Chapter 8
Language and Thought
Language: Turning Thoughts into Words
 Properties
–
–
–
–
of Language
Symbolic
Semantic
Generative
Structured
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The Hierarchical Structure of Language
 Phonemes = smallest speech units
– 100 possible, English – about 40
 Morphemes = smallest unit of meaning
– 50,000 in English, root words, prefixes, suffixes
 Semantics
= meaning of words and word
combinations
– Objects and actions to which words refer
 Syntax
= a system of rules for arranging words
into sentences
– Different rules for different languages
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Language Development: Milestones

Initial vocalizations similar across languages
– Crying, cooing, babbling


6 months – babbling sounds begin to resemble
surrounding language
1 year – first word
– similar cross-culturally – words for parents
– receptive vs. expressive language
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Language Development: Milestones
Continued
 18-24 months – vocabulary
– fast mapping
– over and underextensions
spurt
 End of second year – combine
– Telegraphic speech
– Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)
words
of third year – complex ideas, plural,
past tense
 End
– Overregularization
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Bilingualism: Learning More Than One
Language
 Research
findings:
– Smaller vocabularies in one language, combined
vocabularies average
– Higher scores for middle-class bilingual subjects on
cognitive flexibility, analytical reasoning, selective attention,
and metalinguistic awareness
– Slight disadvantage in terms of language processing speed
– Second languages more easily acquired early in life
– Greater acculturation facilitates acquisition
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Fig 8.4 – Age and second language learning. In the study of how well immigrants to the
United States master English as a second language, Johnson and Newport (1989)
examined the relationship between the subjects’ age of arrival and their mastery of syntax.
As you can see, it was advantageous to start learning English at an earlier age, up through
about age 15. After that, age of arrival did not make a difference. For example, those who
started at 20 were no better off than those who started at 30.
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(Adapted from Johnson & Newport, 1989)
Can Animals Develop Language?
 Dolphins, sea lions, parrots,
– Vocal apparatus issue
– American Sign Language
 Allen and Beatrice Gardner
– Chimpanzee - Washoe
– 160 word vocabulary
chimpanzees
(1969)
 Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
– Bonobo chimpanzee - Kanzi
– Symbols
– Receptive language – 72% of 660 requests
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Theories of Language Acquisition
 Behaviorist
– Skinner
• learning of specific verbal responses
 Nativist
– Chomsky
• learning the rules of language
• Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
 Interactionist
– Cognitive, social communication, and
emergentist theories
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Fig 8.5 – Interactionist theories of language acquisition. The interactionist view is that nature
and nurture are both important to language acquisition. Maturation is thought to drive language
development directly and to influence it indirectly by fostering cognitive development. Meanwhile,
verbal exchanges between parents and others are also thought to play a critical role in molding
language skills. The complex interrelations depicted here shed some light
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on why there is room for extensive debate about the crucial factors in
language acquisition.
Problem Solving: Types of Problems
(1978) – three basic classes
 Problems of inducing structure
 Greeno
– Series completion and analogy problems
 Problems of arrangement
– String problem and Anagrams
• Often solved through insight
 Problems of transformation
– Hobbits and orcs problem
– Water jar problem
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Fig 8.6 – Six standard
problems used in studies of
problem solving. Try solving
the problems and identifying
which class each belongs to
before reading further. The
problems can be classified as
follows. The analogy problems
and series completion problems
are problems of inducing
structure. The solutions for the
analogy problems are Buy and
Patient. The solutions for the
series completion problems are
4 and E. The string problem
and the anagram problems are
problems of arrangement. To
solve the string problem, attach
the screwdriver to one string
and set it swinging as a
pendulum. Hold the other string
and catch the swinging
screwdriver. Then you need
only untie the screwdriver and
tie the strings together. The
solutions for the anagram
problems are WATER and
JOKER. The hobbits and orcs
problem and the water jar
problem are problems of
transformation. The solutions
for these problems are outlined
in Figures 8.7 and 8.8.
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Effective Problem Solving
Well
defined vs. ill defined problems
Barriers to effective problem solving:
–
–
–
–
Irrelevant Information
Functional Fixedness
Mental Set
Unnecessary Constraints
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Fig 8.12 – The tower of Hanoi problem. Your mission is to move the rings from
peg A to peg C. You can move only the top ring on a peg and can’t place a larger
ring above a smaller one. The solution is explained in the text.
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Approaches to Problem Solving
 Algorithms
– Systematic trial-and-error
– Guaranteed solution
 Heuristics
– Shortcuts
– No guaranteed solution
•
•
•
•
Forming subgoals
Working backward
Searching for analogies
Changing the representation of a problem
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Fig 8.16 – Representing the bird and train problem. The typical inclination is to
envision this problem spatially, as shown here. However, this representation
makes the problem much more difficult than it really is.
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Culture, Cognitive Style, and Problem
Solving
dependence – relying on external frames
of reference
 Field independence – relying on internal
frames of reference
 Field
– Western cultures inspire field independence
– Cultural influence based in ecological demands
 Holistic
vs. analytic cognitive styles
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Decision Making: Evaluating Alternatives
and Making Choices
(1957) – theory of bounded rationality
 Making Choices
 Simon
– Additive strategies
– Elimination by aspects
– Risky decision making
• Expected value
• Subjective utility
• Subjective probability
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Heuristics in Judging Probabilities
 The
availability heuristic
 The representativeness heuristic
 The tendency to ignore base rates
 The conjunction fallacy
 The alternative outcomes effect
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Fig 8.19 – The
conjunction fallacy.
People routinely fall
victim to the conjunction
fallacy, but as this
diagram makes obvious,
the probability of being
in a subcategory
(college teachers who
are politicians) cannot
be higher than the
probability of being in
the broader category
(college teachers). As
this case illustrates, it
often helps to represent
a problem in a diagram.
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Understanding Pitfalls in Reasoning About
Decisions
 The
gambler’s fallacy
 The law of small numbers
 Overestimating the improbable
 Confirmation bias and belief perseverance
 The overconfidence effect
 Framing
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Evolutionary Analyses: Flaws in Decision
Making and Fast and Frugal Heuristics
 Cosmides
and Tooby (1996)
– Unrealistic standard of rationality
– Decision making evolved to handle real-world
adaptive problems
– Problem solving research based on contrived,
artificial problems
 Gigerenzer (2000)
– Quick and dirty heuristics
– Less than perfect but adaptive
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