Language and Thought
:Language is structured at three different levels
sentence units (2) words and parts of words that carry meaning, and (3) speech sounds. The three levels (1)
of language are interconnected. Sentence units are built from words (and parts of words), and words are
.constructed from speech sounds
A phoneme is a category of speech sounds. Every language has its own set of phonemes – with different sets
.for different languages – and rules for combining them into words
A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning. Most morphemes are words, but others
are prefixes and suffixes that are added to words. Syntactic rules are used for combining words into phrases
.and phrases into sentences
The areas of the brain that mediate language lie in the left hemisphere and include Broca’s area and
Wernicke’s area
:The development of language
Infants appear to be preprogrammed to learn phonemes, but they need
several years to learn the rules for combining them. When children begin to
speak, they first learn words that name concepts that are familiar in their
environment. Then they move on to sentences. They begin with one-word
utterances, progress to two-word telegraphic speech, and then elaborate
.their noun and verb phrases
Children learn language in part by testing hypotheses (often unconsciously). These
hypotheses tend to be guided by a small set of operating principles, which call the
.children’s attention to critical characteristics of utterances, such as word endings
Innate factors also play a major role in language acquisition. There are numerous
findings that support this claim. For one, all children in all cultures seem to go
through the same stages in acquiring their language. For another, like other
innate behaviors, some language abilities are learned only during a critical period.
.This partly explains why it is relatively difficult to learn a language later in life
CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIZATION: THE
BUILDING BLOCKS OF THOUGHT
Thought occurs in both propositional and imaginal modes. The key
component of a proposition is a concept, the set of properties that we
.associate with a class
A concept includes both a prototype (properties that describe a best
example) and a core (properties that are most important for being a
member of the concept). Core properties play a major role in processing
well-defined concepts like ‘grandmother’, whereas prototype properties
.’dominate in fuzzy concepts like ‘bird
Children often learn a new concept by using an exemplar strategy: A novel
item is classified as an instance of a concept if it is sufficiently similar to a
known exemplar of the concept. As children grow older, they also use
hypothesis testing as a strategy for learning concepts. Different neural
regions may mediate different kinds of concepts. For example, perceptual
regions of the brain may be more involved in representing animals from
artifacts, whereas functional and motor regions of the brain may play a
larger role in representing artifacts than animals. Different neural regions
may also be involved in different categorization procedures
Reasoning
When we think in terms of propositions, our sequence of thoughts is •
organized. The kind of organization of inter est to us here manifests itself
when we try to reason. In such cases, our sequence of thoughts often takes
the form of an argument, in which one proposition corresponds to a claim,
or conclusion, that we are trying to draw. The remaining propositions are
reasons for the claim or premises for the conclusion
Deductive reasoning
According to logicians, the strongest arguments demonstrate deductive
validity, meaning that it is impossible for the conclusion of the argument to
:be false if its premises are true. Consider the following example
.a If it’s raining, I’ll take an umbrella
.b It’s raining
.c Therefore, I’ll take an umbrella
Inductive reasoning
Other arguments are inductively strong, which means that it is improbable that the
conclusion is false if the premises are true
:An example of an inductively strong argument is as follows
.a. Mitch majored in accounting in college
.b. Mitch now works for an accounting firm
.c. Therefore, Mitch is an accountant
This argument is not deductively valid (Mitch may have
tired of accounting courses and taken a night
watchman’s job). Inductive strength, then, is a matter of
probabilities, not certainties, and (according to logicians)
inductive logic should be based on the theory of
.probability
THOUGHT IN ACTION: PROBLEM SOLVING
Problem solving requires breaking down a goal into sub goals that can be
obtained more easily. Strategies for breaking a goal into sub goals include
reducing differences between the current state and the goal state; means–ends
analysis (eliminating the most important differences between the current and
.goal states), and working backward
Some problems are easier to solve by using a visual representation, and others
can be more readily solved by using a propositional representation. Numerous
.problems can be solved equally well by visual or propositional representations
Steps in problem solving
.Represent the problem as a proposition or in visual form .1
.Determine the goal .2
.Break down the goal into subgoals .3
Select a problem-solving strategy and apply it to achieve each subgoal .4
Expert problem solvers differ from novices in four ways: They have more
representations to bring to bear on the problem, they represent novel
problems in terms of solution principles rather than surface features, they
form a plan before acting, and they tend to reason forward rather than
.backward
Thought processes that do not require effortful attention occur
.automatically and without conscious control