Language & Cognition - Umay Suanda PDF

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Language (Lectures on 04/01, 04/06) Levels of Analysis in the Study of Language: Be prepared to distinguish between and identify in examples the issues examined by the following subfields of Linguistics ● Phonology: The study of how sounds (and signs) are organized and used in natural languages. Speech sounds. (17A) ● Morphology: The study of words, the rules for how they are formed, and the relationship between words in the same language. Words. (17B) ● Syntax: The set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences and how words can be combined into phrases and phrases into sentences. Grammar. (17C) ○ Chosmky contributed to the science of language by 1. Highlighting creativity (“productivity”) of language 2. That syntax exists independent of meaning 3. Syntax is not a series of linear associations ● Pragmatics: The study of how language is used and understood in context. Language use. (17D) ○ Babies seem to know how conversations work: they take turns, use gestures, change tone in voice and this understanding is seperate from morphology and syntax. ○ “If you could pass the guacamole, that would be awesome” Intended/indirect meaning: give me the guacamole… Literal meaning: a world in which you are capable of moving the guacamole over to me would be heavenly. Phonology ● What are the lack of invariance and speech segmentation problems in speech perception? (17A) ○ Lack of invariance problem states there is no consistent relation between the physical features of the sounds and how sounds are perceived. Differences across speakers (speaker identity) & Differences due to context (i.e. the “same” sound is produced differently depending on what comes before or after) ○ Speech segmentation: there are no reliable physical cues to the boundaries between words. In written language there are no silences between words but in spoken language there is. ● What is phoneme vs. allophone? Be prepared to distinguish between them in examples. (17A) ○ Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech and that has an impact on meaning. /b/ and /p/ are phonemes because changing them lead to differences in meaning (i.e. bat vs. pat). ○ Allophone: One of a set of possible spoken sounds to pronounce a single phoneme. The two /k/ sounds in “Cape” and “Cod” are considered one phoneme because swapping them would not lead to differences in meaning. ● What are phonological rules? (17A) 1. How phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds

a. “Bluck” is not an English would, but it could be b. “Nyani” is not an english word and it couldn’t be 2. How the surrounding context impacts the sound you use a. “She walked” (-ed pronounced like a “t” sound) b. “She jogged” (-ed pronounced like a “d” sound) c. “She patted” (-ed pronounced with a vowel “e” + “d”) Morphology & Semantics: ● What are morphological rules? How are they different from syntactic or phonological rules? (17B) ○ Morphological rule: the rules that govern how morphemes can be combined to form words. Word with one morpheme: “duck,” words with multiple morphemes: “ducks” (“duck” + “s”). ■ Evidence 1: children know the rules- they use the rules when they shouldn’t (overgeneralization errors) “I runned” instead of “i ran,” “you eated” instead of “you ate” ■ Evidence 2” children know the rules- generalization in new/never-before seen context… Wug test (MORE BELOW) ● What are morphemes? How are they different from words? What are free and bound morphemes? (17B) ○ Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of language ○ Morphemes & words are sometimes the same thing such as “dog”, “cook”, “happy”. But some words contain multiple morphemes such as “dogs” (“dog” + “s”), “cooked” (“cook” + “ed”), “happiness” (“happy” + “-ness”) ○ Free morphemes: words; can function independently. “Dog”, “table”, “happy” ○ Bound morphemes: Parts of words that carry meaning. The plural “-s” (as in “dogs”) or the past tense “-ed” (as in “cooked”). ● What is meant by “arbitrariness of the sign”? What are meant by Onomatopoeia, Phonesthesia, and Sound symbolism? (17B) ○ Arbitrariness of the sign: No transparent relation between the sound of the word and the concept/meaning to which it refers. Same sounds, different configurations, not related in their meaning. “Cat” - “Act”. We drive in a parkway but park in the driveway. There is no ham in hamburger or bread in sweetbreads. Blueberries are blue; but cranberries are not cran… ○ Onomatopoeia: A word that phonetically resembles the sound it describes. Beep, bang, splash, woof, zap… ○ Phonesthesia: Clusters of words that share both sound and meaning elements. Glow, glare, glaze, gloss, glasses, glimpse… ○ Sound symbolism: Sounds may actually carry some meaning with them.

