8 - Using and learning language

Summary

Accessibility and frequency

Summary of Section 4.1:

• Some concepts are more accessible than others because of our previous experiences of dealing with them; for example, concepts are more accessible if they're emotionally charged. The most important influence is the frequency effect: more frequently used concepts are more accessible. A helpful metaphor for explaining the effect of experience on concepts is strength: experience of using a concept strengthens it.

• ‘Strength’ in the mind corresponds to an activation level in the brain. According to the computational theory of mind, each (mental) concept is held by some pattern of neurons in the brain, where neurons have observable levels of activation. The relation between information in the mind and activation levels in the brain is best explained by neural networks.

• A concept's resting activation level reflects previous experiences, whereas its current activation level reflects the activity of current thinking.

We all know that some words can be frustratingly inaccessible. We know them, but just can't recall them when we need to.

The frequency effect

These hard to recall words are typically ones that we don't use every day, and are often words that we very rarely use, so frequency clearly plays at least some part in our problems.

This link between accessibility and frequency has been studied intensively in psychological laboratories, so I'll first explain how these experiments work.