CHAPTER

6.53
9
Language
 CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Language Thinking,
Reasoning,
and
Decision-
Making

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 LANGUAGE
Human language is a communication system
that has rules of grammar and allows humans to
express abstract ideas.
• Human language is open, meaning that
words and their meanings may change.
• Language is also symbolic, meaning that the
sounds/letters associated with the ideas
related to the words are arbitrary (this is
related to RFT).
Languages must adhere to rules of syntax and
rules of grammar.
• Syntax consists of rules for arranging words
and symbols to form sentences.
• Grammar is the entire set of rules for
combining symbols and sounds to speak and
write a particular sentence.
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EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE
It is believed that earlier species of our genus used a type of protolanguage, which is a very
rudimentary type of language that did not quite adhere to rules of syntax and grammar.
Homo sapiens are believed to be the first species to develop a full language equipped with syntax and grammar. It is believed
that the human brain and the development of language co-occurred as humans continued to evolve.
It may never be possible to exactly understand how language first emerged in our ancestors. However, looking at the
development of specific languages, as well as how individuals with no common language communicate, may guide scientists to
determine how language began. Based on studies in children, it is possible that language began with obscure hand gestures.
 DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE

Fetuses can pick Infants begin Optimal language

up on verbal Infants begin using two-word acquisition period
sequences babbling utterances ends
Prenatal 6 months 18 months 12 years

Cooing: First sounds humans make other than crying;

Birth onward 1 year 2.5 to 3 years mostly vowel sounds.
Babbling: sounds that combine consonants and vowels,
Cooing occurs Infants begin Children begin
but still do not contain any meaning.
using one-word using fully One-word utterance: Meaningful, single-word
utterances grammatical communication.
sentences Two-word utterance: Meaningful, multi-word
communication.
Neural
Neural commitment: The phase at which infants can no
commitment longer discriminate between sounds of languages other
occurs than their native language.
 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Sociocultural Theories Conditioning and Nativist Theory

• This theory holds that language is an
• These theories emphasize Learning Theory inborn human trait.
factors such as culture, SES, • Skinner proposed that language • Chomsky proposed that humans have
birth order, school peers, develops in children through a language acquisition device, which
parents, etc. reinforcement and shaping. is a biologically based capacity to
• These theories point to • This theory holds that parents tend to learn language.
research demonstrating that positively reinforce language • Chomsky also proposed the concepts
children who hear less development, and a child’s language is of deep structure and surface
words learn and produce less shaped from cooing to babbling to structure. Surface structure is the
words than their peers (this actual words used, and deep structure
utterances to sentences.
is related to the zone of is the underlying meaning.
proximal development).

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NATURE, NURTURE, AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Both nature theories (like the nativist theory) and nurture theories (like sociocultural and conditioning theories) are needed to
explain the acquisition of language. This combination of theories is called innately guided learning.
• Nature theories are primarily concerned with grammar, but nurture theories emphasize vocabulary. However, language
requires both grammar and vocabulary; thus, explanations from each of these theories may be required.
• It appears that grammar acquisition is more genetically influenced than vocabulary, as one twin study has found that
genetics influenced 40% of grammar but only 25% of vocabulary. However, these numbers also suggest that 60% of
grammar and 75% of vocabulary is related to the environment.
• Studies have shown that children (in an American sample) all began to speak around the same time (suggesting a biological
predisposition to do so). However, children that received higher levels of child-directed speech were able to learn more
words than those who received lower levels of these speech patterns.
• Studies have also demonstrated that mirror neurons (cells that activate when we observe others performing an action as
well as when we perform that action) may demonstrate the biological basis for speech acquisition.

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HUMAN LANGUAGE IN OTHER
SPECIES
Most mammals are not well-equipped to develop the types of language that humans have.
• Due to their lack of a voice-box, other animals cannot make the same utterances that humans can in
order to communicate thoughts or states of being.
• Other animals also lack the complex system of mirror neurons and well-developed Broca’s and
Wernicke’s areas that would otherwise help them learn/develop language.
Despite this, it has been found that some primates do have a primitive mirror neuron
system, and studies have been conducted in which primates have been taught how to
use sign language. There has even been a case where a chimp taught its “adoptive
son” to use sign language.
Primates still cannot use sign language to the extent that humans can, however. Most
primates sign much more slowly than humans, learn far fewer words than humans, can
only create two-word or three-word phrases, and have no understanding of syntax.