● What is the Wug Test? What does it reveal about children’s language capacity? (17B)

○ ○ Shows that young children learn important aspects of language by finding patterns in language that they hear around them (i.e. generalization) Syntax ● What is recursion? (17C) ○ Recursion: a procedure that invokes itself. Finite number of words allow for an infinity of sentences through recursion.

● What is the difference between surface and deep structures? Be prepared to distinguish between them in examples. (17C) ○ Surface structure: how a sentence is worded ○ Deep structure: the meaning of a sentence

● What is the significance of chomsky's famous sentence, “colorless green ideas sleep furiously”? (17C) ○ It shows how syntax exists independent of meaning. It’s an example of a sentence that’s grammatically correct but semantically not. “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” = OK, “Furiously sleep idea green colorless” = NOT OK Language Development ● What were the limitations/challenges to behaviorists explanations of language development? (18A) ○ Language acquisition can’t be explained by behaviorist theories of learning because… ■ 1. Parents do not “teach” grammatical rules and do not correct children’s errors. Child says “I loves you mommy” and the parents respond to the meaning of the message, not the grammatical errors ■ 2. What children say is not simply imitation of what they heard. Overgenerlization errors like “I holded the baby rabbit” and telegraphic speech like “more milk”, “throw ball” ● What is the Nativist theory of language acquisition? What is the evidence for a Nativist theory? (18A) ○ Nativist theory: language acquisition is best explained as an innate, biological capacity ○ The evidence is specific-language impairments. Genetic Dysphasia: a syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite otherwise normal intelligence. “She remembered when she hurts * herself the other day” Most specific-language impairments have a strong genetic component to them. ○ Evidence is also critical period & language emergence ○ Nativist theories explain why language develops (not how). The findings that a biological underpinning for language development, does not mean that experience, environment don’t matter. ● What is meant by a critical period? (18A) ○ Critical period: A period during which recepticity to learning is optimal, and outside of which learning is less optimal. The fact that language acquisition

appears to operate on a “biological timetable” makes it consistent with a nativist theory of acquisition. ● What is the Interactionist theory of language acquisition? ○ Asserts that language acquisition has both biological and social components. ● What is the Language Acquisition Device and Language Acquisition Support System? How do these ideas relate to Nativist and Interactionist theories of language acquisition? (18A) ○ Language Acquisition Device: the more child-directed speech you hear, the faster your language develops. Used a fibit as speech recording device ■ Language experiences children change the neural circuits of language (Broca’s Area/Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus). The effects of the environment of language development are true even in adopted children. ○ Language Acquisition Support System: is the language environment ● Nicaraguan Sign Language research: what are the key patterns of findings from the study of Nicaraguan Sign Language? (18A) ○ The signs of younger cohorts are more “language like” than the signs of older cohorts ○ Signs of older cohorts look like how non-deaf individuals gesture Language and Thought ● What does Linguistic Relativity or the Whorfian Hypothesis refer to? Be prepared to identify examples that support these hypotheses. (18B) ○ Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis): Language shapes the nature of thought. ○ Kuuk Thayore use absolute terms like “north”, “west”, etc. instead of relative terms like “right”, “left”, etc. ○ Piraha has more word uses for numbers than us (i.e. there is a word for many on their 1-10 number line) ● What did we learn from the study of color processing in Russian and English speakers? Be prepared to demonstrate understanding of this study and its findings. (18B) ○ The more similar the two alternatives in the match test, the slower and less accurate participants' judge ○ Russian-speakers: faster to respond on “6 vs 10” trials (between-categories) than on “10 vs 14” trials (within categories) ○ English speakers: Responded similarly to “6 vs 10” and “10 vs 14” trials (both are within category) Language in Non-Human Animals ● What have we learned from some of the cases of teaching non-human animals language? What are some of the key limitations to non-human animals’ ability to learn language? (18C) ○ Limitations…

