Language & Communication

1. Language & Communication Psychology 485 March 2, 2010

2. Outline • Introduction • Difference between communication and language • Why learn to communicate? Why learn language? • What is learned? • Different types of communication • Animals learning language • How is it learned? • Innate or learned?

3. What is communication? • Passing of information from one individual to another • A two-way process: must consider both the signaller and the receiver • Cues & Signals • Cue • animate or inanimate feature of the world that can be used as a guide for behaviour • Signal • an act or structure that evolved to alter the behaviour of another organism, and is effective because receiver’s response

4. What is language? • 4 main properties of language: • Semantic • Arbitrariness • Productivity • Displacement

5. What is language? • 4 main properties of language: • Semantic • Language has meaning • Arbitrariness • Productivity • Displacement

6. What is language? • 4 main properties of language: • Semantic • Arbitrariness • There is no rational relationship between the signal and its meaning • There is nothing “housy” about the word “house” • Productivity • Displacement

7. What is language? • 4 main properties of language: • Semantic • Arbitrariness • Productivity • A finite number of units can be used to create an infinite number of utterances • “The dog bit the man” • “The man bit the dog” • Displacement

8. What is language? • 4 main properties of language: • Semantic • Arbitrariness • Productivity • Displacement • Communicate ideas that are not in immediate vicinity (spatially or temporally) • “I ate lunch at the A&W in HUB”

9. Communication vs Language • Can animal communication be classed as language? • Semantics • By definition, “signals” have meaning • Arbitrariness • Not always – e.g. Vervet monkeys • Productivity • Some evidence of animal “syntax”

10. Syntax (productivity?) in animals • Chickadees • A, B, C, D note calls • Notes always in right order, but different combinations • D notes may indicate predators or danger • Putty-nosed monkeys • “pyow” means leopard • “hack” means eagle • Males utter up to 3 pyows and up to 4 hacks in sequence; means “get the hell outta here!”

11. Communication vs Language • Can animal communication be classed as language? • Semantics • By definition, “signals” have meaning • Arbitrariness • Not always – e.g. Vervet monkeys • Productivity • Some evidence of animal “syntax” • Displacement • Bee dance shows spatial displacement • But, to be language, all 4 properties must be met... Not just 1 or 2

12. Why communicate? • Communication is the backbone of all social activity • Mating • Caring for offspring • Foraging • Safety • Cooperation? Deception? • How has evolution shaped communication patterns? • More on this when we talk about morality

13. Why language? • What is adaptive about language? • Why evolve language as opposed to relying on (simpler) communication? • Hard to address this issue since only humans are agreed to have language • Memes and social/cultural transmission • Effect of language on cognitive abilities

14. Social Transmission • Memes • Cultural analogue of genes • “unit” of cultural ideas, symbols or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another • Did language evolve to allow for social and cultural transmission? • More efficient social learning

15. Social Transmission • Social/cultural transmission can occur without language • Japanese macaques • Potato washing behaviour • Started by 1 monkey, now common • New Caledonian Crows • Tool manufacture • Pandanus tool varies according to geographic area

16. Effect on cognitive abilities • Study adaptiveness of language by looking at how it affects various abilities • How to “get rid” of language during an experiment? • Verbal shadowing tasks

17. Effect on cognitive abilities • Does spatial language (e.g. “left”, “right”) affect use of feature? • Adults doing a verbal shadowing task revert to geometry • Hermer-Vazquez, Spelke, and Katsnelson (1999) • But... Some animals without language (e.g. fish) can use both geometry and features adults Rats, children Example: Geometric module

18. Questions to consider • Is language and communication distinct processes, or is language just a specialized form of communication? • Is there a continuum? • To what extent does language affect our cognitive abilities? Does this make us significantly different from other species?

19. What is learned? Forms of communication Teaching animals human language

20. “If a lion could talk, we could not understand him” • Wittgenstein,1919, Philsophical Investigations

21. Forms of communication • Olfactory communication

22. Forms of communication • Visual communication • Handicapping signals • Colour changes • Body language • Bee waggle dance

23. Forms of communication • Vocal communication • Vocal calls • Alarm, roars, hisses, etc • Songs • Human language

24. Can animals learn human language? • Initial attempts to teach apes language failed • Anatomical constraints • Lack of vocal cords, different control of lips and tongue • Later attempts used other formats • American Sign Language • Lexigrams

25. Ape Language • Washoe • Raised by husband-wife researcher team; Gardners • Trained with ASL • 250 signs • Novel combinations? • Swan = water bird • NimChimpsky • Herb Terrace • ~150 signs • Long utterances, but repetitive • No linguistic grammar or structure

26. Ape Language • Kanzi • Bonobo • Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was teaching Kanzi’s mother to use lexigram • Kanzi learned symbols • Able to answer novel questions

27. How is language acquired?

28. Learning Language • Critical Periods • Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour • Changes in language and “verbal behaviour” can result from reinforcement histories • Language Acquisition Device • Postulated brain “organ” for learning language • An innate capacity to learn language

29. Vocal Learners • Several animals learn communication through exposure to parents/conspecifics • Humans, bats, parrots, hummingbirds, songbirds, elephants, cetaceous whales and dolphins • Cross-fostered birds will learn songs of foster species • Physical interaction is important