Cognition

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Cognition Language
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LanguageThe Use of an Organized means of
combining words in order to communicate

• Language makes it possible for our species to
  communicate
• there is very good evidence to suggest that
  100,000 years ago the change in the physiology of
  primitive humans that allowed for human speech,
  also led to a change in our cognitive abilities.
• Why? Because speech allows for communication
  about sophisticated abstract ideas and concepts.
  SYMBOLIC Representations, that bears only
  arbitrary relation to its referents

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The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

• The linguistic relativity hypothesis (also known
  as the Sapir/Whorfian hypothesis) proposes that
  words and the way we shape them, shapes our
  conception of the world.
• That is, our linguistic processes shape our
  cognitive processes.
• Certain Native American tribes Living in the
  Northwest, gather different types of mushrooms.
  They have a wide range of complex linguistic
  items (words) that they use to describe the
  different species, and so they have a richer
  grasp of the concept of mushroom.
• Expert knowledge, the ability that some
  individuals have in a certain area is closely
  associated with this hypothesis. Experts have
  more words to describe a certain area than a
  non-expert (jargon).
• Because of the specialized jargon, they are able
  to express more complex concepts that are
  domain-specific, than those without that
  experience.
• So do words shape our cognitive processes?

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The Study of Language

• It is very important to note that not all human
  language consists of spoken items. Words can be
  written or signed (as in American Sign language).
• Human Communication (that is the exchange of
  thoughts and feelings) can also consist of
  gestures, touch, shrugs, and other means of
  exchanging ideas.

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Language is a Cognitive Process

• There are several modern research areas that
  study language from a cognitive perspective,
  which are generically referred to as
  Psycholinguistics
• Psycholinguistics-The study of Language as it
  interacts with the human mind.
• Linguistics is the study of language structure
  and change
• Neurolinguistics-is the study of relationships
  among brain,cognition, and language.
• Sociolinguistics-the relationship between social
  behavior and language.

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General Properties of Language

• Different types of Linguistics are very different
  in the way they view language, and may disagree
  on the properties of language, but there are 6
  generally agreed on characteristics
• Communication-Language permits us to communicate
  with one or more persons who share our language
• Arbitrarily Symbolic-Language creates an
  arbitrary relationship between a symbol and it
  referent an idea, a process, a relationship, or
  a description.
• Regularly structured-Language has a structure,
  only partially patterned arrangements of symbols
  have meanings, and different arrangements yield
  different meanings.
• Structured at multiple levels-The structure of
  language can be analyzed at more than one level
  (e.g. in sounds, in meaning units, in words, in
  phrases)
• Generative Productive-Within the limits of a
  linguistic structure, language users can produce
  novel utterances, and the potential for creating
  new utterances are virtually unlimited.
• Dynamic-Languages constantly evolve

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Fundamental Properties of Language from Any
Perspective

• There are two fundamental aspects of language
• Receptive comprehension decoding of Language
  input
• Expressive encoding production of language
  output.
• The First step in examining how speech is used by
  humans is to examine The Production Perception
  of Speech

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The Perception of Sound

• How we Hear

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The Production Perception of Speech Structures
Involved in Sound Perception
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Auditory Receptor Cells Transduction in the
Auditory System
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The Primary Auditory Cortex

• The primary auditory cortex receives input from
  the auditory nerve via the thalamus

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The Auditory Cortex Wernickes Broccas Areas

• These two brain areas have been associated with
  problems in the production and perception of
  speech
• Broccas Aphasia is impairment in the production
  of speech
• Wernickes Aphasia is impairment in the
  perception of speech

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Recent research on Brain Damage Specific Word
Retrieval Impairment (Damasio et. al., 1996).

• Problems with work retrieval for different types
  of concepts (e.g. tools vs. animals) has been
  localized to specific areas of the frontal
  temporal lobes

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The Production of Language

• How we produce the Basic Components

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The Production Perception of Speech The
Production of Human Speech

• Human speech is composed of a mixture of
  frequencys called formants
• Each formant is composed of unique harmonic
  frequencys that are determined by several
  factors including the length and shape of the
  vocal tract. This causes each human being having
  a unique vocal signature.
• We measure formants by using a Spectrogram

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Additional Techniques for Looking at Speech
Production

• Imaging techniques show the position of the
  production apparatus, and provide a visual
  example of the two cavity model of speech
  production.
• A Palatagram can show the positioning of the
  tongue during speech.

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The Structure of Language
Three Building Blocks of Spoken Language
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What Are Phonemes?

• PHONEME - shortest segment of speech, which, if
  changed, would change the meaning of a spoken
  word.

/bait/
/beet/
/bit/
Only 60 phonemes necessary to account for all
worlds languages! English requires 48
phonemes. Hawaiian requires only 11!
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What Are Morphemes?
Morpheme - the shortest unit of spoken or
written language that carries meaning
Some morphemes are phonemes (e.g., I and a)
Most are combos of 2 or more phonemes
Some morphemes are words (e.g., bat)
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What Is A Grammar?
Grammar - a system of rules (called semantics and
syntax) that enables us to communicate and
understand others
Semantics
Syntax
Rules we use to derive meaning from
morphemes, words sentences (-ed past tense)
Rules used to order words into sentences
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Phonemes to Words

• There are 48 Phonemes in the English Language,
  Different languages however have different
  numbers of phonemes necessary to produce the
  language.

