Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & Language - PowerPoint Presentation

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Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & LanguageLesson 3: Language

Lesson Essential QuestionWhat is the relationship between cognition and language development?Key Lesson Vocabulary:Chomsky, Inborn language acquisition device; Critical periods; Phonemes; Morphemes; Syntax; Grammar; Semantics; Whorf’s Reciprocal determinism thesis

DAILY COMMENTARY:How many languages to do speak? How did you learn to speak? Is language acquisition effortful or automatic?READINGS / Assignments:READ:Myers 410-428Chomsky HandoutNYT Language Gap StudyPiraha handoutDO / DUE:Vocab cardsReview packetReflective writing: Language Gap & creative thought (see performance task)Slide2

2Language

Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others.

Language transmits culture.M. & E. Bernheim/ Woodfin Camp & AssociatesSlide3

3Language 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, amassing 60,000 words by the time we graduate from high school.

Time Life Pictures/ Getty ImagesSlide4

4When do we learn language?

Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ah-goo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech.Slide5

5When do we learn language?

One-Word Stage:

Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.Slide6

6When do we learn language?

Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year a child starts to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car,” means

I would like to go for a ride in the car.Slide7

7When do we learn language?

Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech, children begin uttering longer phrases (

Mommy get ball) with syntactical sense, and by early elementary school they are employing humor.You never starve in the desert because of all the sand-which-is there.Slide8

8Stage & Age

of Language DevelopmentSlide9

Count off: 1s & 2s1s will read article about Piraha tribe2s will read article about Noam Chomsky

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Discussion & Report OutsOnes tell Twos:Describe the Piraha tribe

What can we learn from the Piraha about the relationship between thinking and language?Twos Tell Ones:Describe Chomsky’s theoryWhy does Chomsky say there are critical periods for language development?Two’s report out on Piraha TribeOne’s report out on ChomskySlide11

11Explaining Language Development

Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.Slide12

12Explaining Language Development

Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn.

Chomsky says everyone has a “Language Acquisition Device”Slide13

13Explaining Language Development

3. 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 analyses are learned during critical periods of child development.Slide14

14Genes, Brain, & Language

Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the brain.

Michael Newman/ Photo Edit, Inc.Eye of Science/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

David Hume Kennerly/ Getty ImagesSlide15

15Language & Age

Learning new languages gets harder with age.Slide16

16Language Structure

Phonemes: The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language. For example:

bat, has three phonemes b · a · tchat, has three phonemes ch · a · t Slide17

17Language Structure

Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:

Milk = milkPumpkin = pump . kinUnforgettable = un · for · get · tableSlide18

18Structuring Language

Phrase

SentenceMeaningful units (290,500) … meat, pumpkin.Words

Smallest meaningful units (100,000) …

un, for

.

Morphemes

Basic sounds (about 40) …

ea, sh

.

Phonemes

Composed of two or more words (326,000) …

meat eater.

Composed of many words (infinite) …

She opened the jewelry box.Slide19

19Grammar

Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others.

GrammarSyntax

SemanticsSlide20

20Semantics

Semantics is the 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.Slide21

21Syntax

Syntax consists of the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. For example:

In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.Slide22

Identify the level of language acquiredKoko the gorilla was trained by Francine Patterson to use sign language. The Gorilla Language Project reports that Koko can use 1000 different signs, and can understand 2000 words. Koko is now creating statements by blending three to six words.

Comprehension? Phonology? Morphology? Syntax?Slide23

Identify the level of language acquiredIn 1952, researcheres Hayes and Hayes tried to teach their chimpanzee, named Vickie, to speak the English language. Vickie learned how to make four sounds, and never did produce anything that sounded much like language.Slide24

Identify the level of language acquiredAlex, an African grey parrot, was trained by Irene Pepperberg. Alex can say 70 words, including nouns, verbs and adjectives. Alex can also identify colors and textures, can use numbers from one to five, and can report if objects are the same or different.Slide25

Identify the level of language acquiredHerman, Richards, and Woltz (1984) trained dolphings to

undestand hand commands. Their dolphins can understand five=sign strings, as well as some rules of language. For instance, their dolphins Phoenix and Akeakamie, understand the order words have to be in to perform a certain command.Slide26

Identify the level of language acquiredNim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee, was trained by Herbert Terrance to understand sign language. Terrance was skeptical of many former chimp experiments.

Nim learned 125 signs, but Terrance realized that Nim seemed to simply be responding to signs that the researchers prseented rather than understanding their meaning.Slide27

27Do animals have a language?

Animals & Language

Honey bees communicate by dancing. The dancemoves clearly indicate the direction of the nectar.Slide28

28Do Animals Think?

Common cognitive skills in humans and apes include the following:

Concept formation.InsightProblem SolvingCultureMind?African grey parrot assorts redblocks from green balls.

