Week 10 - Thinking, Language, & Intelligence

nature-nurture debate

language is innate vs language is learned

______________ is a vital part of language acquisition

social interaction

language is an _______ behaviour

emergent

emergent behaviour

complex phenomena that arises from interactions of underlying processes but cannot be deducted or explained from nature and logic of these properties

what was the view from a century ago on bilingualism

extremely negative

broca’s area

frontal lobe

controls speech production and articulation

wernicke’s area

governs language comprehension and understanding

broca’s aphasia (non fluent aphasia)

caused by damage to the brain's frontal lobe, resulting in slow, effortful speech, limited to short, telegraphic sentences while comprehension remains relatively intact

wernicke’s aphasia (fluent aphasia)

a language disorder caused by damage to the brain's left posterior temporal lobe, often from stroke, leading to severe comprehension issues. Patients speak fluently with normal rhythm but produce nonsensical words (word salad) or nonsensical phrases, often unaware of their errors

sapir-whorf hypothesis

the structure of a language determines a native speaker's perception and categorization of experience

representation

anything that stands in for or corresponds to something else

mental representation

hypothetical ‘internal’ cognitive symbol that represents external reality

analogical representation

representation that maintains some of the physical characteristics (analogous to the object)

image of a princess

analogical representation

symbolic representation

representation which does not correspond to the physical characteristics of actual objects

the word princesss

symbolic representation

mental images

allow us to answer questions about objects not in our presence, solve problems, manipulate those images

the _______ an object was rotated from its upright position, the ______ it took participants to determine whether the letter was normal or mirror

farther, longer

categorization

the process of grouping things based on shared information

concept

a mental representation that groups object, events, or relations around common themes

classical categorization

objects are categorized according to a certain set of rules or specific set of features

a triangle is a figure having three angles and three sides

classical categorization

problems with classical categorization

some attributes are more important for defining membership, there are exceptions, some concepts are better category members

prototype model

objects are categorized according to how closely they resemble the prototype

your average model

prototype model

exemplar model

instead of one prototypes, all members of the category that we have encountered form the concept and we choose a specific example

categorization strategies

taxonomic or thematic

thinking styles

analytic or holistic

taxonomic categorization strategy

western, the structure of a language determines a native speaker's perception and categorization of experience

thematic categorization strategy

eastern, groups items based on functional relationships or scenes (e.g., "hammer" and "nail")

analytic thinking style

western, systematic decomposition of complex information into smaller, manageable parts to identify patterns, evaluate relationships, and draw logical, evidence-based conclusions

holistic thinking

eastern, prioritizes the "big picture," focusing on interconnectedness, context, and relationships rather than isolating individual components

reasoning

using information to determine if a conclusion is valid or reasonable

decision making

attempting to selet the best alternative among several options

problem solving

finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal

deductive reasoning

"top-down" logical process that uses general premises, rules, or theories to reach a guaranteed, specific conclusion

inductive reasoning

"bottom-up" logical process that draws broad, generalized conclusions from specific observations or experiences