Thinking and Language
Chapter 8
Language
Our spoken, written, or gestured
word, is the way we communicate
meaning to ourselves and others.
Language transmits culture.
Language Structure
Phonemes: The smallest distinctive
sound unit in a spoken language.
For example:
bat, has three phonemes b ∙ a ∙ t
chat, has three phonemes ch ∙ a ∙ t
Morpheme: The smallest unit
that carries meaning may be a
word or a part of a word. For
example:
Milk = milk
Pumpkin = pump . kin
Unforgettable = un ∙ for ∙ get ∙
table
Phoneme Mistake
Phonemes – basic sounds (about 40)
…es, sh.
Morphemes – smallest meaningful
units (100,000) … un, for.
Words – meaningful units
(290,500)…meat, pumpkin.
Phrase – composed of two or more
words (326,000) … puppy big.
Sentence – composed of many words
(infinite) …She opened the jewelry
box.
Grammar
A system of rules in a language that
enables us to communicate with
and understand others.
Grammar = Semantics + Syntax
Grammar
The rules of a
language.
Syntax: the
order of words in
a language.
Is this the White
House or the House
White?
Semantics
Set of rules by which we derive
meaning from morphemes, words,
and sentences. For example:
Semantic rule tells us that adding –
ed to the word laugh means that it
happened in the past.
Syntax
The rules for combining words into
grammatically sensible sentences.
For example:
In English syntactical rule is that
adjectives come before nouns;
white house. In Spanish it is
reversed; casa blanca.
Language Development
Children learn their native
languages much before learning to
add 2+2.
We learn on average (after age 1)
3,500 words a year (10 per day),
amassing 60,000 words by the time
we graduate high school.
Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4
months the infant spontaneously
utters various sounds, like ah‐ goo.
Babbling is not imitation of adult
speech.
One‐Word Stage: Beginning at or
around the first birthday, a child starts
to speak one‐word and makes family
adults understand him. The word
doggy may mean look at the dog out
there.
Two‐Word Stage: Before the 2nd
year a child starts to speak in
two‐word sentences. This form of
speech is called telegraphic speech
in which the child speaks like a
telegram —“go car,” means that, I
would like to go for a ride in the car.
Longer phrases: After telegraphic
speech children start uttering
longer phrases (Mommy get ball),
with syntactical sense and by early
elementary school they are
enjoying humor.
You never starve in the desert
because of all the sand‐which‐is
there.
How do we learn language?
Language Talents and Stages
Age (months)
Talent/Behavior/Stage
0-4 months Receptive language: associating sounds with facial
In fantis
movements, and recognizing when sounds are broken
(“not speaking”) into words
4 months
Productive language: babbling in multilingual sounds
and gestures
10 months
Babbling sounds more like the parents’/household’s
language
12 months
One-word stage: understanding and beginning to say
many nouns
“telegraphic”/tweet speech: adding verbs,
18-24 months Two-word,
and making sentences but missing words (“See bird!
Ree book? Go park!”)
24+ months,
2+ years
Speaking full sentences and understanding complex
sentences
Language and the Brain
How to read a word, steps 1 to 5
Remember: language
functions are divided in
the brain.
Operant Learning: Skinner (1957,
1985) believed that language
development can be explained on
the basis of learning principles,
such as association, imitation and
reinforcement.
Social Learning Theory
• B.F. Skinner from
the Behaviorist
School
• Baby may imitate a
parent.
• If they are
reinforced they
keep saying the
word.
• If they are
punished, they stop
Inborn Universal Grammar:
Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed
Skinners ideas and suggested that
rate of language acquisition is so
fast that it cannot be explained
through learning principles, and
thus most of it was inborn.
Linguistic Determinism: Whorf
suggested that language
determines the way we think, e.g.,
Hopi, he noted, did not have past
tense for verbs therefore Hopis
could not think readily about the
past.
When a language provides words
for objects or events we can think
about these objects more clearly
and retain them. It is easier to think
about two colors with two
different names.
Statistical Learning and Critical
periods: Well before our first
birthday, our brains are discerning
word breaks by statistically
analyzing which syllables in
hap‐py‐ba‐by go together. These
statistical analysis are learned
during critical periods of child
development.
Critical Period
Childhood seems to be a critical period for language
acquisition
Deaf children who receive cochlear implants at age 2
develop better speech skills than a child who
receives the implant at age 4
Thinking: How is it different from
remembering?
Thinking involves not only retrieving
information but also doing something with
it
Deciding something
Solving a problem
Judging something
Creating something
Finding something
Etc.,
Unscramble
SPLOYOCHYG
Thinking as Problem Solving
Selecting or developing a strategy
Algorithm:
Predefined set of procedures;
Given the procedures are carried
out the outcome is predictable
Works best for routine problems
(figuring out how much mileage
your car gets per gallon)
Algorithms
A rule that
guarantees the right
solution to a
problem.
Usually by using a
formula.
They work but are
sometimes
impractical.
Read each question and decide the choice you think is correct.
Which of the following is the more frequent cause of death in the World?
1. All accidents or strokes?
2. Asthma or electrocution?
3. Homicide or diabetes?
4. Motor vehicle (car, truck, bus) accidents or colon cancer?
5. Leukemia or drowning?
Which country has the larger population?
