1. Chapter 8
Language and Thought

2. Language: Turning Thoughts into Words
Properties of Language
Symbolic
Semantic
Generative
Structured

3. 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

4. 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

6. Language Development: Milestones Continued
18-24 months – vocabulary spurt
fast mapping
over and underextensions
End of second year – combine words
Telegraphic speech
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)
End of third year – complex ideas, plural, past tense
Overregularization

7. 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

8. Fig 8. 4 – Age and second language learning
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.
(Adapted from Johnson & Newport, 1989)

9. Can Animals Develop Language?
Dolphins, sea lions, parrots, chimpanzees
Vocal apparatus issue
American Sign Language
Allen and Beatrice Gardner (1969)
Chimpanzee - Washoe
160 word vocabulary
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
Bonobo chimpanzee - Kanzi
Symbols
Receptive language – 72% of 660 requests

10. 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

11. Fig 8. 5 – Interactionist theories of language acquisition
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
on why there is room for extensive debate about the crucial factors in
language acquisition.

12. Problem Solving: Types of Problems
Greeno (1978) – three basic classes
Problems of inducing structure
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

13. Fig 8. 6 – Six standard problems used in studies of problem solving
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.

14. Effective Problem Solving
Well defined vs. ill defined problems
Barriers to effective problem solving:
Irrelevant Information
Functional Fixedness
Mental Set
Unnecessary Constraints

15. Fig 8. 12 – The tower of Hanoi problem
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.

16. 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

17. Fig 8. 16 – Representing the bird and train problem
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.

18. Culture, Cognitive Style, and Problem Solving
Field dependence – relying on external frames of reference
Field independence – relying on internal frames of reference
Western cultures inspire field independence
Cultural influence based in ecological demands
Holistic vs. analytic cognitive styles

19. Decision Making: Evaluating Alternatives and Making Choices
Simon (1957) – theory of bounded rationality
Making Choices
Additive strategies
Elimination by aspects
Risky decision making
Expected value
Subjective utility
Subjective probability

21. Heuristics in Judging Probabilities
The availability heuristic
The representativeness heuristic
The tendency to ignore base rates
The conjunction fallacy
The alternative outcomes effect

22. Fig 8. 19 – The conjunction fallacy
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.

23. 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

24. 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