16 January 2015• Take a few minutes to study your memory notes,

we’ll take a short quiz first (it’s in two parts – one scantron, one not)

• After that, one last thing on memory before moving on

• Then language! Notes are pretty short, then we’ll take a look at Genie the infamous “Wild Child”

COGNITION

Language

Language and Thinking• Language

– our spoken, written, or gestured works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Believe it or not, this communication is a form of language!!!

Language: Linguistics• Phonemes

– In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

• Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.

• How many phonemes does platypus have?

• Morphemes– In a language, the smallest combination of

sounds that carry meaning.– Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or

suffix).• The word “cats” has two morphemes, “cat” is

the base morpheme and “s” is a suffix

Language: Linguistics• Grammar

– A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.

• Semantics– The set of rules by which we derive

meaning in a language.– Adding -ed at the end of words means past

tense.

The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules. They usually have totally different symbols for different tenses.

Language: Linguistics• Syntax

– The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

– In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish!!

Is this the White House or the House White?

Language Development• Chances are you know around 12-15K

words.– However, linguist David Crystal says it’s

more like 60K, and that is just including the active words in your vocabulary.

• After age 1 you average about 13 new words a day.

Are YOU a word warrior?

Language Development• Language milestones for young children

Stage Months Old Characteristics

Babbling/ Reflexive

3-4 months The infant makes spontaneous sounds; not related to the infant’s household language.

Babbling (cont.)

10 months Babbling reveals household

language (the way parents speak).

One-word 12 months Uses one word to communicate big meanings.

Two-word 24 months Uses content words (usually two) to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech. Ex: “go car”

Three-word sentence

24+ months Language develops rapidly into complete sentences.

Language Development• New language learning gets harder

with age

100

90

80

70

60

50Native 3-7 8-10 11-15 17-39

Percentage correct ongrammar test

Age at school

Theories of Language Acquisition• How have psychologists explained language

development?– B.F. Skinner

• Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory (which is?).

– Imitation, Modeling, Reinforcement, etc.

– Ex. The young boy imitates his dad, then gets a reward.

– Chomsky – Language Acquisition Device• Chomsky says we acquire language too quickly for it

to be learned.

• He says we have this “learning box” inside our heads that enables us to learn any human language.

– Nature (Chomsky) vs. Nurture (Skinner)

Culture, Language, & Thought• Our thoughts affect our language every time we speak

(some of us speak before we think ), but can our language affect our thoughts?

• Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity– The idea that language determines the way we think (not vive

versa).– Ex. The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language,

so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

Language and Animals• Can animals develop language to

communicate with humans?– YES!!! Not through speech or writing, but

through American Sign Language (ASL)– Ex. Apes

Movie: Secret of the Wild Child• Story of Genie

– The movie you are about to see is difficult to watch because it describes the severe mistreatment of a child.

– However, because of the rare circumstances of Genie’s upbringing, psychologists have used her case as a study of human development

– What happens when someone is forced into seclusion and is not given the chance to develop (particularly language) like the rest of us?

– Can they learn to speak normally if their language development starts years and years behind schedule?