scholarly journals The cognitive functions of language

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Carruthers
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Theoretical Consideration ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Human Thinking

This paper explores a variety of different versions of the thesis that natural language is involved in human thinking. It distinguishes amongst strong and weak forms of this thesis, dismissing some as implausibly strong and others as uninterestingly weak. Strong forms dismissed include the view that language is conceptually necessary for thought (endorsed by many philosophers) and the view that language is de facto the medium of all human conceptual thinking (endorsed by many philosophers and social scientists). Weak forms include the view that language is necessary for the acquisition of many human concepts and the view that language can serve to scaffold human thought processes. The paper also discusses the thesis that language may be the medium of conscious propositional thinking, but argues that this cannot be its most fundamental cognitive role. The idea is then proposed that natural language is the medium for non-domain-specific thinking, serving to integrate the outputs of a variety of domain-specific conceptual faculties (or central-cognitive “quasi-modules”). Recent experimental evidence in support of this idea is reviewed and the implications of the idea are discussed, especially for our conception of the architecture of human cognition. Finally, some further kinds of evidence which might serve to corroborate or refute the hypothesis are mentioned. The overall goal of the paper is to review a wide variety of accounts of the cognitive function of natural language, integrating a number of different kinds of evidence and theoretical consideration in order to propose and elaborate the most plausible candidate.

Modularity, language, and the flexibility of thought

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 705-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Carruthers
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
Present Response

The present response elucidates, elaborates, and defends the main thesis advanced in the target article: namely, that natural-language sentences play a constitutive role in some human thought processes, and that they are responsible for some of the distinctive flexibility of human thinking, serving to integrate the outputs of a variety of conceptual modules. Section R1 clarifies and elaborates this main thesis, responding to a number of objections and misunderstandings. Section R2 considers three contrasting accounts of the mechanism of intermodular integration. Section R3 discusses objections to some of the empirical data supporting my main thesis. Section R4 criticizes some competing theories of the role of language in cognition. And section R5 considers some proposed supplementary cognitive roles that language might play.

Domain-generality and the relative pronoun

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 676-677
Author(s):  
José Luis Bermudez
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Domain Generality ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Target Paper

The hypothesis in the target paper is that the cognitive function of language lies in making possible the integration of different types of domain-specific information. The case for this hypothesis must consist, at least in part, of a constructive proposal as to what feature or features of natural language allows this integration to take place. This commentary suggests that the vital linguistic element is the relative pronoun and the possibility it affords of forming relative clauses.

Science Regained [1962]

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Aubenque
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Motion Time ◽  
First Philosophy

Pierre Aubenque’s “Science Regained” (1962; translated by Clayton Shoppa) was originally published as the concluding chapter of Le Problème de l’Être chez Aristote, one of the most important and original books on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. In this essay, Aubenque contends that the impasses which beset the project of first philosophy paradoxically become its greatest accomplishments. Although science stabilizes motion and thereby introduces necessity into human cognition, human thought always occurs amidst an inescapable movement of change and contingency. Aristotle’s ontology, as a discourse that strives to achieve being in its unity, succeeds by means of the failure of the structure of its own approach: the search of philosophy – dialectic – becomes the philosophy of the search. Aubenque traces this same structure of scission, mediation, and recovery across Aristotelian discussions of theology, motion, time, imitation, and human activity.

NONSENSE, ABSURDITY AND PARADOX AS LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CATEGORIES

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ontological Category ◽  
Ordinary Meaning ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Human Thinking

In the article the analysis of nonsense, absurdity and paradox from the standpoint of linguistics is giv-en. Different points of view on these categories in relation to the meaning are considered. An attempt is made to reveal the commonality and specificity of nonsense, absurdity and paradox. Some researchers consider nonsense and paradox as a kind of absurdity. There is a dichotomous point of view on nonsense as one of the components of absurdity. However, there are works where these categories are differentiat-ed, for example, absurdity is understood as an ontological category, and nonsense as an epistemological category. There is a view of these categories through the allocation of "non-sense", "out-sense" and 136 "counter-sense" there is also a view that in the case of nonsense we are talking about the incompatibility of representations, and in the case of absurdity-the incompatibility of objects. If there are criteria that allow us to consider the presence of this phenomenon as natural, absurdity ceases to exist. Consequently, the view is expressed that nonsense, absurdity and paradox are different categories of thinking. Paradox is a contradiction arising from the presence of two or more common sense. The absurdity can be seen as a" counter-sense» opposing common sense and putting forward the concept of active impossibility of the latter's existence. As for nonsense, it is the meaning of metaphysical level – a meaning that goes beyond the ordinary meaning and creates new meanings. It is concluded that nonsense, absurdity and paradox are independent categories of human thinking, which is a manifestation of the cognitive function of hu-man consciousness.

