Chapter 8: Language and Thought

1. Chapter 8: Language and Thought

2. 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

3. Language: Turning Thoughts into Words • Properties of Language • Symbolic • Semantic • Generative • Structured

4. The Hierarchical Structure of Language • Phonemes = smallest speech units • 100 possible, English – about 40 • 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

5. Language Development: Milestones • Initial vocalizations similar across languages • Crying, cooing, babbling • 6 months – babbling sounds begin to resemble surrounding language • Twin Talk • 1 year – first word • similar cross-culturally – words for parents • receptive vs. expressive language

6. Table 8.2 Overview of Typical Language Development

7. Language Development:Milestones Continued • 18-24 months – vocabulary spurt • fast mapping • over and underextensions • Overextension = Child calls all things round “ball” • Underextension = Child uses word “puppy” only in reference to their family pet, fails to recognize other puppies • End of second year – combine words • Telegraphic speech = “Me have now!” • Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) =# of morphemes • End of third year – complex ideas, plural, past tense • Overregularization = “I runned over here fast!”

8. 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 • 2nd languages more easily acquired early in life • Greater acculturation facilitates acquisition

9. Figure 8.4 Age and second language learning

10. B.F. Skinner v. Noam Chomsky • Attempts to explain language development have sparked a spirited intellectual controversy. At the heart of this controversy is the nature-nurture debate. Behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that we can explain how babies acquire language entirely with principles of learning, such as the association of objects with the sounds of words, the imitation of language modeled by others, and the reinforcement of correct use of words and syntax by parents and teachers. Linguist Noam Chomsky, who favors the nature position, believes that much of our language capacity is inborn. According to this perspective, just as "learning" to walk is programmed according to a timetable of biological maturation, so children are prewired to begin to babble and talk. • In this exercise, review each of the following examples of language use by children and decide whether it best supports the position of B. F. Skinner or Noam Chomsky. • While Marie and her mother are looking at a book together, Marie's mother shows her a picture of an animal and says "cow." Marie says "cow," and her mother praises her for her correct utterance. Two pages later, Marie spontaneously points to a picture and correctly identifies it as a cow. • 2. When his day care teacher asks 2-year-old Jack what he did last Saturday, he responds with "We goed to the zoo." His teacher smiles, marveling at the fact that all children Jack's age make this type of grammatical error. • 3. Nicole, who is deaf and was not exposed to sign language until age 3, lacks the manual linguistic skills of deaf children born to deaf-signing parents. • 4. Twelve-year-old Malcolm, who emigrated to the United States at age 4, understands English grammar much better than 20-year-old Maya, who was first exposed to English at age 12.

11. 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

12. Theories of Language Acquisition • Behaviorist • Skinner (Verbal Behavior 1957) • learning of specific verbal responses • Nativist • Chomsky • learning the rules of language • Language Acquisition Device (LAD) • Interactionist • Cognitive, social communication, and emergentist theories

13. Perspective Taking: Do Animals Have Language? • Few controversies have so divided the scientific community as has the controversy about the apes’ capacity for language. Although many scientists have made serious attempts at rearing apes in language-rich environments, the results have not overwhelmingly demonstrated that apes can use language as human beings us it. • At the heart of the argument are the criteria we use to determine true capacity for language. Generally, scientists specializing in the study of language impose the following criteria for the debate: • Is the language symbolic: Can it be used to represent absent objects? • Does the language have systematic syntax, or word order? • Can the language be used in a creative or productive manner?

14. Figure 8.5 Interactionist theories of language acquisition

15. 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

16. Simple Word Problems • In the Thompson family there are five brothers and each brother has one sister. If you count Mrs. Thompson, how many females are in the Thompson family? • Fifteen percent of the people in Topeka have unlisted phone numbers. You select 200 names at random from the Topeka phone book. How many of these people can be expected to have unlisted phone numbers?

17. Figure 8.6 Six standard problems used in studies of problem solving

19. Solution to Water Jar Problem(B-A-2C)

21. Mental Set “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” – Einstein  • The first four require the same strategy • (B-A-2C) • The 5th is much simpler (A-C), however people get stuck here

22. Without lifting your pencil from the paper, draw no more than 4 straight lines that will cross through all nine dots. -no retracing lines

23. Unnecessary Constraints • Most people will not draw lines outside the imaginary boundary that surrounds the dots • That constraint is imposed by the problem solver, not the prompt. • People also feel compelled to draw 4 lines, but that’s not necessary

24. The Matchstick Problem Move 2 matches to form 4 (and only 4) equal squares.

25. Matchstick Solution

26. Effective Problem Solving • Barriers to effective problem solving: • Irrelevant Information • Functional Fixedness • Mental Set • Unnecessary Constraints

27. Word Problems Susan gets in her car in Boston and drives toward New York City, averaging 50 mph. Twenty minutes later, Ellen gets in her car in New York City driving towards Boston, averaging 60 miles per hour. Both women take the same route, which extends a total of 220 miles between the 2 cities. Which car is nearer to Boston when they meet?

28. Figure 8.12 The tower of Hanoi problem

29. 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

30. Figure 8.16 Representing the bird and train problem

31. Culture, Cognitive Style,and Problem Solving • Field dependence – relying on external frames of reference • Field independence – relying on internal frames of reference • Western cultures inspire field independence • Cultural influence based in ecological demands • Holistic vs. analytic cognitive styles

32. Decision Making:Evaluating Alternatives and Making Choices • Simon (1957) – theory of bounded rationality • Making Choices • Additive strategies • Elimination by aspects • Risky decision making • Expected value • Subjective utility • Subjective probability

33. Table 8.3 Application of the additive model to choosing an apartment

34. Heuristics in Judging Probabilities • The availability heuristic • Explains why you are afraid of being attacked by a shark, but you shouldn’t be. • The representativeness heuristic • Judging a book by it’s cover • Use your representative heuristic to make assumptions about this guy 

35. Understanding Pitfalls in Reasoning About Decisions • The gambler’s fallacy • Assuming something will happen soon because it’s “due” • Overestimating the improbable • More likely to die in an airplane or car? • Confirmation bias • Seeking information to confirm what you already believe • The overconfidence effect • 98% confidence intervals only right 60% of the time • Framing • 10 people are drowning, you can either save 5 of them OR let 5 of them die