Thought and Language Concepts and Categories PDF

THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE Concepts and Categories § Concept: the mental representation of an object, event, or idea § Categories: clusters of interrelated concepts Categories by Definitio...

THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE Concepts and Categories § Concept: the mental representation of an object, event, or idea § Categories: clusters of interrelated concepts Categories by Definition Rule-based categorization § Definition-based: Membership in a category is all-or-none and all members are equal  Typicality Effects Graded Membership: Members of category vary in typicality Sentence verification technique § ‘Is a robin a bird?’ § ’Is a penguin a bird?’ Categorization by Prototype Prototypes: mental representations of an average category member § Classification by resemblance § Explains graded membership Prototypes vs. Exemplars Exemplars: categorization made by comparing stimulus to an available example from memory (i.e., whatever comes to mind) Prototypes provide information about typicality, exemplars provide information about variability within a category ORGANIZING OUR THOUGHTS Semantic Networks Categories and concepts organized from general to more specific in a semantic network Superordinate Basic Subordinate  Spreading Activation Lexical Decision Task: Are both of the following real words? § Bread § Bencle § Bread § Brain § Bread § Butter LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis Language influences how we experience the world § Categorical Perception: Faster and more accurate discrimination of stimuli that straddle a colour boundary Universalist View Universalist view: common repertoire of thought and perception that then influences all languages § Languages guide what we pay attention to, then attention shapes our cognition § Languages evolve along predictable lines PROBLEM SOLVING  Approaches to Solving Problems Algorithms: strategies based on following a series of rules § Anagrams: IHCRA Heuristics: strategies that rely on our prior experiences A bat costs $1.00 more than a ball. Together the bat and ball cost $1.10. How much does the ball cost? Mental Set Can result from rote learning during problem solving with no deeper understanding of problem developed The Nine Dot Problem Connect all nine dots using only four straight lines and without lifting your pen off the paper Functional Fixedness Occurs when an individual can only think of an object’s most obvious function REPRESENTATIVE HEURISTIC  Representative Heuristic Conjunction fallacy: mistaken belief that finding a specific member in two overlapping categories is more likely than finding any member of one of the larger, general categories Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in antinuclear demonstrations. Which is more likely? a. Linda is a bank teller. b. Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement. Representative Heuristic Making judgments of likelihood based on how well an example represents a specific category § Probability substituted for resemblance Law of small numbers 1. T T T T T T 2. T H H T T H Gambler’s fallacy Base-rate Neglect Participants asked if someone is chosen at random from 70 lawyers and 30 engineers, what is their likely profession? However, if given descriptions of certain individuals, participants ignored base rate information and chose based on the descriptions Decided based on whether the person resembles their conception of a lawyer or engineer, rather than using base-rate likelihood MONTY HALL PROBLEM Monty Hall Problem Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2 or stay with door No.1?” AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC  Availability Heuristic Estimating the frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind Frequency information substituted with ease of examples coming to mind Constant media exposure to certain events can provide an example that is ‘top of mind’  Availability Heuristic Participants asked to provide either 6 or 12 examples from their life when they acted in an assertive manner Emotion-Based Decisions Emotional memories are particularly influential for our availability heuristic THE INFLUENCE OF FRAMING  Framing Questions § Parent A: § Parent B: § Average income § Above average income § Average health § Very close relationship § Average working hours with the child § Reasonable rapport with § Very active social life the child § Minor health problems § Relatively stable social life § Lots of work-related travel Two different questions: To which parent would you award sole custody? To which parent would you deny sole custody? Framing of Outcomes Imagine an outbreak of a disease is expected to kill 600 people. Two programs to combat the disease are possible: If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved If Program B is adopted, there is a one- third probability that 600 people will be saved, and a two-thirds probability that no one will be saved If Program A is adopted, 400 people will die If Program B is adopted, there is a one- third probability that no one will die and a two-thirds probability that 600 people will die Framing in the Real World Political Polls Sales and negotiating tactics Anchoring effect STAYING IN OUR IDEOLOGICAL BUBBLE  Belief Perseverance Tendency to readily accept evidence consistent with our beliefs and to ignore information that refutes them Confirmation Bias Tendency to search only for evidence that will confirm our beliefs instead of for evidence that might disconfirm them The Four Card Task We tend to not seek out disconfirming evidence  Confirmation Bias/Belief Perseverance Conspiracy theories File drawer problem and § Challenging information publication bias reinterpreted to fit with current beliefs LANGUAGE  Properties of Language Communication