Language, Thought, and Intelligence

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Chapter 7
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Language, Thought, and Intelligence

Slides prepared by Melissa S. Terlecki, Cabrini
College
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7.1
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Language And Communication Nothings More
  Personal

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How many languages are there?

• A. 75
• B. 475
• C. 1,075
• D. 6,075

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How many languages are there?

• A. 75
• B. 475
• C. 1,075
• D. 6,075

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• 90 of these languages are spoken by less than
  100,000 people.
• Between 200 and 150 languages are spoken by more
  than a million people.
• There are 357 languages which have less than 50
  speakers.
• A total of 46 languages have just a single
  speaker.

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How about in the U.S?
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How about in the U.S?

• There are over 300 languages!

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Which country has the most languages?

• A. India
• B. Papa New Guinea
• C. Nigeria
• D. Indonesia

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Which country has the most languages?

1. Papa New Guinea 820 (12)
2. Indonesia 742 (11 )
3. Nigeria 516 (8)
4. India 427 (6 )

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How do languages form?

• If two groups of people speaking the same
  language are separated, in time their languages
  will change along different paths.

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• First they develop different accents
• Next, some of the vocabulary will change. When
  this happens a different dialect is created.
• If the dialects continue to diverge there will
  come a time when they are mutually
  unintelligible.
• When this happens people are speaking different
  languages.

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Example The Roman Empire

• Roman Empire collapses in 4th c. A.D.
• Latin was the language of that empire.
• Speakers in different parts of Europe became
  isolated from each other.
• Their languages evolved along independent paths
  to give us the modern languages of Italian,
  French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian.

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More Examples

• The Sanskrit spoken in North India changed into
  the modern languages of of the region Hindi,
  Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and others.
• Ancient Persian has evolved into Farsi, Kurdish
  and Pashto.

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• In time, with enough migrations, a single
  language can evolve into an entire family of
  languages.

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Language Families

• Languages are grouped together by common ancestry
• There are over 100 language families
• 95 of languages are in 10 dominate language
  families.

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Language Families
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Language Families Map
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• Languages in the same branch are sister languages
  that diverged within the last 1000 to 2000 years
  (Latin, for example, gave rise to the Latin
  Branch languages in the Indo-European Family).

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Indo-European Family
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Languages in the same family, share many common
grammatical features and many of the key words,
especially older words, show their common origin

• English- month
• Dutch- maand
• German- Monat
• Swedish- månad
• Welsh- mis
• Gaelic- mí
• French- mois
• Spanish- mes
• Portuguese- mês
• Italian- mese
• Polish- miesiac
• Russian- myesyats
• Lithuanian- menuo
• Albanian- muaj
• Greek- minas
• Farsi- mâh
• Hindi -mahina

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Edward Sapir, linguist

• "No two languages are ever sufficiently similar
  to be considered as representing the same social
  reality. The words in which different cultures
  live are distinct worlds, not merely the same
  world with different labels attached".

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Language

• Language a system for communicating with others
  using signals that convey meaning and are
  combined according to rules of grammar.

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3 Differences in Human Language

• The complex structure of human language
  distinguishes it from simpler signaling systems
• Humans use words to refer to intangible things
• Use language to name, categorize, and describe
  things to ourselves when we think

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Questions

• What do all languages have in common?

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Basic Characteristics

• Phoneme the smallest unit of sound that is
  recognizable as speech rather than as random
  noise.
• Morpheme the smallest meaningful unit of
  language.
• Grammar a set of rules that specify how the
  units of language can be combined to produce
  meaningful messages.
• rules of morphology.
• rules of syntax.

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Context is Important

• Sign outside a stadium
• Football coaches not admitted unless booked in
  advance

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• Groucho Marx I once shot an elephant in my
  pajamas
• Case of Derek Bentley

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Figure 7.1 Units of Language (p. 199)
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Deep Structure Versus Surface Structure

• Deep structure the meaning of a sentence.
• Surface structure how a sentence is worded.
• Example
• The dog chased the cat
• The cat was chased by the dog

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Questions

• Is the meaning or wording of a sentence more
  memorable?

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Language Development

• 1. Children learn language at a rapid rate.
• Average 1 year old 10 words
• 10,000 words by 4 years old
• 6 or 7 new words a day

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Language Development

• 2. Children make few errors while learning to
  speak (even their errors follow grammatical
  rules).

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Language Development

• 3. Childrens passive mastery of language
  (comprehension) develops faster than their active
  mastery (production).

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Distinguishing Speech Sounds

• Infants up to 6 mos. of age can distinguish among
  all the sounds in all human languages.

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Distinguishing Speech Sounds

• Infants can distinguish among speech sounds but
  cannot reliably produce them.

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Distinguishing Speech Sounds

• Babies must hear their own babbling for speech to
  continue.

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Questions

• What language ability do babies have that adults
  do not?

