10>language & cognition

Question 2

Language & cognition is about…>

Answer 2

how language acquisition shapes & affects general cognition

Question 3

How does langugae acquisition shape & affect general cognition> 2 main parts>

Answer 3

• linguistic relativity (how a specific lang affects)
• bilingualism (how multiple langs affects)

Question 4

what are the ‘general cognition’ areas that linguistic relativity (specific lang) affects>

Answer 4

• colour perception
• spatial perception
• theory of mind

Question 5

what are the ‘general cognition’ areas that bilingualism (multiple langs) affects>

Answer 5

• word learning
• cognitive control (switching & inhibition)
• Theory of mind

Question 6

How does linguistic relativity affect colour perception?>

Answer 6

the ‘terminology’ of specific langs can affect our perception of colour

Question 7

ways of testing colour perception>

Answer 7

• colour perception tests:
• shown a colour chip
• removed colour chip
• asked to find colour just seen out of selection

Question 8

Linguistic relativity & colour perception> study> (eng and himba)> 1st test

Answer 8

• colour chip test on 3;0 & 4;0 year olds learning english & himba
• first looked at children who have not acquired colour terminology yet
• asked to find colour & assessed on knowledge of lang terminology

Question 9

Linguistic relativity & colour perception> study> (eng and himba)> 1st test> results>

Answer 9

• task performance as the SAME
• havent yet acquired colour terminology
• any errors would be based on perceptual distance (<perceptually similar colours)

Question 10

Linguistic relativity & colour perception> study> (eng and himba)> 2nd test>

Answer 10

• colour chip test on 3;0 & 4;0 year olds learning eng & himba who HAVE acquired colour terminology
• asked to find colour & assessed on knowledge of lang terminology

Question 11

Linguistic relativity & colour perception> study> (eng and himba)> 2nd test> results>

Answer 11

• english speaking kids who have learnt blue and green made less errors than Himba kids
• for himba speaking kids (where blue & green are same) they made errors between the colours

Question 12

3 ways of talking about spatial relation: (frames of reference)

Answer 12

• relative
• intrinsic
• absolute

Question 13

relative spatial perception=

Answer 13

egocentric perspective
- use terminology like ‘right’ & ‘left’ (from self)
(e.g. “the pig is to the right of the cow”)

Question 14

intrinsic spatial perception=

Answer 14

describing from perspective of one of the objects
(e.g. “the pig is in front of the cow”)

Question 15

absolute spatial perception=

Answer 15

use of east/west/north/south (or towards the mountains; towards where the sun comes up)
(e.g. “the pig is east of the cow”)

Question 16

spatial terms & cognition> study on pigs/cows/sheep

Answer 16

• had an array with cow, sheep and pig
• had a school in between
• showed array to kids
• moved kids to other side of school
• asked children to rearrange the animals in the same array

Question 17

spatial terms & cognition> study on pigs/cows/sheep> results>

Answer 17

• in egocentric kids–>array of animal from L>R & cow towards L & at back with sheep at R
• in object centrered–>array with sheep at front facing them, pig in middle & cow at back (getting further away/forward)
• in geocentric–>array with back of cow infront of them, then back of pig, then back of sheep (getting further away/forward)

Question 18

spatial terms & cognition> study on pigs/cows/sheep> (repeated age 8)

Answer 18

> 2 conditions
- free choice (rearrange in same order)
- or instructed them to use non-preferred response option

Question 19

spatial terms & cognition> study on pigs/cows/sheep> (repeated age 8)> results>

Answer 19

• didnt matter which condition
• dutch kids preferred egocentric way of arranging
• haillom kids preferred geocentric way of arranging

Question 20

false-belief=

Answer 20

own or other’s belief or representation about the world that contrasts with reality (understanding others have beliefs & that these can be false)

Question 21

knowledge required to pass ‘false-belief task’>

Answer 21

• people’s beliefs are based on what THEY know
• mental states can differ from reality
• people’s behaviour can be predicted by their mental states (e.g. false beliefs)

Question 22

TOM: false belief task> sally anne>

Answer 22

• 2 characters ‘sally’ & ‘anne’
• sally has a basket & anne has a box
• sally puts red ball in her basket
• sally leaves room
• when sally isnt in room, anne takes ball out of basket & puts into box
  -sally comes back & wants to play with the ball
• asked kids where sally would look for the ball (if have TOM, then would ans ‘basket’)

Question 23

TOM: false belief task> sally anne> results>

Answer 23

• monolingual children start giving right answer around age 4;0 (basket)

