Cognitive Processes PSY 334

1. Cognitive ProcessesPSY 334 Chapter 11 – Language Structure June 4, 2003

2. Behaviorist Approaches • Watson – utterances are learned behaviors reinforced by environment. • Thinking is just subvocal speech or other body movement. • Smith et al. used curare to inhibit muscle movements and still were able to think. • Evidence that thought is more than language comes from memory studies. • Animals are able to think.

3. Whorfian Hypothesis • Linguistic determinism – the claim that language strongly determines thought or perceptions of the world. • Do eskimos have more words for snow? • Do they perceive snow differently because of it? • Rosch’s study of Dani color cognition: • Focal vs non-focal colors.

4. Navajo-Speaking Children • Compared Navajo-speaking children with English-speaking Navajo children. • Yellow stick, blue rope, yellow rope. • Different verb form used for rigid items compared to flexible ones. • Navajo-speakers preferred form to color. • English-speaking children from Boston preferred form to color • Evidence does not support Whorf’s idea.

5. Language and Thought • Developmentally and evolutionarily, thought occurs before language. • Language depends on thought, not vice versa. • Language is shaped to fit the thoughts it must communicate. • Propositions are reflected in phrases. • Colors determined by visual system. • Subject always precedes object in sentence.

6. Modularity Position • Chomsky, Fodor propose that language and thought are independent of each other. • Separate linguistic module processes language – encapsulated. • Is language acquired using special processes? • Does language work without using general cognitive processes?

7. Language Acquisition • By age 10 children learn all major rules of a natural language, implicitly. • Children learn in the same manner all over the world: • From birth – increasing vocalizations. • 6 mo – babbling – sounds with intonation. • 1 yr – first one-word utterances (concrete). • 1-1/2 to 2 yrs – two-word utterances, telegraphic speech (no function words).

8. Language Acquisition (Cont.) • Children start out speaking all kinds of utterances imperfectly: • Do not distinguish singular and plural. • Later, add s to everything, without recognizing irregular forms (foot, feet). • Difficulties with transformational word order • Difficulty comprehending some forms (John promised Bill to leave.) • By 6 yrs, 10,000 words, many special cases.

9. Irregular Past Tenses • Does a child learn a past tense rule or are the past and present tenses learned as an association (kick, kicked)? • Sequence of learning answers this question: • First, use irregular correctly – sang. • Second, over-generalize rule – singed. • Third, learn irregular form as an exception and use it correctly again – sang.

10. Connectionist Models • Rumelhart & McClelland used a PDP model to produce this developmental sequence using associations not rules. • Pinker’s criticism: • Too many irregulars needed during training • Production of “membled” for “mailed.” • The way a past tense is formed depends on its meaning, not just its base word – ring/rang vs ring/ringed.

11. Neural Evidence • Studying language acquisition may not settle the question. • Some people with aphasias are impaired forming irregular past tenses, others regular past tenses (Broca’s area). • PET imaging shows activity in Broca’s area only when processing regular past tenses. • Only regular verbs may be rule-based.

12. Language is Not Taught • Children are not directly taught language • No feedback about their errors. • Learning is inductive – infer acceptable utterances from experience. • How do they avoid being misled by wrong sentences they hear? • Motherese use is uncorrelated with language development. • Language develops under adversity too.

13. Critical Period • Do young children learn a second language faster? • Controlling for amounts and types of exposure and motivation, older children (11+) learn faster than younger ones. • However, mastery of the fine points, speaking without an accent, depends on learning at a younger age. • It is better to learn a language before 10.

14. Language Universals • Chomsky – special innate mechanisms underlie the acquisition of language. • Competence not performance. • Study by seeking universals across languages. • Universals -- adjectives appear near the nouns they modify. • May be based on cognitive constraints not language mechanisms.

15. Parameter Setting • Variability among natural languages can be accounted for by setting about 100 parameters. • Language learning consists of acquiring the settings for these parameters. • Also, acquiring vocabulary. • Pro-drop parameter: • I go to the cinema (does not drop pronoun) • Voy al cinema esta noche (drops pronoun).