjective probability – personal estimates of probability

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Framing Treatment A Positive "Saves 200 lives" "A 33% chance of saving all 600

people, 66% possibility of saving no one." Treatment B Negative "400 people will die""A 33% chance that no people

will die, 66% probability that all 600 will die." Treatment A was chosen by 72% of participants

when it was presented with positive framing ("saves 200 lives") dropping to only 22% when the same choice was presented with negative framing ("400 people will die").

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Heuristics in Judging Probabilities

The availability heuristic The representativeness heuristic The tendency to ignore base rates The conjunction fallacy The alternative outcomes effect

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