Cognitive Processes: Memory and Problem Solving

1
Cognitive ProcessesMemory and Problem Solving

• Chapters 8 and 9

2
Memory Defined and The Information Processing
Model

• Defining Memory
• The persistence of learning over time through
  storage and retrieval of information
• Much of what we have learned about memory comes
  from cases of memory loss or extraordinary memory
• Russian journalist Shereshevskii (case reading)
• Today, memory is often seen as steps in an
  information-processing model
• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval
• Information Processing is similar to how computer
  works

3
3 Stages of Memory FormationAtkinson and
Shiffrin (1968)

• Initial recording of information as fleeting
  sensory memory (1)
• Processing of this information in short-term
  memory (STM), where we encode it through
  rehearsal (2)
• Also known as working memory
• We process what we pay attention to of all the
  incoming sensory stimuli we are bombarded with
• Working memory also associates new information
  with old information from LTM
• Moving of information into more permanent
  long-term memory (LTM) for later retrieval (3)
• Memory ability varies from person to person
• Those with better working memories tend to
  exhibit high intelligence
• Those with better memories tend to maintain
  better focus on tasks

4
Automatic Processing

• Because the brain engages in parallel processing,
  it automatically gathers information about many
  things without us even knowing!
• Space automatically recalling where a term was
  on a slide
• Time automatically recalling the sequence of
  events
• Frequency automatically keeping track of how
  many times you have done something
• Well-learned information automatic processing
  of very familiar information like words we know
• New tasks that may begin as effortful can become
  automatic if we expose ourselves enough!

5
DEMO

• DO NOT write down the following list. Listen and
  read them, then try to recall them when prompted
• CLINTON
• RUJ
• FET
• TEXTBOOK
• NAV
• BUSH
• FULFILL
• GEF
• MANDATE
• FET
• 47
• TAL

6
Demo 1

• Bike
• Cookie
• Pillow
• Desert
• Sky
• Marker
• Small
• jacket
• Building
• Watch
• Round
• Grass
• child

7
Demo 2

• Window
• Pen
• Car
• Desk
• Shorts
• Sign
• Computer
• Clock
• Poster
• Chair
• Cone
• Fence
• pole

8
Effortful Processing

• While some information is automatically and
  effortlessly processed, some requires focus and
  attention
• Attention is defined as selection certain
  information for further processing
• We normally pay attention to only a small portion
  of incoming information
• We pay attention to things according to
• Meaningfulness
• Distinctiveness
• Repetition
• Broadbents Cocktail Party Phenomenon we tune
  out other sounds to focus on what is important

9
MemoryEbbinghaus Contributions

• Can increase memory ability through rehearsal
• Hermann Ebbinghaus scientifically studied his own
  memory of verbal information in the 19th century.
• Memorized a list of nonsense syllables
• The more he rehearsed, the more he remembered
• The more time spent on learning, the more we
  remember
• One of the important memory phenomena discovered
  by Ebbinghaus is the overlearning effect.
• continue to practice memorizing a list beyond
  that required to produce two perfect recalls.
• For example, if it required 10 repetitions to
  memorize the list, then you might continue for an
  additional ten repetitions -- this would be "100
  overlearning."
• The effect of overlearning is to make the
  information more resistant to disruption or loss.

10
MemoryEbbinghaus Contributions
The more the syllables were rehearsed (praticed)
on the first day of learning, the fewer
rehearsals it took to relearn them on the second.
11
Making Memories Last

• Information quickly learned is information
  quickly lost!
• Spacing Effect distributed study time yields
  better long-term retention than massed practice
  (cramming)!
• Testing Effect more frequent quizzing or
  previously studied material yields better
  long-term retention
• Bottom line spread your studying out over time
  and quiz yourself frequently!

