Cooperative Principles in Psycholinguistics

• A psycholinguistic term, the Cooperative Principle, suggests people should aim to communicate genuinely and effectively when conversing.

Grice’s Cooperative Principle

• The Maxim of Quality means conversations should be truthful, and participants should strive to tell the truth.
• The Maxim of Quantity means conversations should have an appropriate amount of talk.
• The Maxim of Relevance means conversations should stay on topic.
• The Maxim of Manner means conversations should use clear language and adhere to typical conversational norms (for example, not shouting when close).

Additional Cooperative Principles

• Relations with Conversational Partner means people should draw on past relationships to avoid repeating shared experiences.
• Rule Violations means people should signal when they are about to violate one of the other maxims.

Nonverbal Aspects of Language

• Proxemics refers to personal space during conversations.
• Kinesics refers to bodily movements during conversations, like hand gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact.
• Oculesics refers to eye contact, and is a subset of kinesics.
• Haptics refers to physical touch between people in conversations.
• Paralanguage refers to nonverbal vocal cues in conversation, such as voice loudness, silences, and speech rates.

High- versus Low-Context Communication

• High-Context Communication relies on context to convey meaning.
• Low-Context Communication is language-dependent, with words carrying most of the meaning and less emphasis on context.

Direct versus Indirect Communication

• Direct Communication is blunt and literal.
• Indirect Communication relies on context and the receiver’s ability to infer meaning.

Yum’s Comparison Between East Asian and North American Forms of Communication

• East Asian communication is process-oriented, uses differentiated linguistic codes, emphasizes indirect communication, and is receiver-centered.
• North American communication is outcome-oriented, uses less differentiated linguistic codes, emphasizes direct communication, and is sender-centered.

African American Forms of Communication

• Key aspects include avoiding negative stereotypes, acceptance, personal expressiveness, authenticity, understanding, goal attainment, and awareness of power dynamics.

Latinx Forms of Communication

• “Contact” Culture involves touching and expressing warmth towards conversational partners.
• Dichos are proverbs or sayings that transmit important values.

American Indians

• Silences are crucial in communication.
• Time is conceived of by eras rather than chronologically.
• Less eye contact is common.

Communication Patterns of Older Adults

• Relatives involvement is important with medical communications.
• Respect is given to the elderly in conversations.
• Family stories are shared with younger generations.
• Grandchildren show interest in grandparents stories, especially about the children’s parents.

Communication Among Younger Adults

• Social media is prevalent.
• Using social media has both positives and negatives.
• There can be a silver lining in the use of social media.

Gender Differences in Communication

• Communication happens in a context of sexism.
• Field dependent vs. field independent styles exist.
• Tag Questions are added to statements of assertion (e.g., “This is good, don’t you think?”).
• Qualifiers soften statements (e.g., “I may be wrong, but…”).

Bilingual Communication

• Additive Bilingualism involves acquiring a second language without displacing the native language.
• Subtractive Bilingualism involves second language acquisition replacing the native language.
• Language Attrition is equivalent to subtractive bilingualism.
• Native Bilingualism means speaking two languages from birth due to both being spoken in the household.

Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism

• Positives include greater cognitive flexibility and better nonverbal task performance requiring conflict resolution (e.g., less Stroop effect interference).
• Bilingualism may offer protection against cognitive decline (e.g., dementia onset is 4 years later than monolinguals).
• Negatives can include smaller vocabularies and more interference on verbal fluency tasks.

Social Consequences of Bilingualism

• Bilingualism affects ethnic identity, self-esteem, and connection to one’s community.

The Cooperative Principle in psycholinguistics emphasizes effective communication through maxims of quality, quantity, relevance, and manner. Additional principles include considering relationships and signaling rule violations. Nonverbal aspects like proxemics and kinesics also play a role.