Language, Thinking, Reasoning
Language, Thinking, Reasoning COGNITION Definition “process of organizing information to solve a problem” * thinking, decision making * reasoning, judging, imagining All depend on learning & memory SCURVEY • •
Vadco de Gama (1487), 100 of the 160 men died Scyrvey killed more sialors than accidents, warfare and other diseases combined
HISTORY OF COGNITION * Modern cognitive sciences has advanced greatly in the last 3 to 4 decades
* * * * *
* o o
• • •
*
19th century witnessed Structuralism (Wundt) and asks about the “structure of thought” goal: understand contents of the mind how: observers reported mental activities prob: reports differed, results always fit result: No more study of cognition because no tools Watson rejected the study of mental events said psychology cant be a science, because we can’t see it thoughts existed, but could not be studied because they were not objective modern cognitive study emerges after WW2
computer introduced new terminology o became the model of the brain new mentalism meant applying objective methods (Watson) to mental events not S-R, but S-O-R stimulus-response bonds, but stimulus-organism-response o this requires cognition
THE DOMAIN OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY • many aspects of psychology overlap in here
FUNCTIONAL FIXEDNESS: CONNECT 9 PROBLEMS WITH 4 LINES • •
have to connect 9 dots with 4 straight lines, and cannot lift your pen many people cant do this, even through it can be done with 3
•
we assumed we are stuck and can't do it THE UNUSUAL USE TEST • •
•
test of creativity and intelligence unusual uses you can think of for a penny o curtain straightener o tire check o balance a table o missing game piece microwave oven o disinfect sponges
LANGUAGE Definition “formal system of communication involving symbols (spoken, written, gestured)”
• • • •
Characteristics and structure of language o Why we and only we as a species have language Steps in language development Language acquisition Language and Thinking
THREE CHARACTERSITICS OF LANGUAGE • •
We have all 3 of these, therefore we have language Some species have some and some none
Semanticity • to convey thoughts in a meaningful way • what used to be meaning less, now has meaning • symbols mean something (ttyl, brb, ily) Generativity • to combine symbols in novel ways • the symbols can't just mean one thing • dogs and bees lack this (the pacing around the dish only refers to the current meal) • 24/7 and it means something • code umbers to letters • create words (someone firended me on fb—not real word, but has meaning to us • bran-jolina, j-lo – we know who they are Displacement
• to refer to past/non-present objects/events talk about what someone looks like that isn’t here dogs lack this. They are talking about their present food, not yesterdays or tomoorows • bees do have this Metanalysis • The tendency for letters to drift o Napron – “an apron” • We have 2 demonstrative pronouns (this and that) but used to have “yon”, a father distance that that (remember our colloquial term ‘yonder’). Spanish/ Greek/Italian still have all 3 • Word fossils (leftovers) exist in our sayings o Neck (parcel of land) of the woods • COUNT AND TELL have been swapped over time o Today we tell a story, and count money but…. • •
TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORD: TOILET • • • • •
1540, a cloth (from towella) clothing on dressing table and items on dressing tables(hence the tern toiletries) dressing when someone present a private room then a washroom
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE: PHONOLOGY Phoneme
*
basic sounds; the smallest unit in language
*
The sounds needed to say a word ‘g’ and ‘o’ in ‘go’ • words are combinations of phonemes COGERITE vs. KLPUTNG * difficult learning other language’s phonemes * may be a critical period to learn phonemes * difficult learning other languages phonemes * Italian (27), Hawaiian (13), one African dialect (140) * May be a critical period to learn phonemes * If you expose children till age of 10, easier for child to learn phonemes STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE : MORPHOLOGY Morpheme
•
• •
smallest unit of meaningful sound in language o ‘o’ (but not ‘g’) in ‘go’ o O- As in ohhhhhh o Show has 2 morphemes --- sh- shhhhhhhh, o- ohhhhh in English, with 40-45 phonemes, you can form more than 100,000 morphemes and more than 500,000 words We can make up words because we recognize the morphemes o Jobless, review o Ish
DIMINUTIVE AS MORPHEMES
•
•
They soften, sweeten augment words o Sandra – sandy o John-johnny o Judith – judy o William – bill Will find the word granny in the dictionary but not “ish” o even though it means something to us
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE : SYNTAX
•
Acceptable arrangement of words/phrases o She ate the ice cream” NOT “She the ice cream ate”
o o
•
“Throw mamma from the train a kiss” Actual translation to German Spanish and Italian are world salada (put in any order and people will get it)
Varies across language (e.g., adjectives) o English adjective-noun‘the red book (describe before tell) o Spanish noun-adjective‘el libro rojo’ (tell before describe)