Period 6 Before Test Day..
12
The Serial Position EffectBenefits of Rehearsal
Working Memory

• When we are given a list of things to remember,
  we often remember the first items and last items
  on the list.
• This is called the serial position effect.
• We are able to rehearse those at the beginning
  the most and those at the end are still in our
  working memory!
• Primacy Effect tendency to recall the first
  items on the list
• Recency Effect tendency to recall the last items
  on the list

13
Memorize these words

• Shoe
• Chair
• List
• Face
• Lamp
• Tree
• Coat
• Apple
• Couch
• Sword
• Dog
• Lion
• Cup
• Shark

14
What We EncodeLevels of Processing

• When we hear the sounds that comprise words, we
  use context and experience to determine meaning.
• E.g. Eye-Screem is it ice cream or I
  scream?
• We tend not to remember literally what we read or
  heard, but rather the general meaning
• We use several types of encoding to process
  verbal information
• Visual (structural) encoding of images
• Acoustic (phonetic) encoding of sounds
• Semantic encoding of meaning
• Our brains process each type differently
• Levels of Processing Theory says deeper levels of
  processing result in longer-lasting memories
  (i.e. semantic memory is best)
• Paivios Dual Code Theory says that we remember
  best when we use both semantic and visual
  encoding.

15
What We EncodeLevels of Processing

• Which type of encoding visual, acoustic or
  semantic helps us to remember best?
• Craik and Tulving (1975)
• Subjects forced to encode words in the three ways
• Visually (is it capitalized?)
• Acoustically (does it rhyme with)
• semantically (Would it fit into the sentence?)
• Found that semantic encoding yielded best recall!
• Spend TIME learning and make MEANING out of what
  you wish to recall!
• Self-Reference Effect meaning that is personal
  relate information to ourselves.

Bransford and Johnson (1972) had subjects read
the following paragraph The procedure is
actually quite simple.  First you arrange things
into different groups depending on their makeup. 
Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending
on how much there is to do.  If you have to go
somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is
the next step, otherwise you are pretty well
set.  It is important not to overdo any
particular endeavor.  That is, it is better to do
too few things at once than too many.  In the
short run this may not seem important, but
complications from doing too many can easily
arise.  A mistake can be expensive as well.  The
manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should
be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it
here.  At first the whole procedure will seem
complicated.  Soon, however, it will become just
another facet of life.  It is difficult to
foresee any end to the necessity for this task in
the immediate future, but then one never can tell.
16
How many fs- Acoustic Encoding

• Finished files are the results of years of
  scientific study combined with the experience of
  years.

17
Remember this

• The angry rioter threw the rock at the window.

18
Sequence of Information Processing
19
Storage Sensory Memory

• If you can recall information, it must first be
  stored!
• According to Atkinson and Shiffrin 3-step model,
  the first stop is sensory memory or the sensory
  registers.
• Only holds an exact copy of sensory stimulus for
  a few fractions of a second.
• More information enters our sensory memory than
  will get to STM
• Sperlings partial report technique illustrates
  the limitation of sensory memory.
• When subjects were told to report ALL 9 letters
  flashed for a fraction of a second, they could
  not, but when subjects instructed to report 3 of
  the letters (one row of 3 letter row display of 9
  total letters) they could do so with few errors
• This proved that sensory memory could hold the
  information, but only very briefly

20
Storage Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory holds information just long enough
  to recognize and transfer it to STM for further
  processing
• This happens through selective attention
• Selective attention allows only a small
  percentage of sensory messages that bombard us to
  enter conscious awareness.
• It is controlled not only by the focus of our
  attention but also the expectancies we have prior
  to exposure
• Iconic sensory memories (icons) are visual
  representations that last only about a seconds in
  sensory memory
• Echoic sensory memories (echoes) are auditory
  representations that may last for a few seconds
  (need a longer period to process language)

21
Storage Short Term Memory

• STM (working memory) is what is in your mind
  RIGHT NOW.
• Information in STM only remains there for about
  20-30 seconds
• STM is very sensitive to interruption and
  interference
• Brown, Peterson and Peterson (1959) measured the
  storage capacity of STM
• Subjects presented with a stimulus and asked to
  immediately count backwards (rehearsal prevented)
• By 20 seconds of backwards counting, the
  previously presented stimulus was forgotten

