Cognitive Psychology: Language and Thought

Languages differ in lexicons and syntactical structures, reflecting cultural and physical environments.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity) asserts different languages lead to differing cognitive systems and influence thought patterns.
A milder view suggests language influences, rather than determines, thought and affects memory encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Research addresses both linguistic universals (characteristic patterns across all languages) and relativity.
Color naming shows languages divide the color spectrum systematically, not arbitrarily.
Grammatical features, like Spanish 'ser' and 'estar' or grammatical gender, can subtly influence how speakers perceive and describe attributes or objects, even when speaking another language.
Concepts unique to one language can influence thinking, as seen with terms lacking direct equivalents.

Bilinguals speak two languages; monolinguals speak one.
Being a balanced bilingual enhances executive functions and may delay dementia, but can lead to smaller vocabularies and slower lexical access.
Additive bilingualism adds a second language to a well-developed first; subtractive bilingualism replaces elements of the first language.
Simultaneous bilingualism is learning two languages from birth; sequential bilingualism is learning one then another.
Age is a significant factor in second language acquisition, with debate on native-like mastery after adolescence.
Single-system hypothesis suggests languages are in one brain region; dual-system hypothesis suggests separate systems. Evidence indicates shared but not all aspects.
Pidgin is a language with no native speakers, formed from contact between different language groups.
Creole develops from a pidgin, acquiring its own grammar and native speakers.
Dialect is a regional language variety distinguished by vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation.
Linguicism is a stereotype based on dialect.

Learning a second language increases gray matter density in the left inferior parietal cortex, positively correlated with proficiency.
A negative correlation exists between age of acquisition and density in this brain region.
Early bilinguals show overlapping activation centers in the left inferior frontal gyrus during sentence generation.

Slips of the tongue are inadvertent linguistic errors (phoneme, morpheme, or larger units).
Freudian slips are theorized to reflect unconscious psychological processes.
Slips may indicate a difference between the language of thought and spoken expression.
Types include: anticipation, perseveration, substitution, reversal (transposition), spoonerisms, malapropism, insertions, and deletions.

Metaphors juxtapose two nouns to assert similarities (e.g., "The house was a pigsty").
Similes use "like" or "as" for comparison (e.g., "The child was as quiet as a mouse").
Key elements of a metaphor: tenor (topic), vehicle (what tenor is described as), ground (set of similarities), and tension (set of dissimilarities).