that involves spoken, written, or gestural symbols that are combined in a rule-based form Unique features? § Semanticity § Productivity § Displacement § Socially learned Phonemes Phonemes: the most basic unit of speech sounds /B/ /A/ /T/ Vocal tract capable of 200 different phonemes Experience-dependent plasticity: Young infants capable of discriminating all 200 phonemes, but lose this ability around 10 months  FROM MORPHEMES TO SEMANTICS Morphemes Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of a language About 50,000 morphemes in English – includes root words, prefixes, and suffixes Productivity  Semantics Often words are ambiguous and their meaning needs to be considered in the context of how they are being used (e.g., crash/accident vs crash/sound) SYNTAX Syntax: The Language Recipe Syntax: the rules for combining words and morphemes into meaningful phrases and sentences Garden Path Sentences Sentence syntax evaluated on a word-by-word basis rather than once all the information is available Garden path sentences lead you to one misleading or unintended interpretation based on early words in the sentence § ‘The old man the boats’ § ‘Since Jay always jogs a mile seems like a short distance’ PRAGMATICS Pragmatics Non-linguistic aspects of language § How context contributes to meaning § Prior knowledge, environment, tone of voice, gestures Informal rules of language Social assumptions  LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN  Language in the Brain Wernicke-Geschwind Model of Language Aphasias: disorders of language (not thought) caused by damage to the brain structures that support using and understanding language § Broca’s aphasia § Wernicke’s aphasia Problems with the Wernicke- Geschwind Model Brain damage rarely isolated to region of theoretical interest Isolated damage to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas rarely produces lasting deficits Language functions more distributed; aphasias associated with widespread damage Localization vs circuits  LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT  Language Development Newborns distinguish function and content words, then prefer the content words by 6 months Naming explosion: a rapid increase in vocabulary size around 20-24 months aided by ‘fast mapping’ § Receptive vocabulary larger than productive vocabulary Learning the rules of language During language development children make predictable errors § Overextension (~2 years old) § Underextension (~2 years old) § Overgeneralization (~3-4 years old) § “I runned into the gooses” Abstract aspects of language Metalinguistic awareness: understanding of how language is being used Between the ages of 6-8 years children can learn to understand irony and sarcasm (i.e., pragmatics)  LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Language Acquisition Sensitive period: a time during childhood during which children’s brains are primed to develop language skills Ability fades starting seventh year Same with sign language Critical Period for Language Critical period: a time during development in which a child needs to be exposed to language or else language skills will not develop normally § Exposure needs to occur within first 12 years Genie case study § Developed large Genie vocabulary but never mastered more complex language skills LEARNING MULTIPLE LANGUAGES The Bilingual Brain Costs Smaller vocabulary in bilingual children Word access diminished in adulthood compared to unilingual adults Benefits Executive functions improved Potential health benefits THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Theories of Language Acquisition Behaviourist theory: children acquire sentence structure and syntax through imitation and operant conditioning § B.F. Skinner (1950s) Many aspects of language have a learned component § Accents However, children often produce novel utterances that cannot have been the product of imitation or reinforcement Some types of language errors are resistant to feedback § Overgeneralizations  Theories of Language Acquisition Nativist theory: assumes humans have a native (genetic) predisposition to develop language effortlessly § Noam Chomsky (1950s) Pace of language acquisition consistent across cultures Universal grammar: common grammatical building blocks present in all languages § Nouns/verbs, subjects/objects  Theories of Language Acquisition Interactionist theory: language development involves both biology and experience Special emphasis on the need for social interaction for proper language development Balanced approach to nature-nurture debate IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO HUMANS? Can Animals Use Language? Cross-fostering studies: individual raised as a member of a different species – Viki (chimpanzee) Four words (mama, papa, up, cup)  Ape Language Studies Focus shifted to sign language § Washoe taught ~350 ASL signs § Koko taught ~1000 GSL signs § Nim study questioned all of it Koko Washoe Nim The Lexigram Approach Kanzi (bonobo) § Lexigram board comprised of symbols that represent various objects and ideas § Understood 350 symbols and 3,000 spoken words BEYOND APES Language Use in Other Animals Dolphins learn syntactic rules in an artificial gestural language Chaser (border collie) learned over 1000 words Alex (African grey parrot) could say ~150 words to identify shapes, colours, numbers, etc Complex Animal Communication Honeybee waggle Referential alarm calls dance function as primitive words § Displacement § Semanticity Vocal Learning Species Like humans, some select animal groups also need to learn species- typical vocalizations to communicate properly ‘Cultural transmission’ of whale songs Is Human Language Unique? Yes…and no All forms of animal communication, human or otherwise, exist along a continuum Evolutionary building blocks of language can be found in other species