Moderate to heavy infections ofTrichuris trichiuraaffect cognitive function in Jamaican school children

Parasitology ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nokes ◽  
S. M. Grantham-McGregor ◽  
A. W. Sawyer ◽  
E. S. Cooper ◽  
B. A. Robinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
School Children ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
Placebo Trial

A double-blind placebo trial was conducted to determine the effect of moderate to high loads ofTrichuris trichiura(whipworm) infection on the cognitive functions of 159 school children (age 9–12 years) in Jamaica. Infected children were randomly assigned to Treatment or Placebo groups. A third group of randomly selected uninfected children were assigned to a Control for comparative purposes. The improvement in cognitive function was evaluated using a stepwise multiple linear regression, designed to control for any confounding variables. The expulsion of worms led to a significant improvement in tests of auditory short-term memory (P< 0.02;P< 0.01), and a highly significant improvement in the scanning and retrieval of long-term memory (P< 0.001). After 9 weeks, treated children were no longer significantly different from an uninfected Control group in these three tests of cognitive function. The removal ofT. trichiurawas more important thanAscaris lumbricoidesin determining this improvement. The results suggest that whipworm infection has an adverse effect on certain cognitive functions which is reversible by therapy.

scholarly journals Differential effects of body mass index on domain-specific cognitive outcomes after stroke

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minwoo Lee ◽  
Mi Sun Oh ◽  
San Jung ◽  
Ju-Hun Lee ◽  
Chul-Ho Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Stroke Survivors ◽  
Word Fluency ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Z Scores

AbstractAlthough the obesity paradox is an important modifiable factor in cardiovascular diseases, little research has been conducted to determine how it affects post-stroke cognitive function. We aimed to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and domain-specific cognitive outcomes, focusing on the subdivision of each frontal domain function in post-ischemic stroke survivors. A total of 335 ischemic stroke patients were included in the study after completion of the Korean-Mini Mental Status Examination (K-MMSE) and the vascular cognitive impairment harmonization standards neuropsychological protocol at 3 months after stroke. Frontal lobe functions were analyzed using semantic/phonemic fluency, processing speed, and mental set shifting. Our study participants were categorized into four groups according to BMI quartiles. The z-scores of K-MMSE at 3 months differed significantly between the groups after adjustment for initial stroke severity (p = 0.014). Global cognitive function in stroke survivors in the Q1 (the lowest quartile) BMI group was significantly lower than those in Q2 and Q4 (the highest quartile) BMI groups (K-MMSE z-scores, Q1: − 2.10 ± 3.40 vs. Q2: 0.71 ± 1.95 and Q4: − 1.21 ± 1.65). Controlled oral word association test findings indicated that phonemic and semantic word fluency was lower in Q4 BMI group participants than in Q2 BMI group participants (p = 0.016 and p = 0.023 respectively). BMI might differentially affect cognitive domains after ischemic stroke. Although being underweight may negatively affect global cognition post-stroke, obesity could induce frontal lobe dysfunctions, specifically phonemic and semantic word fluency.

Milton's Alleged Ramism

PMLA ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 67 (7) ◽  
pp. 1035-1053
Author(s):  
P. Albert Duhamel
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
Practical Deliberation ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Recent Scholarship

Recent scholarship has tended to overstress Milton's adherence to Ramism and to overlook his significant deviations in both theory and practice. The distrust of the human thought processes in theoretical or practical deliberation and the faith in the immediate intuitive perception of logical relations, which is the ultra-spiritual epistemology implied throughout the Ramistic logics, were much more in keeping with the enthusiasm of the radical sects of the seventeenth century than with the rationalism of Milton. Milton was an independent thinker in logical matters as elsewhere and the balance of scholarly evaluation is in need of some readjustment.

