Week 12 - Language, Language Use, Development

Common Ground

set of knowledge speaker & listener share

language use

must take into account what speaker thinks listener knows

audience design

speaker design utterances for audience, take into account their knowledge

how does speaker change audience design for less vs more knowledgeable audience?

brief label of object vs more descriptive words

What do you use to coordinate language use (4)

use similar… lexicon, syntax, speech rate, accent

lexicon

words and expressions

syntax

grammatical rules for arranging words & expressions together

What do interpersonal alignments at diff levels of language lead to?

Activation of similar situation models in minds of ppl in convo

situation model

representations about topic of conversation

priming

thinking about 1 concept reminds you of other related concepts

what do people in a conversation share?

shared situation model

How many people are engaging in a convo usually?

What do we mostly talk about?

gossip

What is function of gossip

communicate and share representation of social world, regulate ingroups vs outgroups

Social Brain Hypothesis

equation that predicts average group size of nonhuman primates from average neocortex size

what is a larger brain size associated with

maintaining larger ingroup

how can someone’s action be conveyed?

as a special case OR pattern (character trait)

Ways to describe action (4)

1. action verb → concrete action
2. state verb → your psychological state
3. adjective → describe personality
4. noun → describe role

What do verbs vs adjective convey?

verbs convey particularity, adjectives convey permanency

Linguistic Intergroup Bias

Tend describe actions of ingroup members with adjectives > verbs, tend favour ingroup and describe bad things they’ve done as exceptions → opposite for outgroupP

Spread of gossip through broader social networks

when reach many people and become conventionalized, assimilated into common ground of most people in linguistic community, often happen for emotive stories

Psychological consequences of language use (3)

1. thoughts and feelings influences more by linguistic representation than actual experience
2. making linguistic representation of another person’s emotion → makes bias (remember more strongly)
3. linguistically labeling own emotional experience can alter neural processes → therapeutic effects

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

certain types of language use that is repeated by many ppl in community have sig effects on thoughts and actions, habitual use of language influences habit of thought & action

Theory of Mind

human capacity to understand minds

social interactions that rely on theory of mind (5)

* teaching another person new actions/rules
* learning words of language
* figuring out social standing
* sharing experiences
* collaborating on taks

Autism and Theory of Mind

high functioning individuals with autism miss automatic processing of “people info“

Is mental processes underlying theory of mind a single thing?

no, host of components

1st level of theory of mind (3)

identifying agents, recognizing goals, assessing intentionality

Identifying Agents

identify moving objects in world that act on their own

characteristics of agents (3)

1. self-propelled
2. having eyes
3. reacting systematically to interaction partner’s behaviour

Recognizing Goals

able see systematic & predictable relationship btwn agent pursuing object across various circumstances, agents = directed toward goal objects (seek out, track, physically contact object of goals)

Intentionality

perform behavior with skill & awareness → execute intention

what is needed for intentionality? (4)

1. goals
2. right kinds of beliefs about how to achieve goal
3. intention to perform that action
4. have skill to perform intentional action

2nd level of theory of mind (3)

1. Imitation
2. Mimicry
3. Automatic Empathy

imitation

human tendency to observe and copy others’ behavior

mimicry

subtle, automatic form of imitation

state of synchrony

2 people displaying same behaviour/ have same internal states

what happens when people enjoy an interaction

synchronize behaviours, lead to enjoy even more

automatic empathy

if watch/interact with someone → subtly imitate behavior → associations btwn behaviors & emotions → fell same emotion,

build on imitation & synchrony

3rd level of theory of mind (2)

Joint attention, Visual Perspective taking

Joint attention

2 ppl attending to same object and aware both attending, actively engage with other ppl’s mental states

Visual Perspective Taking

perceiving something from another person’s spatial vantage point OR mentally ‘rotate’ toward other’s spatial location

4th level of Theory of Mind (2)

Simulation, Projection

Simulation

using your mental states as model for others’ mental states, like-me assumption/social projection

like-me assumption/social projection

assumption that others think, feel, want what we do

Projection

assumption that others want, know, feels same as you → lack perspective taking, good: if share same environment, background, knowledge, goals, bad: lack presumed common ground

5th level of theory of mind

mental state inference

mental state inference

ability to take another person’s perspective, separate what we want, feel, know from others

information used in mental state inference

* stored knowledge
* general knowledge
* Agent specific knowledge
* Perceived facts about concrete situation
* what’s happening
* facial expressions & behaviors
* what see/don’t see

People’s explanations of behaviors

show mind-behavior link, when try explain why someone did something

unintentional behaviours

identify causes of behaviors

intentional behaviors

inverse inference: desires and beliefs that lead to that action = reasons for action