Language and Cognition for the MCAT: Everything You Need to Know
/Learn key MCAT concepts about language and cognition, plus practice questions and answers
(Note: This guide is part of our MCAT Psychology and Sociology series.)
Part 1: Introduction to language and cognition
Part 2: Language
a) Components of language
b) Language acquisition
c) Language disorders
Part 3: Cognitive development
a) Piaget’s theory of development
b) Dual-coding theory
c) Information processing model
Part 4: Cognition and intelligence
a) Theories of intelligence
b) Attention
c) Problem-solving
Part 5: High-yield terms
Part 6: Passage-based questions and answers
Part 7: Standalone questions and answers
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Part 1: Introduction to language and cognition
Our brain uses sensory information from the environment to understand the world around us. Cognition refers to the way our brain processes and interprets the information presented by our environment. This processing can be both automatic or intentional.
Language is a tool that allows us to communicate our cognitive processes with other humans. The power of language facilitates thought about objects that are not in our immediate vicinity or events that may occur in the future. However, language is complex and requires special cognitive processes to understand and process.
These two topics are high-yield. Throughout the guide, you will find bolded terms that are defined at the end. Let’s begin!
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Part 2: Language
a) Components of language
Language can be broadly defined as units of words that are organized according to hierarchical rules. A phoneme is the smallest unit of a language and refers to units of speech sounds. Various phonemes may combine together to form a word. Differentiating between phonemes and other naturally produced sounds is a difficult task that is achieved as children learn categorical perception.
Phonemes can be constructed to form words by following a certain morphology. In linguistics, morphology refers to units within a word that can alter its meaning, such as prefixes, suffixes, and verb tenses.
Words can be strung together to form meaningful sentences. Different orderings of words can have different meanings (or nonsensical meanings), depending on the syntax of a language. Syntax may include the grammar rules of a language, which dictate a conventional way to order parts of speech in a sentence.
While syntax provides a set of rules to create a legitimate sentence, the ability to derive meaning from a sentence depends on pragmatics. Pragmatics refers to the prior meaning and contextual knowledge that speakers of a language share. The ability to convey meaning is reliant on a shared vocabulary. Semantics, or the meanings of words, plays a critical role in relating what is shared through language to the real world.
b) Language acquisition
Language acquisition occurs rapidly during the infant and childhood years. Beginning from the early months of life, infants begin to babble. Children gradually acquire language at a slow pace until the language explosion occurs around the second year of life. During this period of time, vocabulary words are learned at a rapid pace.
There are several theories as to how language is obtained. The social interactionist theory states that language acquisition is driven by the desire of children to interact with their environment and others. This theory places brain development and social play at the center of language acquisition.
The nativist (or biological) theory states that humans have an innate ability to speak and use language. This theory centers upon a hypothesized language acquisition device, a specialized neurological pathway that allows young children to automatically acquire language by observing the world around them.
As the nativist theory of language acquisition depends on physiological development, the theory also supports the existence of a critical period for language acquisition. This critical period is typically from late infancy (e.g., 2 to 3 years old) to early adulthood (marked by the onset of puberty). After this period ends, it becomes much more difficult to learn a language, which may explain why adult language learners must make a much more conscious effort to acquire a foreign language.
The learning (or behaviorist) theory proposes that language is acquired through operant conditioning, or through a process of trial and error in which correct language is rewarded. Reinforcement from others of sounds that are most similar to the ones found in a language will encourage children to continue making similar sounds until these sounds are shaped into words. Although this theory may explain the gradual acquisition of language starting from vocabulary words and phonemes, it fails to explain the ability to create new sentence forms and structures.
Language is also essential to communicating our cognitive processes to others and allows us to explain the world around us to varying degrees of detail. The Whorfian hypothesis suggests that our perception of the world is somewhat shaped by the language we use. For instance, repeated use of pronouns within certain languages (such as English) may promote a perception of the world that is centered around individuals, whereas the exclusion of pronouns in other languages (such as Japanese) may lead speakers to have a more collectivistic view.
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