chapter 9

What is the quintessential human trait related to language?

Possessing language.

What are the three properties of language?

Symbolic, Structure, Generativity.

What is generativity in language?

The ability to combine symbols to generate an infinite number of messages with novel meanings.

What does the term 'phoneme' refer to?

The smallest units of sound recognized as separate in a given language.

What is a morpheme?

The smallest units of meaning, formed by combinations of phonemes.

What is the difference between surface structure and deep structure in language?

Surface structure refers to the ways symbols are combined, while deep structure involves the underlying meanings.

What role do Broca's and Wernicke's areas play in language?

Broca's Area is involved in speech production, while Wernicke's Area is involved in speech comprehension.

What is the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis?

The idea that language determines what we are capable of thinking.

What are the stages of language development in children?

Cooing, Babbling, single words, two words (telegraphic speech).

What is a sensitive period in language learning?

A period in which language is most easily learned, typically from infancy to puberty.

What influence does children's social environment have on their language acquisition?

Parents provide support through child-directed speech, naming objects, and asking questions.

What is a mental set in problem solving?

The tendency to stick to solutions that have worked in the past.

What distinguishes expert problem solvers from novices?

Experts have a larger number of schemas to guide problem solving in their field.

What is the significance of algorithms and heuristics in problem solving?

Algorithms are formulas that guarantee a correct solution, while heuristics are general strategies or mental shortcuts that simplify problem-solving.

What is functional fixedness in creativity?

A cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used, hindering new uses.

What does 'incubation' refer to in the creative process?

The phenomenon where creative solutions pop into mind after a period of not actively thinking about the problem.

What role does metacomprehension play in learning?

It involves awareness and knowledge of one's own cognitive processes, specifically memory abilities.

What are the main features of language?

Language is made of symbols, has a structure, and allows us to create new messages.

How many parts of meaning are in the word 'unhappiness'?

The word 'unhappiness' has three parts of meaning: 'un-', 'happy', and '-ness'.

What are the different ideas about how we learn language?

Ideas include learning through rewards (behaviorism), being born with language skills (nativism), and learning through interaction with others (interactionism).

How does language affect our thoughts and brain activity?

Language influences how we think and view the world, which is shown by the idea that our language shapes our thoughts.

Can animals learn to use language?

Some animals can learn to use symbols similar to language, but they don't use language the same way humans do.

What types of logical thinking exist?

There are three types of logical thinking: deductive (from general to specific), inductive (from specific to general), and abductive (making the best guess with incomplete information).

What are some common mistakes people make when solving problems?

Common mistakes include sticking to old solutions (mental set), getting stuck on one idea (functional fixedness), and only looking for information that supports our beliefs (confirmation bias).

What does heuristics mean?

Heuristics are quick and simple ways to solve problems or make decisions.

What does wisdom mean?

Wisdom is having the ability to make good decisions based on knowledge and life experiences.

What are different types of mental images?

Types include pictures in our minds (visual imagery), sounds (auditory imagery), and movements (kinesthetic imagery). Metacognition is being aware of and controlling how we think.

Language

A system of symbols and rules for these symbols to generate infinite messages and meanings

Grammar

Rule-governed structure for language

Syntax

Order of words

Semantics

Meanings behind words and sentences

Generativity

Characteristic of language that means - the symbols of language can be combined to make infinite meanings

Displacement

Characteristic of language that means - language allows us to refer to events that are not currently present (past, future)

Surface structure

Type of structure referencing the symbols and their orders

Deep structure

Type of structure referencing the underlying meaning of symbols when combined

Phoneme

Smallest unit of speech in a language that signals a difference in meaning

Morpheme

Small unit of meaning in a language (ex. Dog, log, prefixes)

Bottom-up processing

Analyzing elements of stimulus and creating a perception

Top-down processing

Using existing knowledge and expectations to process something

Speech segmentation

Perceiving where a word begins and ends

Pragmatics

Knowledge of practical aspects of language - knowing how to respond without context

Broca's Area

Area of the brain involved in word production and articulation

Wernicke's Area

Area of the brain involved in speech comprehension

Aphasia

Impairment in speech comprehension or production

Language acquisition device (LAD)

Biological mechanism to learning common grammatical rules

Operant conditioning explanation

Social learning has a lot of influence in learning a language - Skinner developed this explanation

Language acquisition support system (LASS)

Learning system represented by social and environment factors - proposed by Bruner

Sensitive period

This is when second languages are best learned

Critical Period Hypothesis

Neurological factors occurring at puberty mean that thereafter you can't just pick up a language as you did when you were a child

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Whorf's belief that speakers of different languages have different views of the world, language determines our capability of thought

Propositional thought

Expressing a statement in our mind, how most thinking occurs

Imaginal thought

Consists of images that we can "see," "hear," or "feel" in our mind

Motoric thought

Mental representations of motor movements

Concept

Basic unit of semantic memory

Deductive reasoning

Reasoning where one begins with a set of premises and then assesses their "fit" to come to a conclusion

Inductive reasoning

A type of reasoning in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations (based on fact)

Belief bias

Abandoning logical rules in favour of personal belief

Framing

Emotions making one abandon logical reasoning

Algorithm

Formulas to automatically generate solutions

Heuristic

Strategies to apply to certain classes of situations

Means-end analysis

A heuristic where differences between beginning and end state are identified

Subgoal analysis

Goal cut down into intermediates

Confirmation bias

Looking to confirm a belief rather than disconfirming our ideas

Metacognition

Understanding of own cognitive abilities

Wisdom

Involves factual and procedural knowledge about life, understanding of lifespan, relativism of values

Psycholinguistics

An investigation of language functions, models and brain relationships

Modularity

A major view of human mental processes, idea that distinct areas in the brain help us learn language

Connectionism

A major view of psycholinguistics describing nodes and neural connections

Language development

Vocal tract structure development (tongue, larynx) over time is an example of...

Continuity approach

An approach to language evolution that suggests development was gradual, beginning with calls/gestures

Discontinuity

An approach to language evolution that suggests language abilities are qualitatively different from earlier forms of communication

Primatologists

This group supports continuity theory

Linguists

This group supports discontinuity theory

Universal Characteristics of Languages

Semanticity, Arbitrariness, Discreteness, Duality of patterning, Productivity, Displacement

Semanticity

language should convey meaning

Arbitrariness

no inherent connection between the units (sounds, words) used in a language and their meanings

Discreteness

we can combine words in sounds according to shared and conventional rules

Duality of patterning

the property of smaller meaningless elements combining at a higher level to create meaning

Productivity

Ability to recombine signals to produce unique utterances

Computational Level

Based in linguistics, based off of Chomsky - language is based upon syntactic rules

Representational Level

What occurs in the mind of the language user that allows them to see differences in sentences? (Chomsky)

Implementation Level

Driven by representational analysis, which was driven by computational