6. Morocco or Saudi Arabia?
7. Australia or Myanmar?
8. Vietnam or South Africa?
9. Libya or Sri Lanka?
10. Tanzania or Iraq?
Which city has the higher murder rate (per capita)?
11. San Juan or Detroit?
12. Chicago or Baltimore?
13. Manhattan or Gary?
14. Boston or New Haven?
15. Flint, MI or Dallas?
16. San Francisco or Durham?
Read each question and decide the choice you think is correct.
Which of the following is the more frequent cause of death in the World?
1. All accidents (35.9) or strokes (61.4)?
2. Asthma (1.7) or electrocution (.07)?
3. Homicide ((5.7) or diabetes (23.6)?
4. Motor vehicle (car, truck, bus) accidents (15.6) or colon cancer (20.8)?
5. Leukemia (6.2) or drowning (1.4) ?
Which country has the larger population?
6. Morocco (31m) or Saudi Arabia (23m)?
7. Australia (19m) or Myanmar (42m)?
8. Vietnam (80m) or South Africa (44m) ?
9. Libya (5m) or Sri Lanka (19m)?
10. Tanzania (36m) or Iraq (23m) ?
Which city has the higher murder rate (per capita)?
11. San Juan (665) or Detroit (572) ?
12. Chicago (371) or Baltimore (551) ?
13. Manhattan (184) or Gary (556) ?
14. Boston (216) or New Haven (274)
15. Flint, MI (384) or Dallas (315) ?
16. San Francisco (170) or Durham (238)?
Heuristic:
General rule that may work most
of the time
Rules that typically apply to most
problems
Working Backward—from the
desired state to the problem
Analogies—finding a similar
situation
Problem decomposition—
creating a set of smaller more
manageable problems
Three men – Fred, Ed, and Ted – are
married to Joan, Sally, and Vickie,
but not necessarily in that order.
Joan, who is Ed’s sister, lives in
Detroit. Fred dislikes animals. Ed
weighs more than the man who is
married to Vickie. The man married
to Sally breeds Siamese cats as a
hobby. Fred commutes over 200
hours a year from his home in Ann
Arbor to his job in Detroit.
Fred & Vickie
Ed & Sally
Ted & Joan
Heuristics
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/heuristics.html
A rule of thumb
that generally, but
not always, can be
used to make a
judgment to solve a
problem.
It is fast, but is…
Prone to errors
Thinking as Decision-Making:
Biases and Bad Decisions
Representativeness Bias—we tend
to judge individual instances based
on the degree to which we view
them as belonging to or to which
they represent a larger group.
Representativeness Heuristic
Who went to Harvard?
Dan is a smart dude, but
did not go to Harvard
(but he looks like he did).
•If I tell you that Sonia Dara is a Sports
Illustrated swimsuit model, you would make
certain quick judgments (heuristics) about
her…like about her interests or intelligence.
•She is an economics major at Harvard
University.
• Judging a situation
based on how similar
the aspects are to the
prototypes the person
holds in their mind.
• Like thinking
everyone from a
certain school is
preppy, or someone
with glasses is nerdy,
or a blonde is not
smart.
Availability Bias—we tend to
estimate the likelihood or
probability of something based on
whether relevant examples can be
retrieved from memory (e.g.
pictures of the same street crime
seen repeatedly can lead to a
conclusion that crimes occur
frequently)
Availability Heuristic
Which place would you be more scared of
getting mugged or even murdered?
Judging a situation
based on examples of
similar situations that
initially come to mind.
Vivid examples in the
news often cause an
availability heuristic.
The crime rate of Gary, Indiana is MUCH
higher than the Bronx. But when you think of
crime, which town comes to mind?
Gary, Indiana
The Bronx, NY
Heuristics can lead to Overconfidence…
• Our confidence is not a good indicator of
how right we are.
• Belief Perseverance- maintaining a belief
even after it has been proven wrong.
• Belief Bias- People will tend to accept any
and all conclusions that fit in with their
systems of belief, without challenge or
any deep consideration of what they are
actually agreeing with.
Problems with Problem-Solving:
Functional Fixedness
The inability to see a new use for an
object.
Confirmation Bias
We look for
evidence to
confirm our
beliefs and ignore
evidence that
contradicts them.
For example, if
one believes that
all Italians are in
shape and go
tanning, then they
turn on MTV.
Look…I knew it was true!!!
But is it really?
Framing
90% of the population will be
saved with this
medication…..or
10% of the population will die
despite this medication.
You should not drink more
than two drinks per day….or
You should not drink more
than 730 drinks a year.
• The way a problem
is presented can
drastically effect
the way we view it.
Problem-Solving and Decision-Making as
Critical Thinking
Those who make good decisions and solve
problems with higher levels of success
share characteristics of critical thinking
Thinking is goal directed
Thinking is based on logic and reliable
information
One’s own assumptions and biases are
questioned first
Other’s assumptions and assertions are
questioned
CREATIVITY
Almost
impossible to
define.
Little correlation
between
creativity and
intelligence.
Thinking Creatively
Divergent rather than convergent thinking
(seeking multiple possibilities)
High levels of knowledge and interest in the
relevant domain
Sees problems as potentially complex
Typically restructures problems
Simultaneously seeks interactions with other
creative individuals and reflects independent
thinking
Intelligence and creativity relationship complex
and not direct