Psychology - Language and thought

Chapter 8: Language and thought The nature of language 1. Language is communicative 2. Language is arbitrary 3. Language is meaningfully structured or rule governed 4. Language has multiple levels 5. Language is productive 6. Language is dynamic Language and the brain • Broca’s aphasia • Wernicke’s aphasia • Hemispheric differences in processing 1. Left: syntactical, right: metaphors 2. Left: well-practiced, right: novel stimuli • Sex differences 1. Men: left, women: bilateral 2. Men: more localized, women: using both Aspects of language • • Phonemes: sounds Morpheme: smallest unit of sound that denotes meaning 1. Root word 2. Affixes • Lexicon (vocabulary): the entire set of morphemes • Syntax: putting words together • Discourse: beyond the sentence • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Semantics The meanings of words Concept: understanding the world Componential theory: defining features Prototype theory: characteristic features Exemplars • Syntax 1. Systematic structure through which words ban be combined 2. Grammar: regular patterns 3. Transformational grammar (Noam Chomsky) (a) Surface structure: phrase-structure (b) Deep structure: underlying meaning of a sentence (c) Transformations: deep - surface • 1. 2. 3. 4. Pragmatics How people use language In the context of social interaction Script: pre-determined sequence of actions Slips of the tongues: Freud • The relation of language to thought 1. Linguistic relative theory 2. The language you speak influences the way you think (e.g., rice, snow) 3. The other way Language acquisition 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Prenatal Postnatal cooing Babbling One-word utterance Two-word utterance Telegraphic speech Basic adult sentence structure • Prenatal (出生前) influences 1. Fetuses (胚胎) can hear their mothers’ voices 2. Prepared to pay attention to their mothers’ voices after birth • Cooing (咕咕聲) (咕嚕聲) 1. Vocalize all phones humans can produce 2. Japanese infants (l vs. r) (flute vs. fruit) 3. Losing their ability to distinguish the phones in the next stage (by 1 year of age) • Babbling (牙牙學語) 1. Preferential production of the phonemes in their own language 2. Cannot distinguish (hear & speak) all phones • One- and two- word utterances (單 vs. 雙字期) 1. One word for intentions, desires, and demands 2. 3-10 words within 18 months 3. Overextension error • Telegraphic speech 1. Like a telegram 2. Articles, prepositions are left out 3. Only have nouns, verbs • Age 4 children Adult syntax and language structure Explanations of language acquisition • Imitation (a) child-directed speech (motherese) (b) over-regularization, against imitation • • Conditioning Critical periods (a) a particular ability must be developed (b) “wild children” examples Do animals use language? • Descartes: language – humans vs. animals • No • Yes, sign language The nature of thought • Critical thinking: mental processes to find solutions to problems (divergent vs. convergent thinking) 1. Problem solving 2. Decision making 3. Creativity Strategies and obstacles in problem solving • Well-structured problems: clear path • Ill-structured problems: no rules • Solving well-structured problems: heuristics and algorithms 1. Heuristic (捷思法): trial-and-error (a) 非正式的策略 (b) 經驗法則 (rules of thumb) 2. Algorithms (算則法): rules (a) 正式法則 (b) 重複演算 • Solving ill-structured problems: insight 1. The Nine-dot problem 2. Basketball players • A psychological perspective on insight 1. Productive thinking: going beyond the bounds of existing associations 2. Reproductive thinking: making use of existing associations 3. Figure 8.6 • 1. (a) (b) (c) Hindrances to problem solving Mental sets and fixation Thinking of a problem in a particular way They work most of the time But not always 2. Functional fixedness Preventing us from using old tools in novel ways to solve new problems Water-jar problems (Table 8.2, numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) • Improving problem solving 1. Transfer (a) Positive transfer (b) Meaningful analogies between what they are learning and what they already know 2. Incubation (孕育期) (a) Stop focusing on the problems (b) New stimuli may activate new perspectives (c) Need to have enough time Making judgments and decisions • Decision theory 1. Utility-maximization theory: to maximize pleasure and to minimize pain 2. Subjective-utility theory: based on idiosyncratic hopes, fears, and other subjective motivations • Satisficing 1. Bounded rationality (有界限的理性) 2. Satisficing (滿足的策略) (a) Select the first option that appears to be satisfactory (b) This option is just good enough (c) We don’t consider all of the possible options • Heuristics and biases 1. Representativeness (a) obvious, salient features (b) Base rate (10 vs. 50 year old: chest pains) 2. Availability (a) Which particular examples may be called to mind (b) More people are afraid of flying than driving 3. Overconfidence 4. gambler’s fallacy (賭徒的謬誤) (a) losing in 5 successive bets, winning the 6th time (b) Events are independent Reasoning • Deductive reasoning (演繹性推理) 1. Drawing logical conclusions 2. Based on premises (命題): if … then… • Inductive reasoning (歸納性推理) 1. Drawing uncertain conclusions 2. Based on observations Creativity • Divergent production: IQ measure 發散式的思考 • Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation (a) 內在動機: enjoyment of the creative process (b) 外在動機: connecting to the outside world (c) both