22
Storage Short Term Memory

• Unless information in STM is important/meaningful
  or is actively rehearsed, it quickly vanishes
  from STM and is displaced by whatever comes into
  our minds next
• Displacement occurs, then, when new information
  enters STM and pushes old out
• STM storage capacity is limited the average
  adult can hold about 5-9 bits or chunks of
  information in STM
• George Miller (1956) Magical Number Seven, plus
  or minus two

23
Storage Short Term Memory

• Remember the following number

• 18122001198417891945

24
Storage Short Term Memory

• The number is 18122001198417891945
• Chunking
• The process of organizing or grouping separate
  bits of information into larger units or chunks,
  can increase STM storage capacity.
• e.g. 1812 2001 1984 1789 1945
• Memory span is a measurement of STM capacity
• It measures the largest number of items that can
  be recalled perfectly from STM after only one
  presentation
• No study/rehearsal time is allowed
• Sometimes used as a component of IQ tests
• In STM, acoustic coding seems to dominate
  especially for verbal information
• Information in STM may be new or retrieved from
  LTM to be thought about and used.

25
Storage Long Term Memory

• LTM is our permanent storehouse for information
• It includes all knowledge we have accumulated,
  all the skills we have learned, and all our
  memories of past experiences
• The more meaningful the information, the more
  easily it can be stored in LTM
• Unlike STM, LTM seems to have unlimited storage
  capacity

26
Storage Long Term Memory

• Information in LTM seems to be organized
• New facts are learned by fitting them into a
  network of pre-existing knowledge
• Propositional network theory
• we store the smallest bits of meaningful
  information (propositions represented by circles
  or nodes) and create links (represented by
  arrows) to other nodes.
• e.g. the proposition dog may be linked to the
  other nodes bark, fur, and four legs.

DOG
Fur
Bark
4 Legs
27
LTM Types

• Two Broad Types of Memory Circuits
• Declarative Memory includes facts such as names,
  dates, and events (sometimes referred to as
  explicit memory)
• Can be rapidly learned and forgotten
• Usually consciously accessed
• Subdivisions
• Semantic memory refers specifically to factual
  information
• Episodic memory includes our personal or
  autobiographical experiences
• Procedural Memory includes skills such as
  remembering how to ride a bike, play a musical
  instrument or eat with a fork (sometimes referred
  to as implicit memory)
• Typically learned by repetition and practice
• Difficult to unlearn
• Often performed without conscious thought

28
LTM Types
29
LTM Types

• Eidetic imagery refers to visual LTMs
• Eidetic memory is characterized by relatively
  long-lasting and detailed images of scenes that
  can be scanned as if the individual were
  physically present
• Rare in adults more frequent in children
• Steven Wiltshire eidetic memory
• Flashbulb memories are remarkably vivid and
  seemingly permanent memories
• typically of highly emotional and personal events
  in one's life
• What makes the flashbulb memory special is the
  emotional arousal at the moment that the event
  was registered to the memory.

30
Biological Basis of Memory

• Memories are not located in one part of the brain
• Lashley (1950) tested this
• created lesions in the brains of rats who had
  learned a maze.
• Despite having damaged areas, memory was only
  weakened, not obliterated
• Synaptic Changes and neurotransmitters
• We already know that experience physically
  changes the brain
• When learning takes place, more serotonin is
  released at certain synapses
• This makes the neurons in this network more
  likely to fire, as sending neurons are more
  likely to fire and release neurotransmitters and
  receiving neurons seem to increase their receptor
  sites.
• This process is called Long-Term Potentiation
  (LTP)
• ACh also plays a role in memory Alzheimers
  patients lack of

31
Biological Basis of Memory

• Impact of LTP
• Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning
• Drugs that enhance it increase memory ability
• LTP inhibiting drugs can actually erase recent
  learning
• Memory enhancement?
• CREB protein boosters may help trigger LTP
• Neurotransmitter glutamate may also enhance LTP
• ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) and head trauma
  may disrupt memory and learning as LTP in process
  is not completed

