Reasoning and Language
1
2014-2015
01740125
Psychology
Portuguese
Face-to-face
SEMESTRIAL
6.0
Compulsory
1st Cycle Studies
Recommended Prerequisites
No prerequisites.
Teaching Methods
Lectures. Research project to be developed in groups.
Learning Outcomes
This unit is structured upon two organizing questions, one pertaining to the study of human language and the other to the study of human reasoning. Students are expected to acquire competences in producing answers to those questions, with respect to their historical underpinnings, the current state of the art, and research strategies/methodologies.
1. What are the main features of the representations and processes used by the human cognitive system to produce symbols of entities and events of the external world, which allow that information about these entities and events to be transmitted and interpreted by other cognitive systems?
2. What are the main features of the representations and processes used by the human cognitive system to make new assertions about the external world and estimating the truth value of such assertions, based on previously existing assertions and their truth value?
Work Placement(s)
NoSyllabus
Language
1. Theories and methods in the study of language: historical introduction
1.1 Taxonomic linguistics and the technical vocabulary of contemporary linguistics
1.2 Generative linguistics and the founding concepts of contemporary syntactic theory
1.3 The level of semantic analysis
2. The relationship between linguistics and psycholinguistics
3. Understanding language
3.1 Theories of speech perception
3.2 Mental lexicon theories
3.3 Theories of syntactic analysis
3.4 Theories of the meaning of words and sentences
3.5 Language production
Reasoning
1. Taxonomies of human thought
2. Theories and methods of the study of inference processes: historical introduction
3. Deductive reasoning
3.1 Elements of formal logic
3.2 Psychological theories of deduction
4. Inductive reasoning
4.1 Inductive “strength” vs. deductive validity
4.2 Normative models of probabilistic inference
4.3 The psychology of induction
Head Lecturer(s)
José Augusto Simões Gonçalves Leitão
Assessment Methods
Periodic
Report of the research project (group): 50.0%
Individual exam (multiple choice): 50.0%
Final
Exam: 100.0%
Bibliography
Fromkin, V., & Rodman, R. (1993). Introdução à linguagem. Coimbra: Almedina.
Manktelow, K. (1999). Reasoning and Thinking. Hove: Psychology Press.
Spinelli, E., & Ferrand, L. (2009). Psicologia da linguagem. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget Editora.
Traxler, M (2011). Introduction to psycholinguistics. Chichester:Wiley-Blackwell.