Thought & Language – Comprehensive Study Notes
Opening Case: Smart Speakers & Local Slang
Voice-activated assistants (Google Home 2017 AU; Amazon Alexa 2018 NZ, 2021 AU upgrade) had to be trained on Australian & Kiwi vernacular.- Examples: “hard yakka,” “bucket-down,” “sparrow’s fart,” “footy,” “devo,” “barra.”
Reflects how language evolves to encode cultural identity; 53 % of Australians rank slang as a top national-pride marker.
Rhyming slang: enduring form (e.g., “Barry Crocker” = shocker, “Reg Grundies” = undies, “My Sharona” = corona).
Slang shows: (1) shared metaphors, (2) mapping between knowledge domains, (3) transfer of thought via words.
Units of Thought
Thinking = manipulating mental representations for a purpose.
Major representational forms:- Words & Linguistic Propositions – inner speech.
Mental Images – visual/auditory/etc. Evidence: RT is proportional to rotation degrees in Cooper & Shepard studies; PET scans show visual-cortex activation during imagery.
Mental Models – explanatory/predictive representations (e.g., dentist’s causal cavity model, memory model diagram).
Theory of Mind – attributing beliefs & feelings to self/others; deficits in autism/Asperger’s.
Concepts & Categories
Concept: mental representation of a class with shared properties.
Categorisation enables inference & efficient thinking.
Two mechanisms:1. Defining Features – lists of necessary & sufficient properties (works for well-defined concepts: salt, triangle).
Similarity-Based – prototype/exemplar matching.
Prototype = abstraction of characteristic features (bird prototype shares flight, chirp, eggs).
Reaction-time: parrot judged “bird” quicker than penguin (100–200 ms difference).
Hierarchical Structure- Superordinate (animal)
Basic (dog) – fastest natural level.
Subordinate (golden retriever) – used for atypical or expert cases.
Culture shapes basic-level sets (e.g., Utku two kinds of “love”).
Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning – specific to general; probabilistic (HIV casual-contact example).
Deductive Reasoning – general to specific; syllogisms; certainty if premises true.- Content/form effects: Wason card task vs. beer/18-years version show concrete context aids deduction.
Analogical Reasoning – map familiar domain onto novel (Dave Warner’s “cricket = war,” Kevin Andrews’ cycling analogy). Requires element mapping & often drives emotional framing.
Cultural logic: Western—non-contradiction; Eastern—embrace paradox (yin-yang).
Problem Solving
Transformation from initial state → goal state via operators.
Idealised steps:1. Compare states.
Select operator likely to reduce difference.
Apply; set subgoals.
Iterate until solved.
Strategies- Algorithms – guaranteed, systematic (spell-check; exhaustive root-finding example, e.g., square root of 16129 is 127).
Heuristics/Rules of thumb.
Mental Simulation – envisage steps; study with psych students: simulating study behaviours increased hours & grades vs. “positive thinking.”
Hypothesis Testing – everyday & scientific.
Barriers- Functional Fixedness (candle/matchbox task).
Mental Set (water-jar type persistence).
Confirmation Bias; Hindsight Bias; Optimistic Bias.
Relational-processing deficits after frontal-stroke.
Overcoming – problem restructuring (nine-dot “think outside square”).
Decision Making
Sequential steps: define problem → alternatives → criteria → weigh → choose.
Expected-Utility Model: choose option with maximum EU (Expected Utility = sum of (utilityi * probabilityi)).- Weighted utility = criterion importance × option score.
Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky):- Value function asymmetrical; the impact of a loss is greater than the impact of an equivalent gain.
People risk-seek to avoid losses; risk-averse for gains.
Risk perception shaped by context, taxes experiment, gender debates.
Explicit vs. Implicit Cognition
Explicit = conscious, deliberative.
Implicit = outside awareness; includes:- Implicit learning (social gaze rules, phoneme statistics).
Incubation & “Aha!” insight (activation spreads until threshold).
Heuristics- Representativeness (Akeem example; base-rate neglect, e.g., 50 to 1 librarians:salespeople ratio).
Availability (famous-name gender count; COVID-vaccine clot fears).
Bounded Rationality (Simon): satisficing; “take-the-best.” Recognition heuristic: fewer facts can yield higher accuracy.
