How do we use symbols to construct and reconstruct our internal realities? We sit down with the two new cohosts of The Monkey Dance, Mariem Diané and Xueyi Yao, to talk about the relationship between language and memory and the importance of symbols in abstract thought. We cover a lot of ground, going from temporal perception and learning to social dynamics and the mitigation of uncertainty from early childhood to adulthood.
Show Notes:
Broad topics covered in the episode in the order they appear:
Memory and Language:
Delving into how language shapes memory, particularly through a phenomenon called representational momentum, where people predict the future state of an object based on its motion, sometimes leading to misremembering the object's position or state.
Exploring how different grammatical tenses can influence memory recall, such as using the perfect tense or imperfect tense to affect how events like melting ice or burning logs are remembered.
Prediction and Cognition:
Examining the role of prediction in cognition, where mental models of future events can influence the recollection of past experiences.
Debating whether memory is shaped by predictions of the future or whether it is mutable, constantly being reconstructed based on current perceptions and expectations.
Symbolic Representation:
Shifting to how objects in the world can be interpreted as symbols in various contexts, particularly how children interpret and learn from their environment.
Touching on how symbols and nonverbal communication play a crucial role in generalizing knowledge and categorizing objects and actions.
Developmental Psychology and Humor:
Exploring how infants use humor and play as part of their learning process, with humor seen as a tool for breaking expectations and understanding social rules and behavior.
Highlighting how children are sensitive to social cues, such as when adults are joking or pretending, and how humor can sometimes override other cognitive functions like learning.
Attachment Theory and Memory:
Discussing attachment theory, particularly how memories of childhood and parental relationships can evolve over time through self-reflection.
Exploring how memory is reconstructed and how early attachment might influence behavior and relationships later in life.
Diverse Experiences in Academia:
Touching on the experiences of being a minority in academia, discussing the pressures of representing communities, the intellectual challenges faced, and confronting stereotypes.
Philosophy of Science:
Reflecting on the importance of theory in science, stressing the need for solid theoretical frameworks and the preference for epistemic approaches rooted in evidence and empirical models over "folk psychological" concepts.