GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER 7 LANGUAGE THOUGHT pg 213 229 10 6 Language language combined according to rules of grammar system for communicating with others using signals that convey meaning and are how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds how we o phoneme o morpheme o phonological rules smallest unit of sound 42 in English language smallest meaningful unit of language words create language combining phonemes to create morphemes in order to get a message across o grammar specify how the units of language combined to produced meaningful messages syntactical rules sentences indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a language development o at birth contrasting sounds in human language o 4 6 months babble speech sounds cooing learning phonemes o 6 months distinguish those sounds in language being spoken around them o language milestones fast mapping single exposure over extension are animals animals are dogs under extension his dog is maybe a dog telegraphic speech mostly of content words two word sentences over generalization mouses to mice theories of language development o behaviorist explanations use the name for one common thing for things similar to it dogs understands one form but not the other my dog is a dog but speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consist misuse of grammatical run to an exception to the rule ex children learn language through the principles of operant conditioning reinforcement shaping and extinction limits to behaviorist theory of language o parents don t spend much time teaching grammar o children generate more grammatical sentences than they hear o errors children make do not duplicate what they hear o nativist theory language development is best explained as an innate biological capacity Noam Chomsky o language acquisition device LAD prewiring nurture explanation to language disorder characterized by inability to learn the genetic dysphasia grammatical structure of language despite having normal intelligence grounds for proof for nativist theory plurals and past tense in unknown words explains why deaf babies can babble language sounds designed to test whether children can utilize rules for forming wug test criticized for explaining why not how o interactionist theory social interactions play a crucial role in the language development supporting evidence parents tailor verbal interactions with children in ways that simplify language acquisition Senghas Kita Oxyurek 2004 Nicaragua children NOT taught sign language often develop their own hand signals and form of communication neurological specialization o two language centers in the brain Broca s aphasia Broca s area Wernicke s area located in the left frontal cortex involved in language production left temporal cortex involved in language comprehension aphasia difficulty in producing or comprehending language produce it in the frontal lobe can produce grammatical speech but it tends to be meaningless they have difficulty comprehending the language that they hear writing and reading are significantly impaired in the temporal lobe can understand comprehend language but cannot Wernicke s aphasia language in other animals o chimp research is both consistent and inconsistent with the biological approach to language acquisition o chimpanzee and human brains are organized similarly lateralization brain function o multiple studies done Gardener Gardener 1969 Washoe chimpanzee taught to make a large number of sign language would create simple meaningful sentences Savage Rumbaugh 1986 Kanzi bonobo chimp keyboard to learn words of objects using a keyboard Pepperberg 1993 Alex Africa gray parrot many words in English able to identify objects Herman Uyeyama 1999 Phoenix dolphin o limitations to animals learning language size of vocabulary type of words learned concrete words but not conceptual complexity of grammar use of generative communication can only use the words they were taught could not self learn other words Concepts and Categories language shapes thoughts concept category specific deficit mental representation fundamental to our ability to think inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category deficit for specific objects ex fruit tools etc how people organize and classify events o anomia concept formation o categories superordinate category about the world fruit highest most general level used most often for thinking level that we use every day instead of just fruit basic level category oranges first level that children learn while learning subordinate category o concepts formal concepts natural concepts formal almost creating one s own category rules for identifying concepts concepts we develop put into a category that do not conform to more specific from basic certain type of orange Theories of Concepts and Categories features that appear in common with the other members but may not family resemblance theory be possessed by every member prototype theory most typical exemplar theory category comparing what is in our memory to a new member of the category comparing new instance with stored memories for other instances of the category members that have more things in common with other characters are Problem Solving Decision Making concept formation is basis for knowing how to solve problems types of problem solving decision making methods o algorithms well defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantee a solution to the problem ex algebraic formula always leads to the correct answer if followed correctly fast and efficient strategy that helps reach a decision but does not guarantee a solution to the problem flexible guidelines for solving problems mental shortcuts o heuristics means end analysis process of searching for steps to reduce differences between 1 2 3 4 current situation and desired goal analyze goal state analyze current state list differences between current state and goal state reduce differences by a direct means b develop a subgoal c find similar problem with known solution analogical problem solving problem solving by finding similar problem with analogical problem solving known solution and applying that solution to the current problem ex fortress goal state occupied fortress and fragile surrounding bridges current state differences occupying enemy reduce differences solution them in all surrounding bridges to converge on the fortress conquered fortress divide
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