Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Baby Talk, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Inferior Frontal Gyrus

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Humans have the remarkable ability to create mental representations of the world and to manipulate them in the forms of language, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Mental representations include images, ideas, concepts, and principles. Language is called the jewel crown of cognition and the human essence it is absolutely priceless and mandatory for survival. Language consists of a system of symbols and rules for combining these symbols in ways that can generate an infinite number of possible messages and meanings. Psycholinguistics is the scientific study of the psychological aspects of language, such as how people understand, produce, and acquire language. Evolutionary theorists believe that language evolved as people formed larger social units: so as the social environment became more complex, the need to create social systems and communications became essential. As a result of social environmental issues, humans became highly evolved social creatures who need interaction (language is crucial for social adaptation)