Question 24

TOM: false belief task> sally anne> cross ling look (turkish vs eng)>results>

Answer 24

• Turkish speaking children perform better on false belief tasks than eng-speaking children
• due to ‘evidential markers’ existing obligatorily in past tense of turkish but not at all in eng
  (with these requiring speakers to indicate if they have witnessed something directly or whether somebody has TOLD them something)

Question 25

source monitoring=

Answer 25

the ability to track one's source of info (remembering where, when, how and from whom the info was gathered)

Question 26

evidential markers=

Answer 26

require speakers to indicate if they have witnessed something DIRECTLY or whether somebody has TOLD them about an event

Question 27

source monitoring study> (colour bags)

Answer 27

- different colour bags presented to children - there were 3 ways for kids to find out what was in the bags: seeing/ hearing/ understanding from a clue - & after were asked what they remember & HOW they knew the contents of the bag

Question 28

source monitoring study> (colour bags)> results>

Answer 28

- kids who were good at producing evidential markers (turkish kids) were also good at source monitoring

Question 29

overall: false belief in turkish vs eng>

Answer 29

- turkish learning kids performed better at false belief tasks - learning a lang with obligatory evidentiality leads to better performance in source monitoring, which in turn leads to better false belief performance

Question 30

How Bilingualism affects word learning>

Answer 30

- bilingual children tend to have a smaller vocabulary in each lang than monolingual peers - when counting up words in both langs, bilingual & monolingual children have similar vocabulary sizes

Question 31

evidence for bilingual children having smaller vocabulary in each lang than monolingual peers>

Answer 31

- significantly lower scores on 'peabody picture vocabulary test' - in test given 4 pictures & given a word & have to point at picture

Question 32

how does bilingualism affect mutual exclusivity>

Answer 32

- bilinguals make less use of 'mutual exclusivity' (assuming objects have only 1 label) - suggested to be due to constant learning of 2 names for one thing due to their bilingualism -having to accept 2 labels for one obj could lead to small delays in learning words

Question 33

bilingualism & mutual exclusivity study (shoe)>

Answer 33

-1;5-1;6 years - show & novel obj presented - said "look at the teebu" - eye gaze data were collected

Question 34

bilingualism & mutual exclusivity study (shoe)> results>

Answer 34

-monolinguals looked at novel obj - bilinguals were more torn as to which to look at - thus bilinguals used mutual exclusivity to a lesser extent than monolinguals

Question 35

how does bilingualism affect lexical retrieval ?

Answer 35

- slower picture naming - more tip-of-tongue phenomena - more interference in lexical decision (is word or not?)

Question 36

possible explanations for bilingual's worse performance on lexical retrieval than monolinguals>

Answer 36

-weaker links between concepts & words (in each lang> as shared between 2) - competition from the corresponding item in the non-target language (

Question 37

how to test inhibition>

Answer 37

- bear-dragon task - day & night task

Question 38

study on inhibition> 'bear-dragon task & day & night taks>

Answer 38

-whatever bear says do -whatever dragon says DONT do it ^ have to inhibt auditory info - whenever see sun say night - whenever seen moon say day ^have to inhibt visual info

Question 39

study on inhibition> 'bear-dragon/ 'day & night' task> results>

Answer 39

billinguals perform better in these tasks than monolinguals

Question 40

study on switching> 'dimensional change card sort test'>

Answer 40

-pre-switch= condition to sort objs by colour - post-switch= condition to sort objs by shape

Question 41

study on switching> 'dimensional change card sort test'> results>

Answer 41

- all children aged 5;5 years succeeded in sorting correctly - for children aged 4;2 only the bilinguals succeeded (due to them being able to switch between langs everyday)

Question 42

Bilingualism & TOM study> (chinese & eng)

Answer 42

- 3& 4 year old cchinese & eng monolinguals & chinese-eng bilinguals studied according to false belief task (sally anne) - each group was tested twice (due to needing to test bilinguals in both langs & even field in other groups)

Question 43

Bilingualism & TOM study> (chinese & eng)> results>

Answer 43

- bilinguals performed better on false belief tasks in the first session than monolinguals

Question 44

possible explanations for bilingual advantage to TOM false belief task>

Answer 44

- bilinguals are used to having 2 different representations for the same thing (metaling explanation) - bilinguals from around 2 are aware that people do not always share languages (sociolinguistic explantion - bilinguals have a higher level of inhibition & switching (cognitive explanation)