Intuitive vs. Analytical Decisions- Intuition faster, emotional; effective when expert knowledge & tasks non-analytic (basketball-shot difficulty study).
Emotion, Motivation & Thought
Emotions bias judgments (lottery near-miss, risk assessment).
Thought can override feeling yet may reduce satisfaction (poster choice experiment).
Connectionism / Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)
Cognition = parallel activation across distributed neural networks.
Nodes = features; learning = weight change.
Constraint Satisfaction: system chooses pattern that meets most constraints (letter–word disambiguation “THE CAT”).
Explains categorisation, memory (sunset recall), inference model (partner wants to split up diagram).
Neural correlates:- Dorsolateral PFC – working memory, planning (Tower of London deficits).
Ventromedial PFC – emotion-guided decisions (Phineas Gage).
Language: Definition & Thought Interaction
Language = system of symbols, sounds, meanings, combinatory rules.
Whorfian Hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity)- Language influences thought (Hanunoo 92 rice terms; Indigenous cardinal-direction language & time-mapping).
Extreme version not supported (Dani remember prototypical colours despite 2 colour terms).
Thought also shapes language (cyberspace, road-rage neologisms).
Elements of Language
Phonemes – smallest speech sounds.
Morphemes – smallest meaning units (pre-, –ing, cognit-ion).
Phrases – word groups acting as unit.
Sentences – organised sequences expressing propositions.
Syntax – placement rules (Chomsky: grammar generative; surface vs. deep structure).
Semantics – meaning constraints; interacts with syntax (adj+noun disambiguation).
Prosody – rhythm/stress aids comprehension & predicts reading skill; links to dyslexia visual-attention hypothesis.
Pragmatics, Discourse & Nonverbal Cues
Pragmatics = language use in context; discourse processed at multiple levels (exact wording → gist → situation model → communicative intent → discourse type).
Conversational maxims: shared knowledge tracking, response tokens, topic sentences, intonation cues.
Nonverbal communication: body language, distance, facial expression, vocalics; emojis restore affect cues in text.- 30-sec silent TA clips predicted end-term ratings (correlation approximately 0.80).
Joint attention & gaze critical for word learning; impaired in autism.
Language Development
Speed: 0 → 60 000 words by adulthood.
Nature vs. Nurture- Skinner: reinforcement shaping.
Chomsky: innate Universal Grammar; Language Acquisition Device (LAD); evidence: over-regularisations (“hisself,” “goed”); Nicaraguan Sign Language emergence.
Neural specialisation: left-temporal semantics, Broca syntax; early leftward asymmetry.
Connectionist view: innate sensitivities + statistical learning.
Critical Period- Optimal 0–3 yrs; after >12 native-like fluency rare; Genie & late deaf signers studies.
Milestones (approx.)- 1–5 m: cooing, differentiates speech.
6–12 m: babbling; culture-specific phonemes.
10–18 m: first words; holophrases.
18–24 m: “vocabulary spurt” (~1–2 words/week); two-word telegraphic speech.
2–4 yrs: grammar explosion; over-regularisation; 4 yrs mostly grammatical.
Influences- Motherese / infant-directed speech (high pitch, exaggerated prosody) & multimodal cues.
Caregiver expansions/recasts accelerate syntax; mere acknowledgment delays.
Phonics crucial for reading acquisition.
Non-Human Language Capacity
Apes can learn symbols/signs but lack productive grammar & recursive syntax.
Pinker: humans unique branch; extinct predecessors perhaps had language modules.
Heuristics, Biases & Ethical / Employability Links
Confirmation bias risks in science; optimism bias & smoking; hindsight bias in 2019-20 bush-fire commentaries.
Ethical dilemmas: shock-based chimp language experiments questioned.
Employability: APAC competency on cognition, language, perception; students advised to apply decision-making steps to career planning.
Formulas & Key Notation
Mental-rotation RT: RT = k * theta + b.
Expected Utility: EU = sum of (utilityi * probabilityi).
Prospect Theory value asymmetry: value of a loss (-x) is greater than the absolute value of a gain (x).
Quick Glossary Highlights
Algorithm, Heuristic, Prototype, Satisficing, Telegrapic Speech, Motherese, Dorsolateral PFC, Availability Heuristic, Bounded Rationality, PDP, Syntax vs. Semantics, Critical Period, Prosody.