Language and Problem Solving November 19, 2010

1. Guest Lecture: Rozanne Wilson (BA Hons), PhD Candidate Department of Speech-Language Pathology University of Toronto Email: rozanne.wilson@utoronto.ca Language and Problem Solving November 19, 2010

2. Speech-Language Pathology • Speech and language pathology is concerned with issues surrounding human speech, language and communication disorders , and swallowing disorders. • cognitive aspects of communication (e.g., attention, memory, problem solving, executive functions). • speech (i.e., phonation, articulation, fluency, resonance, and voice including aeromechanical components of respiration) • language (i.e., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatic/social aspects of communication) including comprehension and expression in oral, written, graphic, and manual modalities; language processing; preliteracy and language-based literacy skills, phonological awareness • swallowing (evaluation of esophageal function is for the purpose of referral to medical professionals); • Training also includes a mixture of other disciplines that study language & language disorders: linguistics, psychology, medical sciences • Clinical: Address language needs through speech therapy PSY100 Language and Thought

3. Lecture Overview Part 1 • Introduction to language • Language development • Language and the brain!!! Part2 • Problem Solving PSY100 Language and Thought

4. Defining Language • Language • A sharedsymbolic system used for communication • Collection of symbols (represent referent) and rules for combining symbols to express an infinite variety of messages • Involves complex cognitive process to encode, decode symbols/ signs & the mental processes to integrate and understand the input • Communication • reciprocal exchange of information between a speaker and a listener (verbal & non-verbal) PSY100 Language and Thought

5. Natural Language • Individual language (e.g., English, French, Spanish, ASL) • Language Faculty • Our ability to learn and use language • All natural languages (~6, 500) have important features in common (variation on a theme) • This is common theme is what linguists refer to as LANGUAGE • All languages are equal and all provide insight into human language PSY100 Language and Thought

6. All humans have the ability to learn their native language, provided they have the slightest opportunity to do so • Example: • Pidgin Language • Creole Language PSY100 Language and Thought

7. The study of Language • Linguistics • Academic discipline that studies the structure of language • Cognitive Linguistics • Understand the structure and function of language in terms of human perception and cognition • Psycholinguistics (neuro & socio linguistics) • Examines behavior • studies language as it is used and learned by people • Example: normal production & comprehension • Speech-Language Pathology PSY100 Language and Thought

8. Concept: competence versus performance Critical distinction in the investigation of language: • Competence: Internalized knowledge of language & its rules • Chomsky’s Universal Grammar---- • innate rules --“we just know”--- linguistic intuition • Everyone has linguistic competence • Basis for understanding linguistic knowledge • Investigate using linguistic judgments (tap in to linguistic intuition) • Performance • Actual language that is produced (variable & imperfect) • To reveal our knowledge of language, knowledge must past through information processing system that is fallible • example: Dysfluencies (pauses) ; speech errors PSY100 Language and Thought

9. Universals of Language (Hockett, 1960)Characteristics common to all known languages • Semanticity • Conveys meaning • Arbitrariness • No inherent connection between sound/word & referent • Whale/ microorganism • Exception: onomatopoeia --- “buzz” • must learn word/referent association • Implies flexibility of symbols (change/ add more) versus Iconic system –physical symbol resembles referent • Sign language has evolved from iconic system to a flexible system • All languages have words----- We like to name everything in our environment/ experience (concrete or abstract) PSY100 Language and Thought

10. Universals of Language • Displacement • Discuss different points in time (walked, walk, will walk) • Productivity/ Generative • majority of our utterances are novel (not repeated) • Creative system that allows us to generate infinite number of sentences ( using set of rules) • Note: characteristics implied by universals of language • Naming • Flexibility of symbols PSY100 Language and Thought

11. Hierarchical Structure of Language • Sounds combined into units with meaning • Units of meaning combined into words • Words combined into phrases • Phrases combined into sentences that form discourse PSY100 Language and Thought

12. Five Levels of Analysis (Miller, 1973) • Grammar • Entire set of rules that are used to generate or produce acceptable sentences and not the production of ill-formed sentences • Levels of Analysis: • Phonology • Semantics- • Syntax **Note: Grammar operates at these three levels Psychological approach– 2 additional levels 4. Conceptual Knowledge 5. Belief (own & intent of speaker) PSY100 Language and Thought

13. Levels of Analysis: Phonology: Sounds of a language and the rules system for combining them • Phoneme--- basic sound unit (ex: /p/, /b/, /m/) • English = ~40 / Hawaiian = 15 • Phonemes across all languages = ~200 • No language is superior because it has fewer or greater phonemes • Phonological rules: constrain the permitted sequences of phonemes • phonemic competence—(implicit) • *slkci , slick PSY100 Language and Thought