■ limited vocabularies compared to a 4-year-old human child who already knows 10,000 words ■ Limited conceptual repertoire. No learning of the abstract concepts children eventually learn (e.g. idea, justice, economics, etc.) ■ Limited Understanding of Grammar. Multi-sign constructions are simple, highly repetitive, and don’t have the grammatical fluency of children’s speech. ○ Nim Chimpsky says “me eat me eat” as a “sentence” ○ Animal communication: vervet monkey alarm calls… different predators elicit different call from monkey- these in turn reliably elicit different responses Language and the Brain ● What is aphasia? How are Broca's and Wernicke’s Aphasia different? Where are Broca’s Area and Wenicke’s Area located? Be prepared to reason about these cases in vignettes/study descriptions. ○ Aphasia: disorder affecting the speech and language skills ad is caused by damage to the brain by either injury or illness. ○ Broca’s: damage to Broca’s area in frontal lobe on left side. It’s responsible for speech and motor movement. ○ Wernicke’s area: located in the parietal and temporal lobe is the sensory area. It helps understanding speech and using the correct words to express our thoughts. COMPREHENSION Cognition (Lectures on 04/08, 04/13) Theories of Human Concepts ● Be prepared to reason about and distinguish between the Classical Theory and Family Resemblance theory of conceptual knowledge. (19A) ○ Concepts are mental representations that group or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli ○ Classical Theory: We represent concepts as rules that specify the “necessary” and “sufficient” conditions ■ Necessary conditions: dogs must be mammals; being a mammal is a “necessary” condition of ‘doghood.’ Being a mammal is not “sufficient” because many mammals are not dogs. ■ Sufficient conditions: some dogs are German Shepherds; being a German Shepard is a “sufficient” condition for being a dog. Being a German Shepard is not “necessary” because many dogs are not German Shepards ○ Family Resemblance Theory: category members need not all share a definitional feature, but they tend to have several features in common. (19A)

Theories of Conceptual Representation and Category Learning ● Be prepared to reason about, distinguish between, and to identify in examples Prototype Theory and Exemplar Theory of conceptual representation/category learning. What do we know about the neural correlates of the Prototype and Exemplar theories of conceptual representation? (19A) ○ Prototype Theory: We have a “summary representation,” a mental health description that is meant to apply to the category as a whole.

○ Exemplar Theory: No summary representation, we simply store in memory all remembered examples (or exemplars) of a category.

Social Cognition ● What are the sociocognitive underpinnings for why stereotypes can be inaccurate? (19A) ○ Stereotype: the process by which people draw inferences about others based on their knowledge of the categories to which others belong. ○ Sources of inaccuracies… ■ Stereotypes are self-perpetuating ■ Stereotypes overshadow within-group variation ■ The data that feed the stereotypes are bad Concepts, categories and the brain ● What are Category-Specific Agnosia? (19B) ○ Category-Specific Agnosia: An inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category. Recognition of objects in other categories are usually spared. ● What do we know about the neural correlates for our Animals vs. Tools concepts? (19B) ○ Congenitally blind & sighted during the animal task- heightened activation in