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 LANGUAGE, CULTURE,
AND THOUGHT
Language and thinking are inherently related, and some theorists argue
that the languages we learn determine the ways we think.
• The linguistic determinism hypothesis (also known as the Whorf-
Sapir hypothesis) holds that language directly impacts how we think,
and if there are not words to in a person’s language for a given
concept, then that person cannot even think about that concept.
• This is exemplified by the Piraha tribe, who have no words for
numbers greater than two, have no words like before, after, and
when, and cannot construct sentences with multiple clauses.
Thus, these individuals also do not speak of past events, as they
cannot conceptualize them.
• A less extreme stance than the linguistic determinism hypothesis is
linguistic relativism. This stance holds that language influences our
thinking, but it does determine it.

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 THINKING,
REASONING, AND
DECISION-MAKING
Cognition refers to the mental processes
involved in acquiring, processing, and
storing knowledge.
Cognitive psychology is the science of how
people think, learn, perceive, and remember.

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 MENTAL REPRESENTATION
Thoughts, ideas, etc. are examples mental representations, which are structures in the mind that stand for something else. For
example, we may have thoughts about objects in our environment, but those thoughts, while representing the object, are not the
actual incarnation of that object.
Measuring mental representation is a particularly difficult process, as thoughts, ideas, etc. are not real, concrete objects. Even
when we consider brain measurements, we make assumptions about the connection of the brain and the mental processes.
However, we cannot actually measure the processes themselves.
Visual Representation
• Visual representation primarily occurs in the occipital lobes, where the visual cortex is located.
• Visual imagery is a type of representation that is created within the mind in the absence of the original stimulus.
• When a person imagines doing a task, some of the same neurons fire as if the individual were actually engaging in that
task. This is related to the mirror neuron system.
• Mental rotation is the process of imagining an object turning in a three-dimensional space.

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 MENTAL REPRESENTATION
Verbal Representation
• Verbal representation typically occurs in the form of “thinking,” or by labelling objects, ideas, etc.
• Categories are classifications of items based on similarities between them, treating these items as if they are the same.
A prototype is a type of category that appears to be the “best-fitting.”
• Concepts are mental groupings of objects, events, or people based on their similarities. A concept hierarchy is an
arrangement of related concepts in a particular way.

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REASONING
Reasoning is the process of drawing inferences or conclusions from principles and evidence. Our book describes two
kinds of reasoning: deductive and inductive.
• Deductive reasoning is reasoning from general statements of what is known to specific conclusions. This type of
reasoning will always be true if the general statements are true. Our book uses this example: “Humans are mortal.
Socrates is a human. Socrates is mortal.”
• Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, is reasoning from specific evidence to general conclusions. This is the type of
reasoning we use in scientific thinking. We base our information on a small sample, and then generalize it to other
situations.
• When we are using inductive reasoning, we are typically using causal inferences, which are
judgments about causation of one thing to another. These are particularly used in science.
• Inductive reasoning is also related to confirmation bias, which is the tendency to selectively attend to
information that supports one’s general beliefs while ignoring information or evidence that contradicts
one’s beliefs.
Critical thinking and scientific thinking typically involve use of these types of reasoning. These types of thinking require
that we do not take information presented to us at face value. Likewise, we are required to not take our own beliefs or
assumptions at face value either.

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 MAKING JUDGMENTS
AND DECISIONS
Humans must make hundreds of decisions everyday. Instead of thinking
deeply about every single decision, we use mental shortcuts called
heuristics when faced with complex or uncertain problems. Heuristics
allow us to make quick and efficient decisions. Our book describes two
types of heuristics: the representativeness heuristic and the availability
heuristic.
• The representativeness heuristic is a strategy we use to estimate the
probability of one event based on how typical it is of another event.
This heuristic, while sometimes useful, can also often lead to error.
• We are less likely to make this mistake when we are aware of
base rates, which are rates of how common an event or trait
occurs in the general population.
• This heuristic is related to the conjunction fallacy, which is an
error in logic that occurs when people assume the combination of
two events is more likely than either event alone.

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 MAKING JUDGMENTS
AND DECISIONS
• The availability heuristic is a strategy we use to make decisions
based on the ease with which estimates come to mind or how
available they are to our awareness.
• This heuristic is also apt to lead to incorrect assumptions, as it
biased to our own experiences.
Despite most individuals believing that we generally think reasonably,
we are rather prone to errors in logical thinking. Kahneman and
Tversky have famously demonstrated this with their research on
economical decision-making and probability.
• According to an economic theory called rational choice theory,
people should choose options that are more likely to help them
achieve their goals. However, Kahneman and Tversky showed that
individuals are more likely to make decisions on intuition, as well as
thinking of wins and losses differently despite them working out to
the same probabilities in the end.

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