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Grammatical Rules

• Fast mapping the fact that children can map a
  word onto an underlying concept after only a
  single exposure.
• Telegraphic speech two-word sentences that
  emerge around 2 years of age.
• As children acquire grammatical rule, they tend
  to overgeneralize.

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Table 7.1 Language Milestones (p. 201)
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Questions

• Why is it unlikely that children are using
  imitation to pick up language?

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Theories of Language Development

• Behaviorist explanations children acquire
  language through operant conditioning.
• Nativist explanations language is an innate,
  biological capacity.
• language acquisition device (LAD) a collection
  of processes that facilitate language learning.
• genetic dysphasia a syndrome characterized by an
  inability to learn the grammatical structure of
  language despite having otherwise normal
  intelligence.

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Theories of Language Development

• Interactionist explanations social interactions
  play a crucial role in language.
• deaf children in Nicaragua developed their own
  sign language.

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Deaf Children in Nicaragua (p. 204)
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Questions

• How does the interactionist theory of language
  acquisition differ from behaviorist and nativist
  theories?

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The Neurological Specialization That Allows
Language to Develop

• Brocas area responsible for production of
  sequential patterns in vocal and sign languages
  (left frontal lobe).
• Wernickes area responsible for comprehension of
  vocal and sign languages (left temporal lobe).
• Aphasia disorder involving the difficulty in
  producing or comprehending language.

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Figure 7.2 Brocas and Wernickes Areas (p. 204)
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Do Animals Use Language?
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Questions

• How does language processing change in the brain
  as the child matures?

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Culture and Community Does Bilingual Education
Slow Cognitive Development?

• In comparison to America, most of the world is
  bilingual.
• Monolingual and bilingual students show similar
  rates of language development.
• bilingual students show some advantages in
  cognitive testing, however.

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7.2
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Concepts And Categories How We Think

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What is Cognition?

• Cognition thinking
• So, cognitive psychologists study how people
  think.

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Thinking Involves

• 1. forming concepts
• 2. reasoning
• 3. solving problems
• 4. making decisions

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Concepts

• Concept a mental representation that groups or
  categorizes shared features of related objects,
  events, or other stimuli.

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Questions

• Why are concepts useful to us?

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Which One Does Not Belong?

• Saturn
• Earth
• Dodge
• Mercury

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Which One Does Not Belong?

• Cardinal
• Red
• Turkey
• Oriole

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Which One Does Not Belong?

• Hazel
• Brown
• Temple
• Auburn

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Which One Does Not Belong?

• Christmas
• Easter
• Thanksgiving
• Java

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Which One Does Not Belong?

• Apple
• Cotton
• Peach
• Orange

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Which One Does Not Belong?

• Titus
• John
• James
• Dwight

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Concepts

• Category-specific deficit a neurological
  syndrome that is characterized by an inability to
  recognize objects that belong to a particular
  category while leaving the ability to recognize
  objects outside the category undisturbed.
• depends on where the brain is damaged.

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Figure 7.3 Brain Areas Involved In
Category-specific Processing (p. 204)
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Dog-on-it!

• Write down a definition of a dog.

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• Now, can you come with a rule of dogness or
  dogship (what it means to be a dog) that
  includes all dogs and excludes all non-dogs?

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Questions

• How does the brain organize our concepts of the
  world?

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Psychological Theories of Concepts and Categories

• Family resemblance theory members of a category
  have features that appear to be characteristic of
  category members but may not be possessed by
  every member.

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Figure 7.4 Family Resemblance Theory (p. 207)
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• Prototype theory we make categorical judgments
  by comparing new instances to a categorys
  prototype.
• prototype the best or most typical member of
  a category.
• Example Think of a horse.

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You Didnt Think of Midget Wrestling
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You probably thought of this
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• Exemplar theory we make category judgments by
  comparing a new instance with stored memories for
  other instances of the category.

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Figure 7.5 Critical Features of a Category (p.
208)
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Questions

• How do prototypes and exemplars relate to each
  other?

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7.3
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Judging, Valuing, and Deciding Sometimes Were
  Logical, Sometimes Not

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Decision Making

• Rational choice theory we make decisions by
  determining how likely something is to happen,
  judging the value of the outcome, and then
  multiplying the two.
• We are worse using probability versus frequency
  information in decision making.
• Conjunction fallacy when people think that two
  events are more likely to occur together than
  either individual event.

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Figure 7.6 The Conjunction Fallacy (p. 211)
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Decision Making

• Framing effects when people give different
  answers to the same problem depending on how the
  problem is phrased (or framed).
• sunk-cost fallacy when people make decisions
  about a current situation based on what they have
  previously invested in the situation.
• Prospect theory people choose to take on risk
  when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks
  when evaluating potential gains.
• simplify available information.
• choose prospect with greatest value.

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Questions

• How do we fail as rational decision makers?
• Why does a 70 success rate sound better than a
  30 failure rate?
• Why will most people take more risks to avoid
  losses than to make gains?

