Language & Thought (AQA GCSE Psychology): Flashcards

A maturational theory is one where children will only learn new words or grammatical structures when they are ready, which largely depends on their age — this is how Piaget described his theory of language and thought.

According to Piaget, thought precedes language — a child’s understanding of objects or concepts must come before they can name them.

False.

Piaget argued that if a child is taught a new word without context, the learning is meaningless — e.g. a child can be taught to repeat the word ‘banana’, but if they don’t know it is a fruit that can be eaten, no real learning has taken place.

Children build the foundations of language throughout Piaget’s sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2), typically saying their first words towards the end of this stage.

Children build on their schemas and use symbols (such as words) to represent objects, which is how language develops.

Symbolic play is a form of imaginative play where children use props to symbolise other things, e.g. a child pretends a mop is his friend Bobby and invents a conversation between them.

False.

Egocentrism is evidence of a child’s inability to take on the viewpoint or perspective of another person; this recedes during the concrete operational stage from age 7 onwards.

Children often use two-word phrases like ‘Daddy cup’ before they can speak fully, showing they understand the relationship between objects or people before they can express it in words.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis argues the opposite of Piaget's theory — that language comes before thought and shapes what people are able to think about.

One weakness is that Piaget’s theory is difficult to measure, as there is no way of knowing when or if a child’s specific schema has developed, meaning the theory is not reliable.

Poverty, nutrition, culture and education are environmental factors that can cause children’s language development to progress differently.

True.

Piaget’s stage theory sets out the ages at which children learn specific cognitive skills, one of which is language.

Linguistic relativity is the idea that people from different cultures think differently based on their cultural experiences, which is reflected in the language they use.

If a language has no words for an object, idea or event, the strong version claims a person cannot think about it — language determines thought.

False.

Piaget believed that thought precedes language — it is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that argues language precedes and produces thought.

Piaget believed that language depends on thought, meaning thoughts provide the context in which language can develop.

The strong version states that language determines thought, so a person’s worldview and perspective are fixed by the structure, content and quality of the language they learn from birth.

The Inuit have several distinct words for snow, such as qanik (falling snow), aputi (ground snow) and aniu (drinking water snow), compared with only one word for snow in English.

False.

The weak version claims that language influences thought, but does not 100% produce it.

The weak version of the SWH suggests you can have a concept of something, such as being in prison, without having direct experience of it.

It means that although Inuit snow words such as ‘qanik’ are easy for English speakers to visualise, language still helps to shape how thought is structured, rather than fully producing it.

Bernstein (1961) argued that working-class children tend to use a restricted code, while middle-class children tend to use an elaborated code.

This difference in language use between working-class and middle-class children affects their thinking and their ability to succeed in school — supporting the idea that language influences thought.

True.

People who speak more than one language fluently do not necessarily think differently per language, which challenges the strong version of the SWH.

Pullum (1989) argued that English also has multiple words for snow, such as hail, slush and sleet, which weakens the SWH’s snow example.

Even if the Inuit really do have more words for snow, this doesn’t mean the words came first — living in a snowy environment likely created the need for the finer distinctions, so thought (or need) drove the vocabulary, supporting Piaget’s view rather than Sapir-Whorf’s.

The SWH suggests that the language someone speaks has a direct effect on how they recall information.

English speakers can identify the perpetrator of accidental actions more than Spanish speakers, based on linguistic differences such as “She broke the vase” versus “The vase broke”.

False.

The Hopi language does not distinguish between time scales — it has no way of expressing past, present and future as separate entities.

The Hopi refer to one full day as a ‘sleep’ and a year as a winter.

Carmichael (1932) found that when participants were shown pictures with different descriptions and later asked to draw them, their drawings reflected the labels they had heard (e.g. those told ‘eyeglasses’ drew eyeglasses).

For the Hopi, time is linked to the phases of the moon and the movements of the sun, rather than clock time.

False.

Colour is perceived rather than simply seen, making it a subjective process that depends on environmental factors such as experience and culture.

Brown & Lenneberg (1954) studied the Zuni tribe of New Mexico and found that having only one word for yellow and orange shades affected their ability to recall those colours.

Roberson et al. (2000) found that the Berinmo people had difficulty recalling and distinguishing colours, as they have only five words for colours in their language.

They support the idea that language influences cognitive processes such as memory, as suggested by the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

False.

Whorf's conclusions were based almost entirely on one individual, Nuquayouma — other researchers have argued that Hopi recall of events, and understanding of past, present and future, is not that different from English speakers.

Carmichael et al.'s study used ambiguous images that could be drawn in more than one way, meaning the study may not generalise well to how language influences memory in everyday life.

This research has good application because the findings could be used to foster better understanding across cultures.

Culture affects many aspects of human experience — via ritual, beliefs, religion and habits — so it is highly likely to have an impact on language and thought, giving the theory good face validity.

Participants might have been able to distinguish the colours perfectly well but failed to communicate this to researchers because of a language barrier, rather than genuinely lacking the ability to recognise them.