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Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Sound of Voices

An interesting question was asked of me:
If someone isn't taught a language (due to neglect or not) what do their thoughts sound like?

I've always found this subject intriguing. I first really began thinking about it when I read Bruce Perry's The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, which is an emotional book revealing a few of the children Dr. Perry has seen in his career as a psychologist. The title chapter details a little boy named Justin who was, quite literally, raised as a dog. He was placed in a dog cage and rarely spoken to. Due to years of this treatment, his brain began to deteriorate and he began to only communicate with people in the only way he knew how: as a dog. He would moan and wail, and had absolutely no social skills of which to speak. Gradually Dr. Perry was able to communicate with Justin and begin to nurture him. Eventually Justin was placed in a foster home and his development rapidly increased with the amount of care he was given.

I find this fascinating because the little boy simply did not know language. Of course he had to have thoughts - it is impossible for one to not have thoughts - but what did they sound like? Might they have been action thoughts (eg. imagining oneself as yawning instead of thinking "I'm tired")? I think this must be the case, especially when it comes to the deaf. They do not have a verbal language - it is all physical. Their thoughts must be physical.

Or maybe a person can still think in sounds even if one cannot hear them (such as Beethoven). But when it comes to being without a language - without words with which to communicate - perhaps thoughts are actionally based.

More research needs to be done on this.

On an unrelated note, an ant next to me was carrying a fellow ant, which was dead, on his back whilst trying to find his anthill. In which language do animals and insects think?

30 comments:

  1. A side note: Here is an excerpt from the book:
    http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Excerpt-from-The-Boy-Who-Was-Raised-as-a-Dog/1

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  2. Great great topic. I wonder what EEG's of language-less individuals look like, I'm sure it must have been at least an esoteric research topic.

    Ants I believe communicate chemically and through touch. This is what they're doing when they're layin' their antennae all over each other

    Just found your blog. Following

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  3. That is interesting. I know people who know several languages and sometimes it seems as though their thoughts are slow. It is because they are sorting out which language to think in.


    It is hard to know what it would be like and even harder to research.

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  4. I've asked my Little Chinese Roommate which language she thinks in, and without hesitating she said "Chinese." Makes sense, as it's her first language.
    But I would think that multi-lingual people would think "slower" because they are translating everything in their brains, no?

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  5. wow, that was deep when it came to the ant. great questions and insights raised when it comes to language.

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  6. This really is an incredible bit of insight. Thank you.

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  7. If it isn't language, I'd think they would just picture it, by actions

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  8. Thoughts can be as fast as electrical impulses which means that they're instantaneous. The biggest lag to expressing one's thoughts is the expression of it in the form of words, and after that it's the context in which they are to be used. So to say that one's thoughts are slower because of multilingualism is kinda funny as I believe that it's more prevalent and insightful to examine context. :D

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  9. I guess I didn't really mean slower in the slow sense; I meant it would take longer to respond because one needs to translate in one's mind, you know?I'm sure with practice it becomes easier.

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  10. Well, since someone doesn't know a language, they can't form thoughts, they cant organize their thoughts, so they would be like animals, only acting by the instinct.

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  11. I've thought about this as well.. Weird hey. I guess the thoughts would be the same as animals. But does that make the person stupid?

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  12. @mindless, you don't think animals have thoughts? I don't think they react solely on instinct. If they did, your pets would never really love you. They'd just be feral. I think they can learn things instead of just being completely instinctual.
    @zach I don't think it makes them stupid, just unevolved. Read ^^

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  13. The only thing I see wrong with trying to research how people without a language think is... If they have no language how would they convey what their thoughts were like to them? As to how do animals think, I think that some of the smarter ones have a basic language based on noises and pheromones but there are definitely some animals out there that rely mostly on instinct.

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  14. Raymond, I think that's why it hasn't really been studied. Because it seems an impossible feat. I did find this though. It talks about what thoughts look like.
    http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/calcium_imaging_what_does_a_thought_look_like/

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  15. Great question, on a similar note - how does a blind person think? What dio they see in their minds' eye?

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  16. I would think that a blind person would think in textures. For example, instead of visualizing someone's face, you think about the way their grooves feel on your fingers

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  17. I would imagine that the thoughts would be very raw, basically just pure emotion. Language is something that is taught to us and can be used as a tool to process these emotions, make sense of them, and communicate them. So without language, the thoughts would resemble "emotions" more so than they would resemble paragraphs. IMO.

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  18. That's an interesting point. I had neglected to think of any sort of language as a filter. I think your point absolutely fits.

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  19. People who were born without sight because of cataracts were doomed to remain blind until a process to remove them was developed. When these people who were blind their entire lives could finally see again some studies were done. In these studies the formerly blind people were asked to pick the spherical object out of a panel of three objects, however it wasn't until they could pick up and feel them that the formerly blind could tell which one was round. I think this lends some credit to the fact that the blind think in textures.

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  20. I dont think anyone necessarily thinks in any sort of language. Yes we all think but I feel as if instead of actual words, we just automatically know what we think.

    Another theory that I have is that everyone instinctively knows body language, so that picture in their head of themselves yawning would be body language telling them they're tired, but back to my first theory they already knew they were tired before that image of them yawning...

    I cant really put it into words but I think I made it remotely understandable.

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  21. I've always wondered this. I guess it would be the same way animals think. But how do animals think? Do they just respond to impulses around them? hmm. Great blog!

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  22. I think I understand what you're saying; the thought occurs to us before our brains put it into any language. I guess my main point, which I failed to verbalize, was when a person talks to oneself what does it sound like. For me, it sounds like Morgan Freeman (haha, I wish), but it's all in English. If I want to say something in isiXhosa or French I have to think about what I want to say in English and then translate it, in my head, into Xhosa or French, and then tell my mouth to say it (but first I have to get the nerve to actually say something in another language).

    I don't think everyone instinctively knows body language. There are some actions that are universal: smiling, crying, even the pee-dance; but I think that most body languages have to be taught in order to be understood. Things such as social cues are different everywhere and have to be learned and adapted.

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  23. @MentalMania306, I think I talk about what I think animals do a little ways up :)

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  24. It's really sad what some people will do to kids. :(

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  25. It really is a travesty. But, to see a silver lining, it's incredible what the human body can be put through.

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  26. Hm... that's an interesting question I never thought of.

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  27. I have often wondered this myself. Then the other question that pops into my head is, if somebody is raised with 2 or more languages spoken, what do they think in their head. spanish? english? (if those were the two they were raised on) life is funny!

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  28. I've heard that people think in the language they most frequently use, when they are bilingual or multilingual. I knew someone who grew up speaking Russian and English the same amounts, and she told me that her thoughts would change from English to Russian. But I feel like it wouldn't be that noticeable, if you were fluent in both languages, to have the languages change back and forth in your mind? Hm.

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