Cognition & Language Claudia Stanny PSY 2012. What is Cognition? Processes of knowing Attending ...
Transcript of Cognition & Language Claudia Stanny PSY 2012. What is Cognition? Processes of knowing Attending ...
What is Cognition?• Processes of knowing
Attending Remembering Reasoning
• Content of these processes Concepts Memories
Mental Processes
• Serial Processes Carried out sequentially, one step at a time
• Parallel Processes Carried out simultaneously
Attentional Processes
• Controlled Processes Serial processes Require mental resources
• Automatic Processes Parallel processes Do not make demands on mental resources
• Effects of PracticeProceduralize knowledge and reduce the
demands made on mental resources
Name the Color of Ink
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX
Name the Color of Ink
GREEN RED YELLOW BLUE
BLUE GREEN RED YELLOW
RED YELLOW BLUE GREEN
YELLOW BLUE GREEN RED
BLUE RED YELLOW GREEN
RED GREEN BLUE YELLOW
YELLOW BLUE RED GREEN
Attention is needed to inhibit irrelevant responses.
Color words activated by reading interfere with naming ink color.
Stroop Effect
How does language differ from communication among animals?
• Animal communication systems are specialized and rigid.Each call or signal has one meaning
• Territorial calls
• Danger signals
Animals use a limited number of signalsNo novel communications
• Language is abstract and flexibleMeaning of words is arbitrary Novel combinations permit the expression of new ideas
Producing Language Audience Design
• Language is produced differently for different audiences (audience design) cooperation principle – make language fit the
situation at hand• Statements are informative without being too detailed
• Statements should be true
• Statements should be relevant to the topic at hand
• Statements should be clear – avoid jargon, ambiguity, or obscure references
Producing Language – Audience Design
• Common Ground – the knowledge held in common by the person speaking (or writing) and the audience Community membership
• Assumptions about the knowledge that members of this community (audience) possess
Linguistic copresence• Assumptions about the information presented recently
to the audience Physical copresence
• Assumptions about what the audience knows based on people present or other objects present in the environment
Understanding Language
• Resolving Lexical Ambiguity Lexical Ambiguity
• Ambiguity created because words have multiple meanings
Resolving lexical ambiguity• Frequency-based resolution: consider the most frequent
meaning first, consider other meanings later
• Context-based resolution: use the context (situation, meanings of preceding statements) to determine the first meaning considered
Understanding Language
• Resolving Structural Ambiguity Structural Ambiguity
• Ambiguity created by grammatical characteristics of the sentence (see the two examples below)
• Visiting relatives can be boring.• They are eating apples.
Context is used to resolve structural ambiguity. Pragmatics of language use
• Social context determines how statements should be understood
• Do you think it is cold in here?
What is the relation between language and thought?
• Sapir–Whorf hypothesis• Proposes that differences in language produce differences in
how we think. Linguistic Determinism
• Strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis• Argues that language determines how we think
Linguistic Relativity• Weaker form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis• Argues that language influences how we think
• Application: Gender-neutral terms in language