-open: free to change

-Symbolic: our words have meaning

-Syntax/grammar: the way we structure sentences

-abstract ideas

-one of the main reasons human language is unique

-most animals are able to communiate about their current state of being whereas humans are able to communicate about remote ideas or states of being

 -connect things that don't already seem apparant

example: god, infinity, afterlife, etc

-protolanguage (used by early species of Homo)

-language is betweem 150,000-200,000 years old (relatively new)

-connection between grammatical language use and brain development (frontal lobes)

-executive funtions

-now frontal lobesa re more devoloped andlarger than in early years 

-development of frontal lobe was very important for the development of language

-each individual sound

-most basic unit of language

-doesn't have meaning

examples: "uh" "puh" "sh" "guh"

-smallest unit of language with a meaning

-"un" "ing" "ed" "anti" "pro" "pre"

1.) cooing

2.) Babbling

3.) one-word utterances

4.) two word utterances

5.)sentence phase

6.) sensitivity period

-first stage in language development

-vowels- related to phonemes

-there is no meening

-<6 mos

-second stage in language development

-experimenting with phonemes (pruning stage)

-consonants and vowels

-Pruning sounds

-5-6 mos

-usuallly happens during the babbling stage

-babies experiment and make up sounds; then prune out the ones they do not hear often in the language around them

-explains why some people can't roll their r's because they did not hear that sound while in this stage

-single words; mama, dada, no, please, more

-involves the recency effect

-children ususally learn the last word in a sentence first

-~ 1 year old

example: in english we speak; subject, verb, object

(Nacl likes the movie)

toddlers will likely learn the word "movie" before "likes"

Japanese and Mandarin languages speak; subject, object, verb

(Nacl the movie likes) so they learn "likes" before "movie"

-connecting object and verbs

-starting to use more verbs

-conveying a meaning with their phrases

-~18 mos

example: my ball; you go; no more

-not always "grammaticallly correct" but the first appearance of grammatical sentences with subjects, verbs, objects, pronouns, adjectives, etc.

-sometimes over-apply morphemes (ed)

example: "I swammed in the pool"

-happens very fast so it is hard stage to study

-usually reach by age 3 

-between age 1-3 the child brain growns drammaticallly b/c language development

-by age 3 the brain has reaached abou 80% adult size

-optimal time of learning a language

-0-12 years

-neglect leads to permanant problems in language development

-example of the sensitivity period and the effect of neglect on language development

-Genie's parents assumed she was mentally retarted so they neglected her and she never fully developed language

-reached about the two-word utterances stage

case revealed the importance of verbal stimulation while we are young to develope a complete ability to speak and comprehend speach

-Sociocultural Theory

-Conditioning/behaviorism theory

-Nativist Theory

-idea that we learn language from the people around us

-figure out the meaning of things by the context they are used

-culture, sosioeconomic status, birth order, school, peers, tv, parents (examples of impacts)

-much of what we learn is by immitating our family; adults often encourage mimicking (smiling, clapping)

-child directed speech (example of how adults encourage imitation)

-use or mirror neurons demonstrates the interdependence of the brain on language

-the change in speech patterns that encourage child imitation

-how we talk to kids different than we do adults

-higher pitch

-various volumes

-simple sentences

-emphasize the here and now

-use more emotion

-clusters of neurons that fire when an act is performed, and also when the individual observes another person doing the same act/behavior

-facilitate social learning and imitation

-B.F. Skinner

>believed language exists b/c it is reinforced and shaped

>reinforcement of coos/babbles sound closest to real words

>later reinforce correct grammar and syntax

>reinforcement each step (coo/babble/one/two/etc.) until they are able to speak full sentences

-okay theory but didn't explain novel utterances (things they'd never learned or heard before)

-Noam Chomskey

>idea that we don't "learn" language; we "discover" language

>language is innate in all humans and we just have to find it

-Language Aquisition Device (LAD); built in biological capacity that enables humans to learn language

-Principles of language are univeresal (all language has a subject, verb, and object; the way the are arranged varies)

-Parameters - change culturally; the different rulesof what is allowed or "correct" according to different cultures

Kanzi

-washoe and Louis

-Limitations of Animal Language

-most linguistically gifted ape

-can carry out verbal commands; about a 2 1/2 yr level

-used a board with commands to teach

-comprehends ~3,000 words

-studies used novel commands he'd never heard, but with words he already knew to demonstrate that he was able to comprehend complex commands

-chips taught children sign language

-speaking to eachother; 88% used for social interactions, play and ressurance; 12% used for grooming, discipline, and chimp signing (talking to themselves)

-Washoe (mom) taught Loulis (adopted son) to sign and he was eventually able to regularly sign with humans and learned about 20 signs after 18 months

-helped sho what is unique to human lanugage

-can't teach animal to speak (biological constraint); anatomical limitation

-adult apes have vocab of only 100-300 words compared to a highschool student's 60,000 word vocab