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE SEMANTICS/PRAGMATICS
• •
How we convey meaning o “The boy fed the horse” OR “The horse was fed by the boy” Depends on social context (pragmatics) o remember the magic word: “Please” “Nice hat”—depends on how you say it
STEPS IN LAGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
•
All children everywhere follow the same sequence and approximate timetable o Crying
o o
Babbling First words (one-word, two-words, sentences)
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT : GRAMMATICAL RULES
•
Rules like ‘ed’ for past, ‘s’ for plural o seen in very young children with ‘ed’ exceptions ‘did’ ‘went’ ‘brought’
o children make mistakes as they learn rules ‘do-ed’ ‘go-ed’ ‘bring-ed’
WHEN KIDS USE A: BERKO-GLEASON WUG TEST
• If children use correct grammar when confronted by never-before-seen words, they MUST be using rules (not rote memory) THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
•
13th c. Frederick II (emperor, H.R.Empire) * tested the belief that language was innate * believed infants unexposed to language would soon speak Greek, Latin, or Hebrew Is language acquired solely through learning, or by maturation of an inherited predisposition? Language Acquisition: Learning Perspective
• •
Language is a product of learning
o positive reinforcement of appropriate speech o praise for “milk” at 12 months Routh (1969) * children (2-7 months old) were reinforced (praise, smiles, contact) for saying certain vowel or consonant sounds (a-a-a, g-g-g) * increased production of reinforced phonemes
Language Acquisition: Inborn Predisposition
• • •
Children are born with a predisposition to acquire language (Language Acquisition Device) Chomsky: Kids say things they never heard “all gone truck” Two levels of language * deep structure underlying meaning * surface structure word arrangement; syntax
Language Acquisition: Integration (Bandura)
•
•
Language acquisition depends on feedback by adults who correct improper grammar * adults repeat child’s incorrect words/grammar in a corrected form “I goed to the store” “You went to the store” We are born with a predisposition to develop language; we learn the specific language by reinforcement and observational learning
Relation between Language and Thinking
•
In Orwell’s 1984, totalitarian government of Oceana controlled citizens with Newspeak
Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
• • • •
perception of the world is molded by language Inuit have many words for snow (so do skiers) German emotions, Tahitian, French lang. Medical (psychology) student syndrome?
Vadco de Gama (1487), 100 of the 160 men died Scyrvey killed more sialors than accidents, warfare and other diseases combined
HISTORY OF COGNITION * Modern cognitive sciences has advanced greatly in the last 3 to 4 decades
* * * * *
* o o
• • •
*
19th century witnessed Structuralism (Wundt) and asks about the “structure of thought” goal: understand contents of the mind how: observers reported mental activities prob: reports differed, results always fit result: No more study of cognition because no tools Watson rejected the study of mental events said psychology cant be a science, because we can’t see it thoughts existed, but could not be studied because they were not objective modern cognitive study emerges after WW2
computer introduced new terminology o became the model of the brain new mentalism meant applying objective methods (Watson) to mental events not S-R, but S-O-R stimulus-response bonds, but stimulus-organism-response o this requires cognition
THE DOMAIN OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY • many aspects of psychology overlap in here
FUNCTIONAL FIXEDNESS: CONNECT 9 PROBLEMS WITH 4 LINES • •
have to connect 9 dots with 4 straight lines, and cannot lift your pen many people cant do this, even through it can be done with 3
•
we assumed we are stuck and can't do it THE UNUSUAL USE TEST • •
•
test of creativity and intelligence unusual uses you can think of for a penny o curtain straightener o tire check o balance a table o missing game piece microwave oven o disinfect sponges
LANGUAGE Definition “formal system of communication involving symbols (spoken, written, gestured)”
• • • •
Characteristics and structure of language o Why we and only we as a species have language Steps in language development Language acquisition Language and Thinking
THREE CHARACTERSITICS OF LANGUAGE • •
We have all 3 of these, therefore we have language Some species have some and some none
Semanticity • to convey thoughts in a meaningful way • what used to be meaning less, now has meaning • symbols mean something (ttyl, brb, ily) Generativity • to combine symbols in novel ways • the symbols can't just mean one thing • dogs and bees lack this (the pacing around the dish only refers to the current meal) • 24/7 and it means something • code umbers to letters • create words (someone firended me on fb—not real word, but has meaning to us • bran-jolina, j-lo – we know who they are Displacement
