language, thought and communication

• Language and thought


  Relationship between language and the concepts it represents
• Knowing a word


  Knowing the concept it represents
• Piaget's theory


  • Before using a word, a child needs to develop a mental concept (schema) of what that thing is
  • Use of language depends on child's cognitive development stage
• Piaget's theory has face validity but lacks experimental evidence
• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis


  • To think about a concept, we need to be able to express it in words
  • The structure of our language shapes how we think
• • Linguistic determinism - hard version: without the words, I can't think about the idea
  • Soft version: the range of words I have for objects changes my perception of them
• Language differences


  Influence recall of events and recognition of color
• Recall of events


  • English speakers: remember who broke the vase, not that it was an accident
  • Spanish speakers: remember it was an accident, not who broke the vase
• Recognition of color


  • Russian speakers: perceive differences between shades of blue faster than English speakers
  • Zuni people: difficulty telling orange and yellow apart compared to English speakers
• Most languages develop the same color words in a set order, suggesting universal color perception
• Practical applications of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis


  • Explain cognitive underperformance of poorer students due to lack of complex vocabulary (elaborated code)
  • Differences in number of words may not lead to significant differences in perception due to use of descriptive words
• Movies are often translated between languages without changing the meaning of the script
• Observation of animals suggests they can only communicate on a limited number of areas related to survival, reproduction, territory and food
• Animal communication


  • Alarm calls to warn of predators
  • Use of pheromones to indicate fertility
  • Use of scent signals to mark territory
  • Coordinated hunting through sound
• Waggle dance of honeybees


  Communicates the location of food from the hive
• Honeybees communicate the distance of food from the hive through the type of dance - round dance for less than 100m, waggle dance for more than 100m
• Von Frisch's study on honeybee communication has been replicated with the same results, so the findings can be trusted
• Criticisms of von Frisch's study include that the bees' behaviour may not have been the same as in the wild, and the transparent beehive may have affected their behaviour
• The role of sound has since been found to be important in the communication of bees, and they may be able to produce cognitive maps including memories of landmarks
• Human language allows communication about a wide range of topics beyond just survival and reproduction, and the ability to imagine and discuss future possibilities
• Humans rely less on body language and other types of signaling compared to animals, due to the complexity of human spoken language
• Verbal communication


  The use of words to pass on information
• Nonverbal communication


  Everything else besides verbal communication, such as facial expressions and body language
• Nonverbal communication within verbal communication


  • Tone and volume of speech
• Eye contact


  When two people look directly at each other or avoid looking at each other to pass on social meaning
• Body language


  How we use the position of our body parts to pass on information usually about our emotional state
• Open posture


  Shows self-confidence, indicates liking the other person, relaxed and open with arms facing towards the other person
• Closed posture


  Suggests low self-confidence, disapproving and rejecting the other person, tense with crossed arms and hunched, facing away
• Postural mirroring


  When people copy each other's body language, demonstrates interest in the other person
• Personal space


  The area around our bodies that we see as our own, the distance we allow others to get close depends on our relationship with them
• Contact cultures tend to have smaller personal space, non-contact cultures tend to have larger personal space
• Men keep a larger distance between each other than women keep with other women
• People of similar social status will be closer together compared to people of high and low status
• Evaluating nonverbal communication


  • Research is important to help people who struggle to socially communicate, understanding cultural variations helps in international business and politics
  • Much research is open to subjective interpretation as body language is an unconscious process
  • Debate about how much body language is instinctual vs learned
• Evidence for body language being innate


  • Newborn babies displaying expressions like sadness, smiling, surprise and disgust
  • Sensory deprived children displaying similar expressive behavior
• Evidence for body language being learned


  • Body language varying from person to person and across social contexts
  • Cross-cultural research showing differences in body language use
• Interactionist approach


  We're born with some innate body language traits but these adapt in response to experience
• Cultural differences in interpreting emotion in emojis


  • Americans focus more on mouths, Japanese focus more on eyes
• Criticisms of the emoji study include using limited emotional range and potential demand characteristics
• Evolutionary perspective on body language


  • Nonverbal behavior is common across animal species and helps with survival
  • Babies show innate body language to trigger caretaking behavior
  • But body language may not be universal across humans, suggesting it is learned not evolved