14. Semantics: • Knowledge of meaning of language and rules for combining morphemes • Morphology- rules for combining phonemes in to morphemes (basic/smallest unit of meaning) ~ 50 000 • Words (free morphemes/ root words) • Prefixes, suffixes (bound morphemes) • Unfriendly • Dogs PSY100 Language and Thought

15. Syntax: • System of rules that specify arrangement of words in a sentence to show their relationship to one another (describe language in terms of rules) • Descriptive Rules of well-formed sentences in a language • Word order (English) specifies meaning • “fire engine red” ; “red fire engine” • Phrase order conveys meaning • “Bill told the men to deliver the piano on Monday.”; “Bill told the men on Monday to deliver the piano.” • Number Agreement (SV number agreement) e.g., The girls were sleeping. PSY100 Language and Thought

16. Syntactic structure of sentences: Noam Chomsky’s Transformational Grammar • Phrase Structure Rule: sentence must have a noun phrase(NP) and a verb phrase (VP) • The sound of cars is loud. • *The sound of cars. • Hierarchical phrase structure • S= NP (D + N) +VP (V+ NP) the girl hugged her doll PSY100 Language and Thought

17. Phrase structure: syntax independent from semantics PSY100 Language and Thought

18. Critical Periods for Language Acquisition • A child comes to speak the language(s) exposed to • Critical periods assume that an organism must develop a function within a limited time frame or it will not develop normally (with difficulty or limited) • Children easily learn second languages, adults have great difficulty • Child with damage to language areas of brain recovery language better than adults with damage • Isolated children have language impairments: • E.g., Genie:

19. Universal sequential stages for language development Pre-linguistic stage (up to one year): • Reflexive communication (1-5 months)- begins with reflexive cry, then crying becomes more purposeful, cooing • Babbling (6-18)- adding consonants to vowels Linguistic stage • babbling begins to sound more like the language in the child’s home • One word sentences (12-30) : • Overextension • Underextentions • Two-word sentences (24) : • Telegraphic speech • More complex speech (30) : • Over-regularizations PSY100 Language and Thought

20. Theories of Language Acquisition: Is language capability innate or learned? 1. Behavourist theory: B.F. Skinner (Nurture) • Children acquire language through imitation of adults & positive/ negative reinforcement (stimulus-response associations) • Produce random approximations to adult speech & random errors and learn correct response through reinforcement • However, fails to explain • Why native speakers have the capacity to produce and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences never heard before • Only speaks to performance of language and not language competence • Spontaneous use of grammatical rules that have not been heard • Universal stages of language development PSY100 Language and Thought

21. Nativist theories: Noam Chomsky (Nature) • Children are programmed to learn language • Language acquisition device (LAD) allows children to acquire language quickly and effortlessly Support for theory • We have a variety of structures that specialized for spoken language • Same ease of acquisition across cultures and home environments • Linguistic universals • Built in tendency to develop language (e.g., four deaf children ) • Infinite number of sentences– thus children can not learn through imitation • Argues that children do not make random errors, and learn language in a orderly fashion – and apply rules ( e.g., produce “thinked” but do not hear this word usage) • E.g., love/ loved----- give/ gived ------ have to learn to use the irregular form (gave) PSY100 Language and Thought

22. Interactionist Theories • Critics of Chomsky: • Vague concept- What is LAD? How does LAD work? • Parents do provide corrective feedback • Interactionist theories • assert biology and environment both contribute to the development of language • Humans are well equipped for learning language and social exchanges with parents play critical role • Cognitive • Social communication theories • Emergentist theories PSY100 Language and Thought

23. Teaching animals human language to communicate: ASL Early research: Project Washoe 1967 One of the first attempts to teach ASL to chimpanzee Washoe (1965-2007) • Continuous modeling and repetition with positive reinforcement • Some evidence that Washoe could combine sings in novel ways • Critics argue sentences produced were product of imitation and operant conditioning (not generative) Newer research: Kanzi (bonobo) – taught language through keyboard and lexigrams • Later learnt to use ASL • has demonstrated understanding the words and their relation to one another! • Kanzi • kanzi2 Koko (gorilla) – ASL koko PSY100 Language and Thought

24. Animal Communication • Animal communication systems possess semanticity (sounds carry meaning) & limited arbitrariness & creativity • Example: Chimpanzee signaling system (distress warning calls) • “rruap” sound- eagle warning • “chutter” sound- snake • “chirp” sound- leopard But • animal communication system is limited & do not exhibit the characteristics of human language: Lack • Flexibility • Displacement • Complexity • Moreover, language capabilities in apes no comparison to human linguistic predisposedabilities (e.g., ease and speed in which children learn language) PSY100 Language and Thought

25. Aphasia /əˈfeɪʒə/“without speech” • Acquired language disorder (lesion to the brain) resulting in an impairment in any language modality: • Production of speech • Comprehension of speech • Writing • Reading • Aphasia describes a number of related, but separate problems with language: --Impaired ability to formulate, retrieve, or decode symbols of language • Word finding difficulties most common problem