• to refer to past/non-present objects/events talk about what someone looks like that isn’t here dogs lack this. They are talking about their present food, not yesterdays or tomoorows • bees do have this Metanalysis • The tendency for letters to drift o Napron – “an apron” • We have 2 demonstrative pronouns (this and that) but used to have “yon”, a father distance that that (remember our colloquial term ‘yonder’). Spanish/ Greek/Italian still have all 3 • Word fossils (leftovers) exist in our sayings o Neck (parcel of land) of the woods • COUNT AND TELL have been swapped over time o Today we tell a story, and count money but…. • •
TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORD: TOILET • • • • •
1540, a cloth (from towella) clothing on dressing table and items on dressing tables(hence the tern toiletries) dressing when someone present a private room then a washroom
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE: PHONOLOGY Phoneme
*
basic sounds; the smallest unit in language
*
The sounds needed to say a word ‘g’ and ‘o’ in ‘go’ • words are combinations of phonemes COGERITE vs. KLPUTNG * difficult learning other language’s phonemes * may be a critical period to learn phonemes * difficult learning other languages phonemes * Italian (27), Hawaiian (13), one African dialect (140) * May be a critical period to learn phonemes * If you expose children till age of 10, easier for child to learn phonemes STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE : MORPHOLOGY Morpheme
•
• •
smallest unit of meaningful sound in language o ‘o’ (but not ‘g’) in ‘go’ o O- As in ohhhhhh o Show has 2 morphemes --- sh- shhhhhhhh, o- ohhhhh in English, with 40-45 phonemes, you can form more than 100,000 morphemes and more than 500,000 words We can make up words because we recognize the morphemes o Jobless, review o Ish
DIMINUTIVE AS MORPHEMES
•
•
They soften, sweeten augment words o Sandra – sandy o John-johnny o Judith – judy o William – bill Will find the word granny in the dictionary but not “ish” o even though it means something to us
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE : SYNTAX
•
Acceptable arrangement of words/phrases o She ate the ice cream” NOT “She the ice cream ate”
o o
•
“Throw mamma from the train a kiss” Actual translation to German Spanish and Italian are world salada (put in any order and people will get it)
Varies across language (e.g., adjectives) o English adjective-noun‘the red book (describe before tell) o Spanish noun-adjective‘el libro rojo’ (tell before describe)
STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE SEMANTICS/PRAGMATICS
• •
How we convey meaning o “The boy fed the horse” OR “The horse was fed by the boy” Depends on social context (pragmatics) o remember the magic word: “Please” “Nice hat”—depends on how you say it
STEPS IN LAGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
•
All children everywhere follow the same sequence and approximate timetable o Crying
o o
Babbling First words (one-word, two-words, sentences)
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT : GRAMMATICAL RULES
•
Rules like ‘ed’ for past, ‘s’ for plural o seen in very young children with ‘ed’ exceptions ‘did’ ‘went’ ‘brought’
o children make mistakes as they learn rules ‘do-ed’ ‘go-ed’ ‘bring-ed’
WHEN KIDS USE A: BERKO-GLEASON WUG TEST
• If children use correct grammar when confronted by never-before-seen words, they MUST be using rules (not rote memory) THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
•
13th c. Frederick II (emperor, H.R.Empire) * tested the belief that language was innate * believed infants unexposed to language would soon speak Greek, Latin, or Hebrew Is language acquired solely through learning, or by maturation of an inherited predisposition? Language Acquisition: Learning Perspective
• •
Language is a product of learning
o positive reinforcement of appropriate speech o praise for “milk” at 12 months Routh (1969) * children (2-7 months old) were reinforced (praise, smiles, contact) for saying certain vowel or consonant sounds (a-a-a, g-g-g) * increased production of reinforced phonemes
Language Acquisition: Inborn Predisposition
• • •
Children are born with a predisposition to acquire language (Language Acquisition Device) Chomsky: Kids say things they never heard “all gone truck” Two levels of language * deep structure underlying meaning * surface structure word arrangement; syntax
Language Acquisition: Integration (Bandura)
•
•
Language acquisition depends on feedback by adults who correct improper grammar * adults repeat child’s incorrect words/grammar in a corrected form “I goed to the store” “You went to the store” We are born with a predisposition to develop language; we learn the specific language by reinforcement and observational learning
Relation between Language and Thinking
•
In Orwell’s 1984, totalitarian government of Oceana controlled citizens with Newspeak
Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
• • • •
perception of the world is molded by language Inuit have many words for snow (so do skiers) German emotions, Tahitian, French lang. Medical (psychology) student syndrome?
