Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Linguistic Relativity, Psycholinguistics, Representativeness Heuristic

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Laura Fazakas-de Hoog

Document Summary

In turn, these advanced cognitive processes build on the large store of knowledge that resides in memory, and they provide a foundation for intelligent behavior. Adaptive functions of language the brain probably achieved its present form some 50 000 years ago. The development of language made it easier for humans to adapt to these environmental demands. It is no coincidence, then, that every human culture, no matter how isolated or geographically remote, has developed one or more languages. Nor is it a coincidence that the human brain seems to have an inborn capacity to acquire any of the roughly 5000 to 6000 languages spoken across the globe. Through language, we are also able to share our thoughts, feelings, goals, intentions, desires, needs, and memories with other people and thus interact socially in rich and diverse ways that would not otherwise be possible. Instead, you simply ask for directions or read a map.