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Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

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Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
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Language Development01:22

Language Development

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Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
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Language01:16

Language

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Language is a unique communication system that uses words and systematic rules to organize and transmit information. Unlike other forms of communication, which may involve postures, movements, odors, or vocalizations, language relies on symbols and grammar. This makes human communication distinct from that of other species, who also communicate but do not use language in the same way humans do.
Corballis and Suddendorf (2007) and Tomasello and Rakoczy (2003) highlight the role of language in...
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Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

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Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
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Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language01:10

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

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Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
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Lateralization01:28

Lateralization

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Brain lateralization refers to the division of mental processes and functions between the two hemispheres of the brain, a phenomenon that optimizes neural efficiency and underpins complex abilities in humans. This specialization allows each hemisphere to perform tasks where it has a comparative advantage, facilitating more refined cognitive capabilities across different domains.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 13, 2025

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Individual Differences in Learning Abilities Impact Structure Addition: Better Learners Create More Structured

Tamar Johnson1,2, Noam Siegelman2,3, Inbal Arnon2

  • 1Centre for Language Evolution, University of Edinburgh.

Cognitive Science
|August 2, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Better language learners tend to add more structure to artificial languages. This suggests a strong link between learning accuracy and generalization, impacting theories of language change.

Keywords:
Artificial language learningIndividual differencesLanguage evolutionLanguage learningLinguistic structureStatistical learning

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Computational Linguistics

Background:

  • Iterated learning studies show linguistic structure can emerge from unstructured input via transmission.
  • Individual differences in structure addition are key to understanding agents of language change.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test contrasting predictions on the relationship between learning accuracy and structure addition.
  • To investigate whether better learners are more likely to add structure.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments used a one-generation artificial language learning paradigm.
  • Adults (N=48 per study) learned a semi-regular artificial language.
  • Learning accuracy was assessed on seen items; structure addition on unseen items.

Main Results:

  • A strong positive correlation was found between learning accuracy and structure addition.
  • Individuals who learned the language better also produced more structured languages.
  • This supports the prediction that learning is a prerequisite for structure addition.

Conclusions:

  • Language learning and generalization are strongly linked.
  • Better learners are the primary agents of structure addition in language change.
  • Findings have implications for iterated language models and theories of language evolution.