26. Aphasia Terminology • Anomia- word finding difficulties • Speech Errors • Paraphasias--- unintentional substitution of word/non word for intended word (ex: semantic, phonological) • Example: cat---- dog milt---milk • Jargon--- fluent utterances devoid of meaning PSY100 Language and Thought

27. Classification of aphasia types: Fluent/ Non-fluent Fluent aphasia • Lesions to posterior language areas responsible for reception and analysis of stimuli: understanding speech) • Impairments mostly related to reception (input) of language – comprehension impairments • Wernicke’s aphasia • Anomic aphasia • Conduction aphasia

28. Non-Fluent Aphasia • Damage to anterior language areas responsible for language output (production) • Difficulty with articulation (initiation of movement), but comprehension relatively good– production impairments • Broca’s aphasia • Mixed aphasia • Global aphasia

29. Reception of stimuli and analysis from the outside world Input of language Broca’s Wernicke’s Speech movement and initiation Output

30. Fluent aphasia • Well this is … mother is away here working her work out o' here to get her better, butwhen she's looking, the two boys looking in the other part. One their small tile into here time here. She's working another time because she's getting to. So two boys work together and one is sneakin' around here, making his work an' his further funnas his time he had.

31. Wernicke’s • Most severe form fluent aphasia • Poor comprehension • Jargon – Incomprehensible and incoherent utterances that are fluent, well articulated, and phonologically correct • Press of speech • Neologisms (create new words) • Content of writing is disturbed • Reading out loud—poor • Better preserved reading comprehension • Repetition difficulties • Poor monitoring of errors in speech • Video Clip--

32. Fluent Aphasia: Anomic Aphasia • Mildest form aphasia • Normal language but problems with word-retrieval (naming) • Auditory and reading comprehension are usually normal or only mildly impaired • Repetition better that spontaneous speech

33. Fluent Aphasia: Conduction Aphasia • Comprehension of language is good, speech is fluent but with errors (paraphasia) • Inclusion of incorrect sounds “Sutie for Suzie” • Inappropriate words “table for chair” • Unsuccessful correction attempts • Impaired repetition • Reading and writing are usually good • Damage to connections between speech production and speech comprehension areas

34. Non-fluent :Broca’s Aphasia video clip

35. Broca’s Aphasia • Difficulties with word-retrieval (naming) • Comprehension is better • Labored speech (effortful) • Slow rate • Agrammatism • Omit small grammatical elements • the, is, -ing, -ed (“Walk dog”) • Repetition difficulties • Writing impaired – usually right arm-leg paralysis • Often aware of their difficulties

36. Non-fluent: Mixed and Global Aphasia Both anterior and posteriors speech areas • Mixed aphasia • Comprehension and production • Less than moderately severe • Global • Severe production and comprehension impairments • Few utterances

37. Definition • Problem Solving: active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable- overcome obstacles to reach a goal PSY100 Language and Thought

38. Basic Classes of Problems • Problems inducing structure • E.g., Series completion • E.g., Analogy • Problems of arrangement • E.g., Anagram • E.g., Two string problem • Problems of transformation • E.g., Water jug problem • Clip PSY100 Language and Thought

39. Barriers to Problem Solving • Focus on irrelevant information • The Lee family has five brothers, and each brother has one sister. If you count Mrs. Lee, how many females are in the Lee family? • What is the irrelevant information? PSY100 Language and Thought

40. Barriers to Problem Solving • Functional fixedness • E.g., Candle problem PSY100 Language and Thought

41. Barriers to Problem Solving • Unnecessary constraints • E.g., nine dot problem PSY100 Language and Thought

42. Barriers to Problem Solving • Mental set/ negative set • E.g., water jug PSY100 Language and Thought

43. Other Problem solving barriers • Confirmation bias • Inclination to only use evidence that “fits” one’s preconceived notions • Availability heuristic • Judging the likelihood or probability of events based on ease relevant examples come to mind • Representative heuristic • Tendency to estimate the probability of something based on how well the circumstances match our previous prototype (e.g., coin toss: HTTHHT or HHHHT) PSY100 Language and Thought

44. Solving problems • Algorithms • Specific rule/solution/procedure that is guaranteed to bring the correct answer (e.g., formula) • Heuristic • A strategy, or guiding principle used to solve problems or making decisions (does not guarantee the correct answer!) • Insight (“Aha moment”) • Come suddenly without warning, often after overcoming problem barrier to problem solving • Analogy (heuristic)- • insight arises when use an already-solved problem that is similar to a current problem and can be adapted to the new solution (understanding the relationship between two similar problems PSY100 Language and Thought

45. PSY100 Language and Thought

46. Improving Problem Solving • Increase domain knowledge • Follow a systematic plan • Draw inferences • Develop subgoals (heuristic) • Work backward (heuristic) • Search for relationships between problems PSY100 Language and Thought