Predictive value of atrial fibrillation catheter ablation on cognitive functions in patients with chronic heart failure

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-81
Author(s):  
T. V. Zolotarova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Heart Failure ◽  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Catheter Ablation ◽  
Chronic Heart Failure ◽  
Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
Left Ventricular Ejection ◽  
Ventricular Ejection Fraction

Atrial fibrillation (AF) directly leads to a cognitive function decline regardless of the cerebrovascular fatal events, but it is unclear whether the sinus rhythm restoration and reducing the AF burden can reduce the rate of this decreasement. Data on the effect of radiofrequency ablation on patients’ cognitive functions are conflicting and need to be studied. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic value of atrial fibrillation radiofrequency catheter ablation on cognitive functions in patients with chronic heart failure with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction. The impact of AF radiofrequency catheter ablation on cognitive function in 136 patients (mean age 59.7 ± 8.6 years) with chronic heart failure with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction and compared with 58 patients in the control group (58.2 ± 8.1 years), which did not perform ablation and continued the tactics of drug antiarrhythmic therapy was investigated. Cognitive function was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Test (MoCA) at the enrollment stage and 2 years follow-up. Decreased cognitive function was defined as a MoCA test score < 26 points, cognitive impairment < 23 points. Two years after the intervention, there was a positive dynamics (baseline MoCA test — 25,1 ± 2,48, 2-year follow-up — 26,51 ± 2,33, p < 0,001) in the ablation group and negative in the control group (25,47 ± 2,85 and 24,57 ± 3,61, respectively, p < 0,001). Pre-ablation cognitive impairment was significantly associated with improved cognitive function 2 years after AF ablation according to polynomial regression analysis. The obtained data suggest a probable positive effect of AF radiofrequency ablation on cognitive functions in patients with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction.

scholarly journals STIMULATION OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS OF PSYCHE BY MEANS OF ONLINE GAMES

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Оlena Kovalova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Online Games ◽  
Theoretical Justification ◽  
Training Memory ◽  
Effectiveness Of Training ◽  
Training Success ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Stimulation Of

The article presents the results of testing of the developed online-training of cognitive functions of the brain, which was implemented on a separately created game platform using a set of specially developed games. The proposed results reveal the theoretical justification of the cognitive functions, which are selected for training: memory, thinking, attention, imagination, perception. The characteristics of each cognitive function to be stimulated in the conditions of online games are highlighted. We described the algorithm for games evaluating according to certain cognitive functions and their characteristics. An analysis of the effectiveness of evaluation is given. The results of completing by players of game sessions balanced on the chosen cognitive functions are described. A comparison of the effectiveness of stimulation of different cognitive functions depending on the motivation and choice of players is presented. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of online games in activation and stimulation of the cognitive functions of the human psyche. The research methods were based on our own developed algorithm for training success estimation, analysis of the results of online games, methods of mathematical statistics. The results of the study are presented on the basis of approbation of the developed training, conducted during two years. The analysis of the implementation of the training revealed the dependence of the effectiveness of stimulation of cognitive functions on the motivation and choice of the player. It is shown that when training on a balanced set of games, where all cognitive functions are present in equal shares, the effectiveness of training is not uniform and not balanced. It is investigated that the effectiveness of training depends on the quality of the game's effect on cognitive function. In order to take into account this quality of influence, all games were divided into two classes: actively shaping and passively stimulating. The distribution of games by classes was experimentally confirmed. A generalized analysis of the game sessions of all players for six months revealed cognitive functions which for the most players were better developed and more stimulated.

scholarly journals From Text to Thought: How Analyzing Language Can Advance Psychological Science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Conrad Jackson ◽  
Joseph Watts ◽  
Johann-Mattis List ◽  
Ryan Drabble ◽  
Kristen Lindquist
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
The Mind

Humans have been using language for thousands of years, but psychologists seldom consider what natural language can tell us about the mind. Here we propose that language offers a unique window into human cognition. After briefly summarizing the legacy of language analyses in psychological science, we show how methodological advances have made these analyses more feasible and insightful than ever before. In particular, we describe how two forms of language analysis—comparative linguistics and natural language processing—are already contributing to how we understand emotion, creativity, and religion, and overcoming methodological obstacles related to statistical power and culturally diverse samples. We summarize resources for learning both of these methods, and highlight the best way to combine language analysis techniques with behavioral paradigms. Applying language analysis to large-scale and cross-cultural datasets promises to provide major breakthroughs in psychological science.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document