32
Biological Basis of Memory

• Stress Hormones and Memory
• When we are excited or stressed, we produce more
  hormones that make more glucose energy for the
  brain
• This leads to increased activity in the amygdala
  in the limbic system, which is also involved in
  the formation of memories
• Stronger emotions stronger memories weaker
  emotions weaker memories
• Helps to explain flashbulb memory
• Hippocampus and explicit memories
• Responsible for transferring STM to explicit LTM
• Prolonged exposure to stress hormones can
  actually shrink the hippocampus and inhibit
  memory
• Damage can disrupt movement of information to
  cortex (LTM)
• Cerebellum processes implicit memories and
  classical conditioning (unconscious processes)

33
Where Are Memories Stored?
34
Retrieval The Basis of Memory

• Retrieval involves accessing information from LTM
  so that it can be used or examined in STM
• Retrieval cues help us gain access to a memory
• Methods of measuring retrieval
• Recall is when material must be remembered with
  few or no retrieval cues (free response test)
• Recognition involves tasks loaded with retrieval
  cues material must be remembered through
  identification (e.g. multiple choice test)
• Relearning indicates the time saved when learning
  material for the second time (obviously, some
  learning was remembered)
• Recognition is far easier than recall we
  remember more than we can recall

35
Retrieval Cues

• The more retrieval cues you have (like strings
  attached to whatever it is you wish to remember),
  the more likely you are to recall.
• Priming
• The activation of associations in memory often
  unconscious.
• Can shape our interpretation of events
• Vegetables!!!!!!!!!! ?

36
Priming Demo

• Group 1 Unscramble the letters to make words
• ocw
• nhe
• erohs
• ogd
• tca
• sfih
• eap
• tgoa

• Group 2 Unscramble the letters to make words
• tluetec
• rortac
• neab
• rcon
• yecler
• ottmao
• eap
• cbocrlio

37
Retrieval Cues

• Context can also serve as a retrieval cue
• Sometimes referred to as locus dependent learning
• Putting ourselves in the same environment we were
  in when we learned something may help us to later
  recall the learned information
• Helps to explain déjà vu (literally meaning
  already seen) where similar contexts may
  trigger memories even when we are in new settings
• Mood can also have an impact on memory
• State-dependent memory says that we recall
  information learned in one state when we do so in
  that same state
• e.g. learn information high we may recall it
  better when high again! (of course sober-sober
  is BEST!!)
• Mood-congruent memory says that we tend to recall
  experiences consistent with our current mood
  good or bad
• e.g. we recall how fabulous our childhood was
  when we are feeling happy, and how heinous it was
  when depressed

38
Retrieval Serial Position Effect

• People tend to recall the first items (primacy
  effect) and last items (recency effect) in a list
• Demonstrates how short- and long-term memory work
  together
• Primacy effect reflects long-term memory
• Recency effect reflects short-term memory

39
RetrievalSerial Position Effect
40
Forgetting

41
Forgetting

• While we may curse ourselves for forgetting
  things, it is good that we can get rid of useless
  information that would otherwise clutter out
  thoughts
• In general we may experience encoding failure,
  storage decay, and retrieval failure
• Encoding failure is when information is never
  really learned it never makes the cut from STM
  to LTM
• Storage decay happens when we do not use
  information in memory and it fades
• Retrieval failure occurs when there are not
  enough retrieval cues available to prompt
  remembering
• Consolidation failure occurs when disruptions
  prevent permanent memory from being formed

42
Forgetting Encoding Failure

• Because of selective attention, we only attend to
  very little of what we are exposed to
• Unless there is effort, memories do not form
• e.g. What does a penny look like?

43
Forgetting Storage Decay
Yaaa I forget so fast!

• Even after encoding has occurred, sometimes we
  later forget things
• Ebbinghaus researched this as well and the
  results of his experiments yielded the famous
  forgetting curve

44
Forgetting Retrieval Failure

• The information is there, but we cannot access
  it!
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon occurs when we are
  confident that we know the information but cannot
  retrieve it due to a lack of retrieval cues.
  Though we cannot recall it, we can often
  recognize it.
• Interference occurs when some information may get
  in the way of your ability to retrieve other
  information
• Proactive interference inability to recall new
  information due to prior learning
• Retroactive interference inability to recall
  older information as a result of new learning
• Sometimes, prior learning can facilitate the
  learning of new e.g. knowing the rules of
  baseball may help in learning softball
• Distractor studies?

