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8/LANGUAGE, THINKING, AND
REASONING:
GETTING INSIDE OUR TALKING
HEADS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LECTURE GUIDE
 How Does Language Work? (p. 294)
 Do We Think in Words? The Relation between Language and Thought (p.
297)
 Reading: Recognizing the Written Word (p. 298)
 Thinking and Reasoning (p. 298)

FULL CHAPTER RESOURCES


 Learning Objectives (p. 300)
 Rapid Review (p. 301)
 Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics (p. 303)
 Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises (p. 312)
 Handout Masters (p. 316)
 Web Resources (p. 319)

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I. HOW DOES LANGUAGE WORK? (Text, p. 296)

Lecture Launchers
 The Influence of Language on Thought
 Nonverbal Gestures
 Who Talks More: Men or Women?

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises


 Channels of Communication
 Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
 Is Reading Automatic? A Survey

Web Resources
 Center for the Study of Language and Information: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/
 Language Learning: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/learn.jsp
 Do Apes Use Language?—The Why Files: http://whyfiles.org/058language/ape_talk.html
 Primate Use of Language: http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/language.htm

A. Language—a largely arbitrary system of communication that combines symbols, such as


words or gestural signs, in rule-based ways to create meaning.
1. Functions of language:
a. Transmission of information
b. Social and emotional functions
i. We express our thoughts and actions with language.
ii. We use language to establish and maintain relationships with others.
B. The Features of Language
1. Language is a highly practiced and automatic cognitive process.
2. Four levels of analysis:
a. Phonemes—the sounds of our language;
b. Morphemes—the smallest units of speech that are meaningful;
c. Syntax—the grammatical rules that govern how we compose words into
meaningful strings;
d. Extralinguistic information—elements of communication that aren’t part of
the content but are critical to interpreting its meaning.
3. Phonemes: The Ingredients
a. Probably 100 phonemes in total.
i. English contains between 40 and 45 phonemes.
ii. Some languages contain as few as 15 phonemes, others more than
60.
iii. Some languages have overlapping phonemes, while some languages
have sounds that do not occur in other languages (Table 8.2, p. 298).
4. Morphemes: The Menu Items
a. Morphemes convey information about semantics.
i. Semantics—meaning derived from words and sentences.
5. Syntax: Putting Together a Meal
a. Syntax is not just rules on word order, as it also includes morphological
markers and sentence structure.
i. Morphological markers—grammatical elements that modify words
by adding sounds to them that change their meaning.
b. Real-world language rarely follows syntactic rules perfectly.
i. Syntax is the idealized form of language.

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6. Extralinguistic Information: The Overall Dining Experience


a. The additional information that isn’t part of language, but plays an essential
role in allowing the interpretation of it.
i. Can include nonverbal cues and previous statements by others in the
conversation.
7. Language Dialects: Regional and Cultural Differences in Dining Habits
a. Dialects—variations of the same language used by groups of people from
specific geographic areas, social groups, or ethnic backgrounds.
b. Many assume that speakers of nondominant dialects are trying but failing to
speak the majority version of the dialect.
i. This can lead to prejudice.
C. How Did Language Come About and Why?
1. Evolutionary theorists argue that language evolved into a complex system as our
early ancestors began to have a complex social environment.
2. One challenge to explaining how language evolved is that words appear to be
arbitrarily related to things to which they refer.
a. However, there are several examples of language meanings being nonarbitrary
(Figure 8.1, p. 299).
D. How Do Children Learn Language?
1. Language is one of the few instances in which children are more efficient learners
than adults.
a. Infants hear language inside the womb.
2. Perceiving and Producing the Sounds of Language
a. Babbling —refers to any intentional vocalization (other than crying, burping,
sighing, and laughing), that lacks specific meaning.
b. Different languages have different phoneme categories.
c. Becomes gradually more complex over the first year with increasing control
of vocal tracts.
d. By age 10 months, phonemes are similar to adult speakers of native language.
3. Learning Words
a. Comprehension precedes production.
b. Most infants understand words around 9 or 10 months.
c. First words produced around 10 or 12 months. By age 2, toddlers produce
hundreds of words.
4. Syntactic Development: Putting It All Together
a. By age 2, most children combine words into simple two-word phrase (“more
juice”).
b. They tend to use words in correct order (Figure 8.2, text p. 302).
E. Special Cases of Language Learning
1. Sign Language
a. Sign language—developed by members of deaf communities, uses visual
form of communication.
b. Has own phonemes, words, syntax, extralinguistic information.
c. Babies who are deaf pass through the same stages of language development,
at the same ages, as hearing babies.
d. Myths About Sign Language (Table 8.3, text p. 302)
i. People who are deaf don’t need sign language because they can lip-
read.
a. Even skilled lip-readers can only understand about 30-35% of
what is said.

