C o g n i t i v e P s y c h o l o g y
Language, Problem Solving, Decision Making
WEEK 12-13 → Chapter 8
Language
Language = tool used for humans to send and receive info, can be sued
in multiple ways. Unique to humans and symbolic in nature it conveys
ideas, meanings, and thoughts.
Language is rule-governed and can be broken down into a particular
structure:
- Medium of transmission = sound
- phenology → methodological organization of these sounds, how
the sounds function to send & receive sth meaningful.
- Language can be organised into a phone (sound) and a
phoneme = smallest linguistic unit to bring about meaning change
(sun = s-u-n / bunch = b-u-n-ch)
- Grammar = language understood ito rules
- Morphology → morphemes are the smallest parts of a language
(unhappy ⇒ un (prefix meaning not) happy)
- combination of prefix, suffix and root word = meaning
- Syntax → the order of words and the rules that govern this order.
Syntax can be correct, but semantically can make no sense at all.
- Semantics = about the meaning of the words
- lexicon = a languages dictionary or vocabulary
Ex: unbreakable dark places jump lovingly (syntactically correct,
but semantically has no meaning)
- Pragmatics = how people use language in different contexts
(gestures & vocal inflections NB, bc they can differ and change the
meaning of language in different contexts)
1
, Milestones in Language Development:
Language related skills are developed over time in childhood:
- Precursors of speech → meaning conveyed in an interaction (but
not speech) child attentive to talking, hearing changes in sound
and changes in tone and know that there is some kind of meaning
being conveyed behind that sound.
- Vocalization → child starts making verbalisations such as
- Babbling / cooeing
This tapers off at 12 months.
- Babbling→ child makes sounds that correspond with repetitive
vowel or consonant combinations, after this phase, word
development starts; child establishes which words are sounds and
which words are actually speech:
- first through understanding & responding to these words
(give mom a hug → action of hug = different to when child
produces the word mom)
- understanding of the responding to this word = receptive
vocabulary
- When a child produces words = expressive vocabulary
Words that children produce are related to what is relevant in their
world (first word either mom or dad)
- Holophrases (12 months) → single word used as a full sentence (up
vs pick me up)
- Telegraphic speech (12-18 months) → unimportant words are
excluded but sentence is still syntactically and semantically
correct (children use a combination of words to form short
sentences, ignore some articles or prepositions but semantics still
present, ex: ‘mommy sit’ / ‘read book’)
- Over-extension → use of one word applied to multiple contexts
(ex:extend meaning of word ‘kitty’ to cat & lion)
- Under-extension → restricts the meaning of a word (call own
family pet a cat, but won’t extend this label to any other cat)
2
Language, Problem Solving, Decision Making
WEEK 12-13 → Chapter 8
Language
Language = tool used for humans to send and receive info, can be sued
in multiple ways. Unique to humans and symbolic in nature it conveys
ideas, meanings, and thoughts.
Language is rule-governed and can be broken down into a particular
structure:
- Medium of transmission = sound
- phenology → methodological organization of these sounds, how
the sounds function to send & receive sth meaningful.
- Language can be organised into a phone (sound) and a
phoneme = smallest linguistic unit to bring about meaning change
(sun = s-u-n / bunch = b-u-n-ch)
- Grammar = language understood ito rules
- Morphology → morphemes are the smallest parts of a language
(unhappy ⇒ un (prefix meaning not) happy)
- combination of prefix, suffix and root word = meaning
- Syntax → the order of words and the rules that govern this order.
Syntax can be correct, but semantically can make no sense at all.
- Semantics = about the meaning of the words
- lexicon = a languages dictionary or vocabulary
Ex: unbreakable dark places jump lovingly (syntactically correct,
but semantically has no meaning)
- Pragmatics = how people use language in different contexts
(gestures & vocal inflections NB, bc they can differ and change the
meaning of language in different contexts)
1
, Milestones in Language Development:
Language related skills are developed over time in childhood:
- Precursors of speech → meaning conveyed in an interaction (but
not speech) child attentive to talking, hearing changes in sound
and changes in tone and know that there is some kind of meaning
being conveyed behind that sound.
- Vocalization → child starts making verbalisations such as
- Babbling / cooeing
This tapers off at 12 months.
- Babbling→ child makes sounds that correspond with repetitive
vowel or consonant combinations, after this phase, word
development starts; child establishes which words are sounds and
which words are actually speech:
- first through understanding & responding to these words
(give mom a hug → action of hug = different to when child
produces the word mom)
- understanding of the responding to this word = receptive
vocabulary
- When a child produces words = expressive vocabulary
Words that children produce are related to what is relevant in their
world (first word either mom or dad)
- Holophrases (12 months) → single word used as a full sentence (up
vs pick me up)
- Telegraphic speech (12-18 months) → unimportant words are
excluded but sentence is still syntactically and semantically
correct (children use a combination of words to form short
sentences, ignore some articles or prepositions but semantics still
present, ex: ‘mommy sit’ / ‘read book’)
- Over-extension → use of one word applied to multiple contexts
(ex:extend meaning of word ‘kitty’ to cat & lion)
- Under-extension → restricts the meaning of a word (call own
family pet a cat, but won’t extend this label to any other cat)
2