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7.4
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• Intelligence

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Intelligence

• Intelligence a mental ability that enables
  people to direct their thinking, adapt to their
  circumstances, and learn from their experiences.
• Intelligence testing of immigrants.
• Difference between aptitude and achievement.
• Ratio IQ a statistic obtained by dividing a
  persons mental age by their physical age, and
  then multiplying by 100.
• Deviation IQ a statistic obtained by dividing a
  persons test score by the average test score of
  people in the same age group, and then
  multiplying by 100.

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Immigrants at Ellis Island (p. 213)
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Figure 7.7 The Normal Curve of Intelligence (p.
215)
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Questions

• What was the original goal of the IQ test?

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The Logic of Intelligence Testing

• Intelligence is a hypothetical property that
  enables people to perform a wide variety of
  consequential behaviors.
• intelligence tests are an easily administered set
  of tasks that correlate with these behaviors.
• Intelligence tests predict success on a wide
  variety of behaviors.
• The Stanford-Binet and the WAIS are examples of
  todays intelligence tests.

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Figure 7.8 The Logic of Intelligence Testing (p.
215)
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Figure 7.9 Life Outcomes and Intelligence (p.
217)
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Questions

• What do intelligence tests measure?
• What do intelligence tests predict?

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The Real World Look Smart

• Ordinary people are relatively good judges of
  others intelligence.
• Research shows that intelligent people hold the
  gaze of their conversation partners (both when
  speaking and listening).
• Women tend to be better observers and
  intelligence in men is more easy to detect.

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General and Specific Abilities

• Spearman used factor analysis a statistical
  technique that explains a large number of
  correlations in terms of a small number of
  underlying factors.
• most measures are positively correlated.
• two-factor theory of intelligence every task
  requires a combination of a general ability (g)
  and skills that are specific to the task (s).

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General and Specific Abilities

• Thurstone described primary mental abilities.
• More recently accepted is a three-level
  hierarchy.
• general factor (high level ability), specific
  factors (low level abilities), and group factors
  (middle level abilities).

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Figure 7.10 A Three-level Hierarchy (p. 219)
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Questions

• Why is the three-level hierarchy of abilities a
  useful way to think about intelligence?

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Middle-level Abilities

• Carroll identified 8 independent middle-level
  abilities
• memory learning, visual perception, auditory
  perception, retrieval ability, cognitive
  speediness, processing speed, crystallized
  intelligence, and fluid intelligence.
• Fluid intelligence the ability to process
  information.
• Crystallized intelligence the accuracy and
  amount of information available for processing.

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Questions

• Is fluid intelligence like a processing system or
  like data? What about crystallized intelligence?

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Middle-level Abilities

• Sternberg proposed 3 kinds of intelligence.
• analytic, creative, and practical intelligence.
• Gardners studies of people including prodigies
  (normal intelligence with an extraordinary
  ability) and savants (low intelligence with an
  extraordinary ability) led him to propose 8 kinds
  of intelligence.
• linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,
  musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal,
  intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligences.
• stresses cultural differences.

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Five Year-old Savant Drawing (p. 220)

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Questions

• Why does intelligence seem to vary between
  cultures?

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7.5
PSYCHOLOGY
Schacter Gilbert Wegner

• The Origins of Intelligence From SES To DNA

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Intelligence and Genes

• Galton concluded that intelligence was inherited.
• Studies of identical and fraternal twins reared
  together and apart.
• people who share all their genes have extremely
  similar intelligence test scores (regardless of
  environment).
• Heritability coefficient a statistic that
  describes the proportion of the difference
  between peoples scores that can be explained by
  differences in their genetic makeup.

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Table 7.2 Intelligence Tests Correlations
Between People With Different Relationships
(p. 223)
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Figure 7.11 How To Ask A Dumb Question (p. 223)
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Questions

• Why is the heritability coefficient higher among
  children of the wealthy than among children of
  the poor?

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Intelligence and Groups

• Some groups of people do tend to outscore other
  groups on intelligence tests.
• not explainable by cultural biases on tests.
• situational biases may affect group differences
  (stereotype threat).
• SES predicts performance better than ethnicity.

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Questions

• How can the testing situation affect peoples
  scores?

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Changing Intelligence

• An individuals relative intelligence is stable
  over time, yet ones absolute intelligence
  typically changes.
• Flynn effect average intelligence test score has
  been rising .3 every year.
• Correlations between level of education and
  intelligence correlate.
• educational programs have a small-mild impact.
• Cognitive enhancers drugs that produce
  improvements in the psychological processes that
  underlie intelligent behavior.

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Questions

• Can intelligence be improved?

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Where Do You Stand Making Kids Smart or Making
Smart Kids?

• If scientists find genes directly related to
  intelligence, IVF and gene therapy will provide
  methods of increasing a couples chances of
  having an intelligent child.
• Ethics should parents be allowed to use genetic
  screening or gene therapy to increase the odds
  that they will have intelligent children?