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ii. For children who are deaf, learning to sign impedes the ability to
learn to speak.
a. Those who sign make faster progress in speaking.
iii. American Sign Language (ASL) is English translated word-for-word
into signs.
a. ASL bears no resemblance to English; syntax differs
completely.
2. Bilingualism
a. Typically, one language is dominant.
b. As compared to monolinguals, bilinguals:
i. Delayed knowledge of syntactical rules.
a. But this is offset by long-term benefits.
c. If second language is learned early, the two languages use similar brain
structures.
3. Language Deprivation
a. Both nature and nurture are necessary for the development of language.
i. Examples, case studies of language deprivation (e.g., Genie) and
deaf children inventing their own sign language (i.e., homesign).
F. Critical Periods for Language Learning
1. Younger children are better at learning language than are older children.
a. Children exposed to foreign language between 1 and 7 years of old developed
language ability of native speakers.
i. Exposure after the age of 7 produces decreased language ability.
b. Children may be better language learners due to the “less is more” hypothesis.
i. That is, children have more limited information-processing abilities,
fewer analytical skills, and less specific knowledge about how
language works.
ii. Thus, children learn languages more naturalistically and gradually.
G. Theoretical Accounts of Language Acquisition
1. Imitation account—Language is generative.
a. Allows us to create an infinite number of sentences, producing new statements,
thoughts, and ideas never previously uttered.
2. Nativist account—children come into world knowing how language works.
a. Noam Chomsky hypothesized that humans are born with a specific language
organ in the brain called the language acquisition device that houses rules of
language.
b. Critics point out that children learn syntax gradually, and even adults use
grammatically incorrect sentences.
3. Social pragmatics account states that children infer what words and sentences mean
from context and social interactions.
4. General cognitive processing account states that children’s ability to learn language
is a result of general skills that are applied across many situations (e.g., the ability to
perceive and recognize patterns).
5. Evaluating the Theories Scientifically
a. Imitation-based account cannot explain the complexity and generativity of
language.
b. Nativism is not falsifiable and is not parsimonious.
c. The majority of contemporary research is focused on the social pragmatics and
general cognitive processing accounts.
H. Nonhuman Animal Communication
1. Scent marking vs. visual displays vs. vocal communication

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2. How Animals Communicate


a. Aggression and mating are when communication is most common.
b. One example of nonhuman communication that provides information beyond
the “here and now” is the waggle dance of the honeybees (Figure 8.4, p. 307).
3. Teaching Human Language to Nonhuman Animals
a. This effort has been largely unsuccessful.
b. Though chimps can learn words, they differ from human infants (Figure 8.5,
text p. 308).
i. Requires thousands of trials with rewards.
ii. Never master syntactic rules.
4. Two species do better at learning language than chimps.
a. Bonobos have a different learning pathway that more closely resembles
humans.
i. Learn better as young animals than as adults.
ii. Tend to learn through observation rather than reinforcement.
iii. Use symbols to comment on or engage in social interactions.
iv. But Bonobos still get stuck when learning syntax.
b. African gray parrots use spoken language much as humans do, even mastering
syntax, but only as a result of learning through repetition.

II. DO WE THINK IN WORDS? THE RELATION BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT


(Text, p. 309)

Lecture Launchers
 Do You Mentally “Hear” Yourself Reading?

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises


 Linguistic Determinism, Linguistic Relativity, or Neither?

Web Resources
 The Role of Language in Intelligence: http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/rolelang.htm

A. Linguistic Determinism: We Speak, Therefore We Think


1. Linguistic determinism—view that all thought is represented linguistically, and as a
result, our language defines our thinking.
a. Thinking is a form of internal speech.
i. The Inuit had a thousand words for snow.
a. Correlation or causation?
b. Evidence against linguistic determinism:
i. Children solve complex cognitive tasks before developing speech.
ii. Neuroimaging—language areas are active only during certain, not
all, cognitive tasks (Figure 8.6, p. 310).
B. Linguistic Relativity: Language Gives Thought a Gentle Nudge
1. Linguistic relativity—the view that characteristics of the language we speak
influence some aspects of thinking.
a. Supporting evidence:
i. Russians who moved to the United States recalled Russian memories
better when speaking Russian, and U.S. memories better when
speaking English.
b. Evidence against:

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i. Colour categorization across cultures is similar, even for cultures that


have few colour words.
2. Overall, language shapes some, but not all, aspects of perception, memory, and
thought.