William MunozSlide29

29Insight

Chimpanzees show insightful behavior when solving problems.

Sultan uses sticks to get food.Slide30

30Problem Solving

Apes are famous, much like us, for solving problems.

Chimpanzee fishing for ants.Courtesy of Jennifer Byrne, c/o Richard Byrne, Department of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, ScotlandSlide31

31Animal Culture

Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over generations.

Dolphins using sponges asforging tools.

Chimpanzee mother using and

teaching a young how to use

a stone hammer.

Copyright Amanda K Coakes

Michael Nichols/ National Geographic SocietySlide32

32Mental States

Can animals infer mental states in themselves and others? To some extent. Chimps and orangutans (and dolphins) used mirrors to inspect themselves when a researcher put paint spots on their faces or bodies.Slide33

33Do Animals Exhibit Language?

There is no doubt that animals communicate.Vervet monkeys, whales and even honey bees communicate with members of their species and other species.

Rico (collie) has a200-word vocabularyCopyright Baus/ KreslowskiSlide34

34The Case of Apes

Chimps do not have a vocal apparatus for human-like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951). Therefore, Gardner and Gardner (1969) used American Sign Language (ASL) to train Washoe, a chimp, who learned 182 signs by the age of 32.Slide35

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Gestured Communication

Animals, like humans, exhibit communication through gestures. It is possible that vocal speech developed from gestures during the course of evolution.Slide36

36Sign Language

American Sign Language (ASL) is instrumental in teaching chimpanzees a form of communication.

When asked, this chimpanzee usesa sign to say it is a baby.Paul Fusco/ Magnum PhotosSlide37

37Computer Assisted Language

Others have shown that bonobo pygmy chimpanzees can develop even greater vocabularies and perhaps semantic nuances in learning a language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991). Kanzi and Panbanish developed vocabulary for hundreds of words and phrases.

Copyright of Great Ape Trust of IowaSlide38

38Criticism

Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates.Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language.Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax.Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see.Slide39

39Conclusions

If we say that animals can use meaningful sequences of signs to communicate a capability for language, our understanding would be naive… Steven Pinker (1995) concludes, “chimps do not develop language.” Slide40
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Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & LanguageLesson 3: Language

Lesson Essential QuestionWhat is the relationship between cognition and language development?Key Lesson Vocabulary:Chomsky, Inborn language acquisition device; Critical periods; Phonemes; Morphemes; Syntax; Grammar; Semantics; Whorf’s Reciprocal determinism thesis

DAILY COMMENTARY:How many languages to do speak? How did you learn to speak? Is language acquisition effortful or automatic?READINGS / Assignments:READ:Myers 410-428Chomsky HandoutNYT Language Gap StudyPiraha handoutDO / DUE:Vocab cardsReview packetSlide43

Problem SolvingA giant inverted steel pyramid is perfectly balanced on its point. Any movement of the pyramid will cause it

to topple over. Underneath the pyramid is a $100 bill.How would you remove the bill without disturbing the pyramid?Slide44

Write down your thought processWrite down everything you considered doing to solve the problem.Slide45

Does Language deter thought?In one set of studies, the subjects who were asked to verbalize their thought process solved 30% fewer puzzles.Slide46

46Language & Thinking

Language and thinking intricately intertwine.

Rubber Ball/ AlmaySlide47

47Language Influences Thinking

Linguistic Determinism: Whorf (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think. For example, he noted that the Hopi people do not have the past tense for verbs. Therefore, the Hopi cannot think readily about the past.Slide48

48Language Influences Thinking

When a language provides words for objects or events, we can think about these objects more clearly and remember them. It is easier to think about two colors with two different names (A) than colors with the same name (B) (Özgen, 2004).Slide49

49Word Power

Increasing word power pays its dividends. It pays for speakers and deaf individuals who learn sign language.Slide50

50Linguistic Determinism Questioned

Although people from Papua New Guinea do not use our words for colors and shapes, they still perceive them as we do (Rosch, 1974).Slide51

51Thinking in Images

To a large extent thinking is language-based. When alone, we may talk to ourselves. However, we also think in images.

2. When we are riding our bicycle. 1. When we open the hot water tap.We don’t think in words, when:Slide52

52Images and Brain

Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually performing the activity.

Jean Duffy Decety, September 2003Slide53

53Language and Thinking

Traffic runs both ways between language and thinking.Slide54

Thinking in ShapesSlide55

Reading & ReflectionFirst Read:NYT Language Gap Study

THEN WRITE (in online notebooks)Based on the NYT article, your understanding of Chomsky’s theory, and Whorf’s concept of reciprocal determinism, evaluate how educational background of parents and vocabulary use in the home environment influences the ability of children to think creatively.