45
Interference
46
Forgetting Consolidation Failure

• Memories new to long-term memory take time to be
  firmly implanted
• Disruptions in this process can prevent permanent
  memory from being formed
• Retrograde Amnesia loss of memory for events
  occurring for periods prior to brain injury
• Anterograde Amnesia loss of memory for events
  that happen after brain injury
• Infantile Amnesia failure to consolidate
  information in memory before age 3, perhaps due
  to underdeveloped brain and limitations in
  comprehension

47
Motivated Forgetting

• Sometimes we simply forget what happened but
  why?
• Many stages of memory processing much can be
  lost along the way
• Repression a Freudian defense mechanism that
  pushes anxiety and guilt-arousing thoughts,
  feelings and memories out of conscious awareness
• Many memory researchers believe that repression
  rarely, if ever, occurs especially if the
  memory is emotional

48
Memory Construction
49
Memory Construction

• Gilbert (2006) Information given after an event
  alters the memory of the event
• Implications? What you are asked and the way you
  are asked can lead you to remember the event
  differently!
• Loftus research
• How fast were the cars going when they smashed
  into each other? OR
• How fast were the cars going when they hit each
  other?
• The question determined the response, though all
  subjects saw the same video
• Research on eyewitness testimony?
• Misinformation Effect
• When given incorrect information about an event,
  we tend to remember it incorrectly
• Even imagining events that did not occur may
  create false memories
• Suggesting something happened can make us believe
  it did when asked to recall later!

50
True or False?

• Source Amnesia attributing memory of an event
  (real or imagined) to an incorrect source e.g.
  believing that you experienced something that you
  only heard about or saw on TV.
• Reconstructive memory
• Due to source amnesia and misinformation, we can
  have false memories we believe are true (fill
  in gaps when memory fails)
• This is dangerous when we consider eyewitness
  testimony
• Childrens underdeveloped frontal lobes make them
  more susceptible to false memories - accusation
  of child abuse?
• Repressed/recovered memories of abuse?
• Abuse happens we do not want to dismiss
  legitimate accusations
• Forgetting happens especially concerning child
  abuse when kids may not comprehend what is
  happening
• It is normal to recover memories, but when they
  are retrieved by therapist-aided techniques such
  as hypnosis of sedation, they are suspect
• Infantile amnesia (pre-age 3) makes memories
  before this age unreliable

51
How to Improve Memory

• Mnemonics are strategies you may use to improve
  memory
• Mnemonists are people with extraordinary memory
• Rehearsal elaborative rehearsal is better than
  rote rehearsal!
• Organization of material in meaningful ways
• SQ3R survey, question, read, recite, review
• Overlearning
• Metamemory be aware of how memory works
• Spaced practice shorter sessions over an
  extended period of time better than massed
  practice
• Peg Word System image word you associate,
  then assign new material to each peg visually
• Minimize interference
• Maximize retrieval cues state, location
• Get enough sleep!

52
Thinking and Language

• Chapter 9

53
Thinking

• Cognition all mental activities associated with
  thinking, including memory, knowing,
  communicating
• Cognitive psychologists study all of the
  following
• Creating concepts
• Solving problems
• Making decisions
• Forming judgments

54
Concepts
Im the prototype.

• Mental category or label that represents a class
  or group of objects, people or events that share
  common characteristics or qualities.
• Concepts help us organize our thinking
• We organize concepts into category hierarchies
  (cars, cats, flowers, etc.)
• Artificial concepts refer to those where each
  member of the concept has all of its defining
  properties while no non-member does, e.g. squares
  must have 4 corners and 4 right angles.
• Natural Concepts have no set defining features
  but have characteristic features instead, e.g.
  birds where the object could be a chicken,
  sparrow or ostrich
• Members of the concept have some characteristics
  of it
• We compare possible members to prototypes,
  objects/events that typically represent the
  natural concept
• Fuzzy concepts?
• Concepts HELP but dont provide all the answers

