Thought and language.

By D. Laplane. 1992

From aphasics' self records, common experience, changes in signification of sentences according to a verbal or non-verbal context, animals and non speaking children performances, it seems possible to get some evidence that thought is distinct from language even though there is a permanent interaction between both in normal adult human beings. Some considerations on formalisation of language suggests that the more formalised it is, the less information it contains. If it is true, it is not reasonable to hope that a formalised language like that used by computers may be a model for thought. Finally, the lack of status of thought, as far as it is a subjective experience and the impossibility of giving it a definition as far as it exceeds language, make it clear that in spite of progress in scientific psychology, thought, per se, is not an object for science.

Subfields: Cognitive Science & Psychology, Linguistics

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Science & Psychology

In Linguistics

Citations in the corpus

Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Models (2022, background): “This raises an intriguing possibility: beyond their ability to interpret natural language instructions, can language models further serve as reasoning models that combine multiple sources of feedback and become interactive problem solvers for embodied tasks, such as robotic manipulation? Prior studi”
Effects of teachers' reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary grades. (2002, background): “Sociolinguistic theory (Vygotsky, 1986) supports hypotheses favoring the two mediated styles, interactional and performance reading, because both include scaffolding that encourages applications of cognitive operations and internalization of the symbolic functions of written language through social…”
Dynamic Systems Theories as a Metaframework for Psychoanalysis (2005, background): “Good analytic work goes forward in the “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, 1962), an area distant enough from the current competences to present a challenge, but close enough to support the sense of emerging novelty.”
Prosocial Foundations of Children's Academic Achievement (2000, result): “Evidence that prosocialness is a prime predictor of later academic achievement is in accord with the ecological perspective of sociocognitive theories (Bandura, 1997; Vygotsky, 1962).”
Differentiating Instruction in Response to Student Readiness, Interest, and Learning Profile in Academically Diverse Classrooms: A Review of Literature (2003, background): “…Schoenfeld, 1991); helping students see relevance and utility in what they are learning (Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1996; Pintrich & Schunk, 1996; Vygotsky, 1986); student choice within teacher frameworks (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1988); shared management of learning; (Borko, Mayfield, Marion,…”
Conclusions about Interventions, Programs, and Approaches for Improving Executive Functions that appear Justified and those that, despite much hype, do not (2015, unknown): “That is onsistent with what Vygotsky (1986) called the “zone of proxial development,” the zone just beyond what one can do on one’s wn, but where with a little help from someone else one is able o succeed.”
Embodiment and embodied design (2014, background): “For example, when we imagine, we activate by-and-large the same parts of the brain as in actual seeing (Kosslyn, 2005).”
ENGINEERING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL INFANT: BRAIN SCIENCE, INFANT DEVELOPMENT TOYS, AND GOVERNMENTALITY (2002, background): “7 Studies of children’s cognitive development began at the turn of the century with studies by Binet and continued in the 1930s and 1940s with the work of Piaget (1983/1896), Vygotsky (1962) and Werner (1948).”
Design‐based science and student learning (2004, background): “…people construct new knowledge more effectively by contemplating their physical and mental actions while interacting with more knowledgeable others (Vygotsky, 1986), and in order to make sure that they are not heading off-track, the teacher critiques each group during this process of selecting and…”
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory in the context of globalization (2017, background): ““The true development of thinking is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual” (Vygotsky, 1986, p. 36).”