-lack the use of grammar/syntax

-whorf-sapir hypothesis; (linguistic determination) >language shapes thoughts,

>we cannot think of things not in our language

-Piraha

-Linguistic Relativism

-demonstrates the liinguistic determinism hypothesis

-tribe of about 200 ppl live in Amazon of Brazil

-no words for teh numbers higher than 2; nearlyimpossible for them eo learn concepts such as 9 or 10

-can construct only iindependent clauses; cant say "when i'm finished eating i want to speak to you" could only say "i finish eating. i speak to you" (radical because it directly challenges the universal principle by natives (Chomskey)

-limited to talking about the here and now (no concept of future or past)

-language does not determine our thought; it influences our thought

-how language affects color perception: Russian language has distinct words for lighter blue (goluboy) and darker blues (sinniy) ; whereas english has only "blue"

-russians were faster at discriminating between the two shades of blue that came within the same category; than when they came from different categories of blue

-for english speakers the category of bllue made no difference

-example of how language does not determine, but influences thinking and perception

-structure in our mind that stands for something else, like and external object or thing

-imagining visual images

-not usually about things wea re currently sensing (stimulus is not present)

-allow us to think about abstract ideas that have no physical existence like love, truth, beauty, or justice

-we represent things in our mind verbally and visually

-located mostly in the occipital lobes

-older than the verbal form

-imagining visual images

-stimulus not present

-mental rotation

-humans organizde env. by naming things and giving them labels then organize sensory experiences by grouping like with like and distinguishing each group from eachother

-most basic unit of knowledge

-concepts; a mental grouping of objects, events or people

-PDP and associative networks

-let us know that concepts are related in a particular way; with some being general and others being specific

-helps us order and understand our world

example: Dog Goldie

1. golden retriever

2. dog

3. animal

4. living thing

starting with a large concept and applying it to the individual

study found that the most popular sport played in highschool is football; so my friend james must have played football in highschool

taking an individual and applying it to the general

example: my car is white; so all cars must be white

how we

-analyze; evaluate; interpret; explain; self regulate; and make ifnerences about concepts

example: the apple

we think about where it came from, how it might taste, what it could be used for, its quality, how much we should eat, examine the qaulities, etc.

-involves critical thinking

-generates a test and revises the theories accordingly

-do not automatically assume that beliefe is reality

-requires the ability first to think and then to reflect on thinking

-not a universal ability

-thinking about thinking

-questioning our own thinking

-applying cognitive and scientific to our own thoughts

-people use cost-benefit analysis (like the pros and cons of something)

-people go into debt b/c we do no tuse the cost-benefit analysis as much as we might think we do

-act of fefforts to discover what must be done to acheive a goal that is not readily attainable

-very specific purpose

-trial/error

-step by step procedure 

-Eureka

-Heuristics

trying many different things until you find one that works 

not very efficient

more common and more efficient

the way many of us work through things

-not very common

-haven't really thought about it; it just comes to you

example: the invention of Velcro, the guy just thought about it and did it and it worked; didn't really plan or stry to come up with the solution before he just though about it

-like mental short cuts

-methods for making comlex and uncertain decisions and judgements

-allow us to come to quick, efficient decisions

-something that usually works out so you do it

two most common: Representative and Availability Heuristics

estimating the probability of one event based on how typical or representative it is of another event

-how typical an event is

example: jumping to the conclusion that since Joe wears glasses, is not overweight, and reads poetry, he is more likely to be an english teacher at an Ivy League school because those things are represntative of english teachers. When in fact he is more likely to be a truck driver according to base rates/statistics

-vividness (more available in our minds)

-based on how readilly available estimates come to our mind about specific things

-the though of things conjures up dramatic images; which influence our assumptions (referred to as vividness)

example: which is most common: 

1. death by shark attack or

2. death by vending machines

(most would assume shark attacks because we hear more about that, and the thought of it is more vivid in our minds)

-irrelevant information

-functional fixedness

-mental set

-effective probem solving; figure out what information is useful and what is not (distracting)

example: when given the matches, plyers, and cotton to figure out how to tie the ropes together you only needed the pliers. 

the matches and cotton were irrelevant to the solution

-based on how an object is most commonly used

example: pliers are not usually used to create a pendulum; but thats what they needed to be used for in order to tie the two ropes together

-less common in children because they haven't figured out what the most common use for most objects is

-using some strategies to solve similar problems

example: the handles in the cub doors would normally be used to pull a door; so thats what we often do. but in fact you are supposed to push the door

2+2=4 and 2x2=4 so if 3+3=6 then 3x3=6 (wrong)

-assuming constraints exist when they don't

the box question with the dots (making 4 straight lines that go through all nine dots)

assuming you could not go out of the box; when really that was not a rule at all