55
Problem Solving Steps

• Steps involved in problem solving
• Understanding the Problem
• Planning a solution strategy
• Carrying out the solution
• Evaluating progress toward goal/results
• Problem representation
• the first step in problem solving can help or
  hinder
• how we frame or interpret the problem
• We can approach problems visually, verbally,
  mathematically and concretely with objects we
  may create a matrix to keep track of all possible
  combinations
• e.g. If we only see the problem of high national
  debt as a lack of tax revenue, we are limiting
  ourselves in coming up with other viable
  solutions to the problem that may be more
  effective and more appealing to the people.

56
Possible Solution Strategies

• Algorithms - Step-by-step methods that guarantee
  a solution can be tedious and time consuming
• Heuristics - Rules of thumb that may help
  simplify a problem but do not guarantee a
  solution
• Insight Aha! moment
• Hill Climbing - Move progressively closer to goal
  without moving backward
• Subgoals or Means-End Analysis - break large
  problem into smaller, more manageable ones, each
  of which is easier to solve than the whole
  problem
• Working Backwards - Start with a solution/goal
  and figure out how to get there
• Trial and Error One solution after another is
  tested time consuming
• Incubation Put problem aside and engage in an
  unrelated task before coming back
• Expertise/Artificial Intelligence Usually
  computer programs used to solve specific
  problems however, sometimes this involves rigid
  sets that could hinder finding solutions

57
Problem Solving Obstacles

• Confirmation Bias
• Tendency to only consider information that
  supports preconceived ideas rather than paying
  attention to contradictory evidence
• e.g. Short people have complexes only of
  overconfident short people and ignore humble
  ones
• Mental sets
• Tendency to perceive a problem that use past
  experiences to frame the problem a certain way
  can help or hinder.
• e.g. 9 dot problem? (must think outside the box!)
• Functional Fixedness
• a type of mental set that typically hinders,
  since you can only see things objects in terms of
  their customary usage
• e.g. Record problem

58
Creative Problem Solving

• Creative problem solving generating solutions
  that are both unusual and useful
• Divergent thinking produces many different
  correct answer to the same question (often
  creative)
• Convergent Thinking one correct answer is
  expected (typically not creative but linear
  thinking)

59
Creative Problem Solving

• Brainstorming - a way to get over sets where you
  use divergent thinking to come up with multiple
  ideas/possibilities to solve a problem.
• Remote Association Test (RAT) is one measurement
  of creativity
• Requires divergent thinking
• Modest correlation between creativity and
  intelligence
• Highly creative people tend to have above average
  intelligence, but having a high IQ doesnt
  guarantee creativity

60
Decision Making Models

• We must make decisions all the time but how?
• Compensatory Model making a decision by
  allowing attractive attributes to compensate for
  unattractive ones (e.g. The car looks all banged
  up but gets great gas mileage)
• Non-Compensatory Model does not allow some
  attributes to offset others (e.g. Dude, that
  girl is busted I dont care how nice she is I
  will not date her)

61
Decision-Making Heuristics

• Heuristic processes are used when decisions
  involve a high degree of ambiguity
• Representativeness heuristic
• New information is compared to our model of the
  typical member of a category (prototype)
• Could lead us to ignore other relevant
  information
• e.g. Robbie the waiter, The guy with dreadlocks
• Availability heuristic
• Decision is based on information that is most
  easily retrieved from memory, even if incomplete
• e.g. More words that start with r or have r
  as third letter?