lateral occipital cortex ○ Congenitally blind & sighted during the tool task- heightened activation in ventral medial temporal lobe ● What have we learned from studies comparing sighted and congentially-blind participants' conceptual representations? (19B) ○ Animal task: think about animals (is a mouse bigger or smaller than a dog?) congenitally blind = sighted ○ Tool task: think about non-living objects like tools (is a saw bigger or smaller than a hammer?) congenitally blind = sighted Social Cognition and the Brain ● What is Theory of Mind? (19C) ○ The understanding that people’s minds produce representations of the world and that these representations guide people’s behaviors ■ Bodily sensation story: sheila skipped breakfast and her stomach was rumbling, and she could smell food everywhere. ■ Thought story: Rob tied his dog’s leash while he went into a store and when he came out the dog had run across the street. He guessed the leash had come untied. ● What are the neural correlates of Theory of Mind? (19C) ○ Brain activity in the right and left temporoparietal junction ● What are the neural correlates of moral judgments? (19C) ○ Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC) and social-moral decision making. ■ Heightened activation when making moral judgements ■ Individuals with damage to area show poor moral decision making (but not non-moral decision making) Functional Fixedness ● What is it? Be prepared to identify in examples. ○ Functional Fixedness: cognitive bias that involves a tendency to see objects as only working in one particular way. You might view a thumbtack as something that can only be used to hold paper to a corkboard. ● In Schachter text read “Hot Science: Creative Problem Solving: Insiders and Outsiders.” Be prepared to reason about this study and this study’s findings. ○ It’s too simplistic to claim that knowledge of a domain is either a blessing or a curse for creative problem solving. It can be both depending on what kinds of problem solving strategies people apply. ○ Low search variation = high search effort ○ High search variation = high search effort ○ Low search variation = high search effort ○ Low search variation = low search effort Heuristics & Algorithms

● Be prepared to distinguish between and identify in examples Heuristics and Algorithms. (20 A) ○ Heuristic: fast and efficient strategies that may facilitate decision making but do not guarantee that a solution will be reached. “Mental shortcut” or “rule of thumb” ○ Algorithm: a well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem Common flaws in human reasoning ● Be prepared to reason about, identify in examples and distinguish between the following (20 A & B) ● Availability bias: items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently. This is because frequently occurring items are remembered more easily. Overestimate the likelihood of attacks by sharks or list accidents ● Conjunctive Fallacy: Formal fallacy that occurs when it's assumed that specific conditions are more probably than a single one. ● Representativeness Heuristic: making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event with a prototype of the object or event. Error reflects a neglect of “base rate” probabilities. ● Anchor Effects: Common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions. Even an anchor that is obviously random can elicit effects. ○ #

Question

Avg. Answer

10

Is the % of African nations among UN members larger or smaller than this number?

25

65

What is your best guess of the percentage of African nations in the UN?

45

○ Stop and shop gives 10% off & no limit to shoppers so they buy 3.5 cans. Stop and shop gives 10% off & limits 12 per shopper so they buy 7 cans. ● Framing Effects: people often give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed). ○

Question 1

Group A

Group B

Is the height of the tallest redwood more or less than 1,200 feet?

Is the height of the tallest redwood more or less than 180 feet?

Question 2

Results

What is your best guess What is your best guess about the height of the tallest about the height of the tallest redwood? redwood? 884 feet

282 feet

○ Organ donation- People don’t check the box and don’t join. People don’t check the box and join. ● Sunk-Cost Fallacy Risky Decision Making and the Brain ● What are the neural correlates of risky decision making? ○ When making risky decisions, heightened activity in a number of areas including… ■ Amygdala- assigns “value” to different choices ■ Prefrontal cortex- makes the decision between the choices Prospect Theory and Loss Aversion ● What is meant by Prospect Theory? What is meant by Loss Aversion? What did we learn from a study on decision making in Capuchin Monkeys? (20 B) ○ Loss Aversion: We care more about avoiding losses than about achieving an equal-sized gain ■ We would rather choose: “If program A is adopted 200 people will be saved” rather than “If program A is adopted, 400 people will die.” ■ We would rather choose: “Start with $100, get $50 more without doing anything” rather than “Start with $200, lose $50 without doing anything” ○ Prospect Theory: We choose risks when evaluating losses and avoid risks when evaluating gains. ■ Pandemic example: when framed in terms of loss of life, we take risky option; when framed in terms of saving lives, we avoid the risky option ■ Money example: when framed as monetary loss, we take risky options; when framed as monetary gains, we avoid risky options. ○ Monkeys exhibit loss aversion. Some of our decision making tendencies may be the product of forces that evolved millions of years ago…...