(Stillness in the Storm Editor) Communication is arguably one of the most important aspects of human life. Like the ability to learn, or face challenging situations, as social creatures, each of us must find a way to communicate, or suffer isolation. The following article cites a study wherein deaf people are observed in their ability to spontaneously form new ways of communicating.
This is important and uplifting to consider. One would think a deaf person would be disillusioned and weary, less willing to put effort into being heard because it’s so difficult. But those deaf people who push through the hardship, embrace the reality, despite the seeming unfairness of this life situation, and forge ahead, have their voices heard, so to speak.
I would say, we can take a page from their book. All too often we justify not sharing our truths, being assertive, or making our voice heard because it’s difficult. We might lose hope and give up entirely, which costs us dearly. But surely if someone who’s deaf can manage to figure out a way to have their voice be heard, we can too.
What’s more, the study suggests our brain is yearning to embrace new ways of communicating. It might be awkward at first, it might take time to perfect, but once you start, the effort of moving things down the hill gets easier and easier. Psychologically, if you lose faith in your ability to speak and be heard, it often breads depression, anxiety, and a general loathing of reality itself.
I also know that many people suffer from the scourge of social isolation, feeling that no one in their lives truly cares about their plight or wants to hear them. To be sure, in the modern age, there is a plague of carelessness, fueled by an oversensitivity to offense. In the “safety of political correctness,” we dare not say something or express ourselves if it comes at the loss of social status. But we need to or else our soul dies and we become toxic.
Surprisingly, when bravery compels us to share of ourselves despite these external conditions, we act as a force that creates a new “safe space” for sharing. At a very deep level, one of the challenges of human life is to dare to speak your truth, and be willing to harmonize it with others, so that all can be accepted, embraced, and heard. Our bravery creates a true culture of unity, inclusion, and acceptance. This is what real free speech is all about.
So while this study doesn’t speak directly of these things, it highlights brain mechanisms that we can recall in times of fear, which is that in the hour, the words will come to us, so long as we exercise the mental muscle.
– Justin
(Science Daily) How did the almost 6000 languages of the world come into being?
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by Staff Writer, December 3rd, 2019
Researchers from the Leipzig Research Centre for Early Childhood Development at Leipzig University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have tried to simulate the process of developing a new communication system in an experiment — with surprising results: even preschool children can spontaneously develop communication systems that exhibit core properties of natural language.
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How the languages of the world emerged is largely a mystery. Considering that it might have taken millennia, it is intriguing to see how deaf people can create novel sign languages spontaneously. Observations have shown that when deaf strangers are brought together in a community, they come up with their own sign language in a considerably short amount of time. The most famous example of this is Nicaraguan Sign Language, which emerged in the 1980s. Interestingly, children played an important role in the development of these novel languages. However, how exactly this happened has not been documented, as Manuel Bohn describes: “We know relatively little about how social interaction becomes language. This is where our new study comes in.”
In a series of studies, researchers at the Leipzig Research Centre for Early Childhood Development and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology attempted to recreate exactly this process. The idea had been around for quite some time, says Gregor Kachel. But there was a problem: how to make children communicate with each other without them reverting to talking to each other? The solution came up in Skype conversations between the two researchers from Germany and their colleague Michael Tomasello in the US. In the study, children were invited to stay in two different rooms and a Skype connection was established between them. After a brief familiarization with the set-up, the researchers sneakily turned off the sound and watched as the children found new ways of communicating that go beyond spoken language.
The children’s task was to describe an image with different motifs in a coordination game. With concrete things — like a hammer or a fork — children quickly found a solution by imitating the corresponding action (e.g. eating) in a gesture. But the researchers repeatedly challenged the children with new, more abstract pictures. For example, they introduced a white sheet of paper as a picture. The depicted “nothing” is difficult to imitate. Kachel describes how two children nevertheless mastered this task: “The sender first tried all sorts of different gestures, but her partner let her know that she did not know what was meant. Suddenly our sender pulled her T-shirt to the side and pointed to a white dot on her coloured T-shirt. The two had a real breakthrough: of course! White! Like the white paper! Later, when the roles were switched, the recipient didn’t have a white spot on her T-shirt, but she nevertheless took the same approach: she pulled her T-shirt to the side and pointed to it. Immediately her partner knew what to do.” Within a very short time, the two had established a sign for an abstract concept. In the course of the study, the images to be depicted became more and more complex, which was also reflected in the gestures that the children produced. In order to communicate, for example, an interaction between two animals, children invented separate gestures for actors and actions and began to combine them — thus creating a kind of small local grammar.
How does a language emerge? Based on the present study, the following steps appear plausible: first, people create reference to actions and objects via signs that resemble things. The prerequisite for this is a common ground of experience between interaction partners. Partners also coordinate by imitating each other such that they use the same signs for the same things. The signs thus gain interpersonal and eventually conventional meaning. Over time, the relationships between the signs and things become more abstract and the meaning of the individual signs more specific. Grammatical structures are gradually introduced when there is a need to communicate more complex facts. However, the most remarkable aspect of the current studies is that these processes can be observed under controlled circumstances and within 30 minutes.
The studies demonstrate that communication cannot be reduced to words alone. When there is no way to use conventional spoken language, people find other ways to get their message across. This phenomenon forms the basis for the development of new languages. The study by Manuel Bohn, Gregor Kachel and Michael Tomasello shows what the first steps in the development of a new language could look like. According to Bohn, however, numerous new questions arise at this point: “It would be very interesting to see how the newly invented communication systems change over time, for example when they are passed on to new ‘generations’ of users. There is evidence that language becomes more systematic when passed on.”
Materials provided by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Manuel Bohn, Gregor Kachel, Michael Tomasello. Young children spontaneously recreate core properties of language in a new modality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019; 201904871 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1904871116
Stillness in the Storm Editor: Why did we post this?
Psychology is the study of the nature of mind. Philosophy is the use of that mind in life. Both are critically important to gain an understanding of as they are aspects of the self. All you do and experience will pass through these gateways of being. The preceding information provides an overview of this self-knowledge, offering points to consider that people often don’t take the time to contemplate. With the choice to gain self-awareness, one can begin to see how their being works. With the wisdom of self-awareness, one has the tools to master their being and life in general, bringing order to chaos through navigating the challenges with the capacity for right action.
– Justin
Not sure how to make sense of this? Want to learn how to discern like a pro? Read this essential guide to discernment, analysis of claims, and understanding the truth in a world of deception: 4 Key Steps of Discernment – Advanced Truth-Seeking Tools.
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Source:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191203102033.htm
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