ABSTRACT
Cognitive psychologists study more than memory, consciousness, and heuristic judgments. Some of the most hotly-debated topics in cognitive psychology have to do with language, and the many things we can do with it. Language refers to the use of abstract symbols – most often spoken or written words – to communicate with others. You may recall from the module on motivation that we seem to have evolved a unique talent for using spoken language. Kids pick up spoken language effortlessly – and without even knowing they are doing it. Experts on language love to use their words to debate exactly why this is the case. This essay discusses language and reasoning, including Brown and Berko’s “wug test,” overregularization, fast mapping, the Universal Features of Language, Sapir-Whorf linguistic relativity hypothesis, animal intelligence, and the limitations of human reasoning.
