Psychology and Neuroscience Stack Exchange
Psychology and Neuroscience Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [language]

For questions about the psychology and neuroscience of the production and perception of oral and written language.

For questions about the psychology and neuroscience of the production and perception of oral and written language.

For further information see Language, Linguistics, and Language Acquisition.

See for more questions about language.

If your question is not related to the neurological or psychological bases of these phenomena, consider asking it on Linguistics.SE

148 questions
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How does a language deprived person think?

Question Let us say a person is deprived of language (of any form, including verbal and non-verbal) since birth to an age where normal adult brain functioning would be expected. Then how would they think? Additional information I have read accounts…
Quantum spaghettification
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Is it better to say "Don't forget" or "Remember" in written encouragement?

This is more of a subtlety and goes beyond general English Language & Usage and is more about the cognitive process surrounding the use of language. It seems like I heard once that, while it is common to say, using a phrase like "Don't forget" or…
Jim McKeeth
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How does language change the understanding of a complex concept?

For example, does breaking down a complex concept, initially described with scientific and uncommon terms, into less complex language degrade the understanding of the concept or can it maintain all it's relations and objects? How does using simple…
Greg McNulty
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Learning vocabulary: Is it better to learn the word through translations?

Suppose that you have a student that is bilingual. Take for example that the student speaks Chinese and English. Suppose that said student is very fluent in Chinese, but not so fluent in English. He/she can hold everyday conversations in English but…
CoffeeIsLife
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What is the linguistic equivalent of functional fixedness?

Recently, I saw a crossword clue: (5 letters) "They help you after a crash." After going through the list of EMTs, firemen, police officers, etc. I realized that the answer was "IT Guy." This seems to me, to be analogous to the phenomenon of…
Maz
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What is the fastest language to think in?

If you think in any language you're never misstaken on what word you mean even if there are many words that are spelled/pronounced the same. This causes a language with only one word meaning every possible word there is to work, in theory, if used…
Filip Haglund
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Chomskian view on grammar

The Chomskian view asserts that certain structural components of grammar are innate to all humans. To support the Chomskian view, the observation that we are able to omit certain pronouns in the English language without ever being taught the…
monoidaltransform
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What happens if you lie to a child during language acquisition?

During language acquisition a child can learn 20 words a day. What would happen if the parent decided to lie to the child during this time so that whenever the child said "what that?" the parent made up a random word. Would this permanently stay in…
zooby
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What are the limits of language with respect to communicating the actual reasons that go in making a decision?

Simon Sinek in his book 'Start With Why' claims how the brain might fail to communicate the actual reasons behind a made decision and instead at best rationalize it in retrospect (post hoc), due to the logic-emotion dichotomy (rational thought is a…
Uday Pratap Saroj
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What percentage of people are literal thinkers?

I have been told that only a small percentage of the population think literally but I can find no studies or statistics. This question is not about Lateral thinking (Edward de Bono- solving problems through an indirect and creative approach) A…
Felicity Mulhall
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How did the concepts of left and right direction develop in the human mind?

I hope this is the correct forum to ask; if not, please migrate to a better place. How did humans came to agree on a distinction between the directions "right" and "left"? I could think of two alternative ways: Biology: the right hand is usually…
Erel Segal-Halevi
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Are well-written warnings more likely to be heeded?

I claim that "warnings are more likely to be read and taken seriously, if they are well-written, without errors". Is this claim supported by psychological science? Like, a warning on a video showing risky extreme sports activities, to not try to…
Mark Galeck
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What are the possible causes of sometimes using incorrect word ordering when speaking?

A friend sometimes speaks with incorrect word ordering. However, he writes English at a professional level. How could this be? His vocabulary is fine, just the word ordering is weird sometimes when he speaks. I always understand his meaning. He…
user312440
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Which brain disorders cause better second language learning?

I heard that people with some types of synaesthesia may have advantage for learning second language. I don't know it is true or not. But in general which kind of brain disorders cause better second language learning especially in adults?
user33103
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