62
Faulty Decisions? Overconfidence, Belief
Perseverance, Intuition

• Overconfidence
• Our tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our
  knowledge and judgments
• e.g. we may believe we can finish a paper/study
  for a test much more quickly than we actually
  can.
• People who are overconfident may often be wrong
  and the mistakes may be costly but they tend to
  be happier and feel more comfortable making
  decisions
• Belief Perseverance
• Tendency to cling to our initial beliefs even
  after these decisions have been discredited
• The more we justify our initial belief, the more
  difficult it is to let it go when proven wrong
• To reduce BP, imagine the opposite perspective

63
Decisions Making Intuition, Framing and Pressure

• Intuition
• Automatic gut reaction not involving explicit
  reasoning
• Can lead us to sound decisions, but also careless
  ones.
• Framing
• The manner in which information is presented
• Research has demonstrated that framing can have a
  profound impact on decision-making
• e.g. 95 success rate vs. 5 failure rate a
  success?
• 85 lean vs. 15 fat ground beef?
• High Pressure
• When decisions are required quickly, experience
  plays a key role
• With increased pressure in an emergency
  situation, decision making often deteriorates and
  can end in panic

64
SEE YOUR ETEXT FOR THIS IN LARGER FONT A GREAT
SUMMARY!
65
Explaining Our Decisions

• Hindsight bias
• Tendency to view the impact of our decisions as
  inevitable and predictable after we know the
  outcome
• e.g. We would have been miserable together
  (after deciding to get a divorce)
• Counterfactual thinking
• Thinking about alternative realities and things
  that never happened
• Often takes the form of If only I had

66
Language
67
Language

• Language is defined as a system of signs and
  symbols based on specific rules (grammar) used to
  communicate
• Very complex human ability
• A unique ability?

68
Parts of Language

• Parts
• Phonemes - sounds
• Morphemes- smallest units that have meaning
• Semantics meaning in language
• Syntax rules that determine how words are
  combined in a language
• Phonetics how sounds are put together to form
  words
• Grammar culmination of rules for generating
  language (includes phonetics and syntax)
• Pragmatics social aspects of language
  (politeness, conversational rules)
• Psycholinguistics study of the psychological
  mechanisms related to language acquisition
• Top Down Processing vs. Bottom Up Processing?
• TD Meaning/Thought ? production of sounds
• BU Sounds ? derive meaning

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Theories of Language Acquisition

• Nature vs. Nurture?
• Critical periods
• Noam Chomsky (Nature)
• Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
• Surface Structure vs. Deep Structure (Jane bought
  the carrot, the carrot was bought by Jane-
  different surface forms, same deep structure)
• Transformational Grammar Theory- we need only
  learn words, not structure of grammar- this is
  inborn
• Skinners learning theory (Nurture)
• Linguistic Determinism (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) -
  Language determines thought
• Linguistic Relativity Thoughts/experiences
  determine language

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Language Development

• Cooing/Cruing
• Babbling
• Holophrase and 1-word speech
• 2-word speech
• Telegraphic Speech doggie bite face!
• Verbs and modifiers added
• Syntax acquired
• Overgeneralization/overextension- goed
• Motherese

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Non-Verbal Language
Hey there!
Check out my fine dance moves
Whaa?
I got into college!

• Facial expressions and Paul Ekmans work
• Emblems (gestures) and body language

No!
Whos your daddy!?
I refuse to look at that.
Mime be gone!
Here take this
Hmm should assist in the pummeling of Broccoli
man?
I will destroy you, broccoli man!
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Animal Thought

• Do animals think?
• Animals are capable of more than we thought!
• Forming concepts? Even pigeons!
• Insight (Kohler)
• Tool use
• Numerical ability (arithmetic)
• Transmission of cultural patterns (primates)
• Altruism
• Self Awareness
• AJ the fabulous bird

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Animal Language

• Can animals talk?
• They DO communicate, but is it language?
• Primate Language
• Use of signs and symbols
• Novel combinations of signs would indicate a
  higher level of cognitive processing
• Vocalizations with different meanings
• Gestured communication/facial expressions
• Koko the Gorilla, Washoe the Chimp, Kanzi the
  bonobo

Washoe (above) learned to sign and teach her
adopted son to sign, too. She expressed sadness
when told Baby dead after her infant died, and
expressed happiness when given a surrogate baby
to care for