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Higher Levels of Linguistic Analysis

• While Phonemes and Morphemes make up the basic
  units of language, Psychologists are often
  interested in a more global analysis of language.
• Psychological investigations of language
  frequently look at words, phrases sentences, or
  prose rather than the more elementary speech
  units.
• 3 Common levels of analysis that psychologists
  look at include
• The lexical level-The types of words that appear
  and the way in which we interpret these
  linguistic units.
• The Syntactic Level-How are the words arranged to
  form phrases and sentences. How can we identify
  the rules of language that generate an infinite
  number of grammatically correct sentences (e.g.
  phrase structure).
• The semantic level-The analysis of the meaning of
  a sentence.

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Examples of the The Critical Role of Semantics

• The Critical Role of semantics has been
  investigated by many researchers.
• These studies have generally shown that when
  subjects listen to passages of connected
  discourse, there recognition memory for sentences
  after a short delay is far more sensitive to
  changes in semantics (e.g. subject-object
  reversal) than changes in syntactic (e.g. changes
  in active to passive voice).

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Describing Sentences Phrase Structure

• Linguists have found it useful to describe a
  sentence into phrases which are groupings of
  words.
• Analysis of a sentence into its various phrases
  is accomplished by describing the phrase
  structure.
• A sentence is divided into two basic phrases, a
  noun phrase, and a verb phrase. These are then
  further divided into sub components.
• The noun phrase is divided into determiner and a
  noun
• The verb phrase is divided into the verb and the
  noun phrase

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Surface Structure and Deep Structure

• Surface structure is the organization that
  describes the sequence of phrases in a sentence
  as it is actually spoken and reflects the
  phonological realization of the complex,
  underlying linguistic structure.
• Deep Structure, refers to the underlying meaning
  of the sentence

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The Structure of Language A Comprehensive Process

• The comprehension of language is a series of
  steps that builds on comprehensive relationships.
• Phonemes based on formant frequencies are built
  into morphemes, which are in turn built into
  words, which are built into phrases and
  sentences.
• Raw speech sounds begin the comprehension
  process, comprehension begins where speech
  production ends. Interpretation of context and
  structural semantics then further influence
  speech perception.

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Developmental Components of Language

• A Natural Predisposition to Acquire Language

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Theories of Language Development
Nature vs Nurture
B.F. Skinner
Language develops due to association, imitation
and reinforcement (Operant Conditioning)
Rate of learning cannot be explained solely by
learning principles Brains are prewired with
a Universal Grammar suitable for all languages
and dialects
Noam Chomsky
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Nativist Views of Language A Critical Window for
Language Acquisition

• The best evidence to support Chomskys nativist
  explanation of language, is that humans and
  humans alone, have a brain that specifically
  supports the learning of a first language
  (Rasmunssen Milner, 1977).
• In addition several studies have indicated that
  there is a critical window for acquiring both
  spoken language, and sign language (Johnson
  Newport, 1989 Hurford, 1991).
• Also older children, and young adults who attempt
  to learn a second language find that learning a
  second language is extremely difficult compared
  to the first.
• Studies of second language learning also show
  that the second language seems to be in a
  different type of memory code (Jiang Foster,
  2001) and that it is encoded in a different part
  of the brain (Kim, Redlin, Lee, Hirsch, 1997).
• Critical Brain injury or impoverished
  environments also support the idea of a critical
  window for language.

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The Normal Developmental Sequence of Language
also demonstrates evidence for a nativist view

• Children learn language at an amazing pace, again
  does this imply a natural language acquisition
  process

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Age of Language Acquisition 1
Infant
No Language
4 Months
Can read lips Discriminate non-native speech
sounds Babbling Stage - includes sounds from many
different languages
Native language babbling Lose ability to
discriminate non-native speech sounds
10 Months
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Age of Language Acquisition 2
One-Word Stage - sounds used to communicate
meaning (e.g., Ma Da)
1 Year
Approx 2 Years
Two-Word Stage - characterized by Telegraphic
Speech (e.g., Puppy do trick) Sentences follow
rules of syntax
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Individual Variability in Language Acquisition

• Vocabulary acquisition is highly variable, 3
  different children will increase their
  vocabularies at different rates all within normal
  ranges

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Language Acquisition Does Seem to Have a
Critical Window

• Vocabulary seems to develop at an early age.
• Brain imaging studies show that fluent speakers
  or early learners store information in adjacent
  areas of the brain.
• Those that learn a language later in life seem to
  store linguistic information in non-adjacent
  areas or at least areas that are further apart
  than early learners or fluent learners

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Language and Human Evolution
Spoken, Gestured or Written words and the way we
combine them as we think and communicate
Does language truly set us apart from all other
species?
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Are We Alone?
Can apes be taught language?
Washoe learned 132 signs by age 4 and 240 signs
by age 27
Evidence of creative sentence construction
Vocabularies and sentences are simple (2 yr old
child)
But are apes really using language?
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SoCan Apes Possess Language?
It depends...
Verbal or signed expression of complex grammar?
No.
Communication through a meaningful sequence of
symbols?
Yes.
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Language Development
How Many Words Do You Know?
Average High School Grad Knows 80,000 words
Schools teach approx 200 words per year BUT You
learned approx 5,000 words per year!
How Did You Learn All Those Other Words?!?