III. READING: RECOGNIZING THE WRITTEN WORD (Text, p. 311)

Lecture Launchers
 Learning to Read: Eye Movements and Developmental Dyslexia

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises


 Stroop Task

Web Resources
 Speed Reading Test Online: http://www.readingsoft.com/

A. Learning to Read
1. To be ready to learn to read we must realize several things.
a. Writing is meaningful.
b. Understand that writing moves in a specific direction (Figure 8.8, p. 312).
c. Learn to recognize the letters of the alphabet.
d. Learn that printed letters correspond to specific sounds.
2. Following the mastery of the above pre-reading insights, two skills must be mastered
to be an expert reader.
a. Learn to recognize how whole printed words look on the page.
i. The average reader uses whole word recognition to read the vast
majority of printed words.
a. Whole word recognition—recognizing common words without
having to sound out each word.
ii. The second strategy is phonetic decomposition—sounding out
words by figuring out the correspondences between printed letters
and sounds.
B. Speed-Reading—A Hoax in Sheep’s Clothing?
1. Speed-reading works—At the expense of our comprehension!

IV. THINKING AND REASONING (Text, p. 315)


TableContents
Lecture Launchers
 Intuition
 Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
 Functional Fixedness
 Hormones and Thinking Skills
 Fallacies in Reasoning

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises


 Learning a Concept
 Breaking Sets in Problem Solving
 Availability Heuristics

Web Resources
 Anagram Server: http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

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A. Thinking—any mental activity or processing of information including learning,


remembering, perceiving, feeling, believing, and deciding.
B. Cognitive Economy—Imposing Order on Our World
1. We’re cognitive misers—our minds use a variety of heuristics to increase the
efficiency of our thinking.
2. Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts
a. We use a variety of heuristics to increase our thinking efficiency.
b. From an evolutionary perspective, heuristics may have enhanced our survival.
i. Even though heuristics can lead to faulty conclusions, they are often
useful in everyday life.
ii. There is no way to attend to and draw conclusions about every aspect
of our experience all of the time.
3. Top-Down Processing
a. Top-down processing streamlines cognitive functioning by utilizing
preexisting knowledge (Figure 8.9, p. 316).
b. Concepts and schemas aid our thinking and reasoning.
i. Concepts—knowledge and ideas about objects, actions, and
characteristics that share core properties.
ii. Schemas—help us mentally organize events that share core features.
C. Decision Making: Choices, Choices, and More Choices
1. Decision making—process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives.
a. While “going with our gut” for decisions can lead to mistakes, it can make
people happier after making choices.
2. One additional factor that can influence our decision making is framing.
a. Framing—the way a question is formulated which can influence the decisions
people make.
D. Problem Solving: Accomplishing Our Goals
1. Problem solving—generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a specific goal.
2. Approaches to Solving Problems
a. We can solve many problems following step-by-step learned procedures
known as algorithms.
3. Obstacles to Problem Solving
a. Salience of surface similarities—how attention-grabbing something is.
i. Can combat it by practicing problem solving with multiple problems
that require the same reasoning but that possess different surface
features.
b. Mental sets—becoming entrenched in a particular problem-solving strategy
that inhibits the generation of an alternative approach (Figure 8.10, p. 319).
c. Functional fixedness—difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used
for one purpose could be used for another (Figure 8.11, text p. 320).
E. Models of the Mind
1. Although modern psychologists still rely on the computer analogy of the mind, most
believe this is not the best explanation for explaining how we think.
a. Some of the simplest tasks for humans are the most difficult for computers.
2. Recent models of the mind attempt to reflect the physically interactive nature of our
knowledge and experience by developing embodied accounts of thinking.
a. According to these models, our knowledge is organized and accessed in a
manner that enables us to simulate our actual experiences.

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CHAPTER 8
Learning Objectives

On completion of this chapter, students should be able to


8.1 describe the four levels of analysis that make up language (text p. 297);
8.2 trace the development of language acquisition in children (text p. 300);
8.3 determine how sign language in deaf individuals relates to spoken language acquisition in
hearing individuals (text p. 302);
8.4 identify the pros and cons of bilingualism (text p. 303);
8.5 compare and contrast theories of language acquisition (text p. 305);
8.6 distinguish human language from nonhuman animal communication (text p. 307);
8.7 identify how our language may influence our thinking (text p. 309);
8.8 identify the skills required to learn to read, and understand the debate concerning reading
strategies (text p. 312);
8.9 analyze the relationship between reading speed and reading comprehension (text p. 303);
8.10 identify methods for achieving cognitive economy (text p. 315);
8.11 describe what factors affect how we make decisions (text p. 317);
8.12 describe some common problem-solving strategies and challenges (text p. 318);
8.13 describe various models of the human mind (text p. 320).

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Chapter 8: Language, Thinking, and Reasoning

Chapter 8: Rapid Review

Language is a largely arbitrary system of communication that combines symbols (such as words or
gestural signs) in rule-based ways to create meaning. Language can be thought to be comprised of four
levels of analysis: Phonemes, morphemes, syntax, and extralinguistic information. Children begin
language acquisition through a series or steps beginning with babbling, experimenting with phonemes,
word production, and then holophrases.
Language communication in the majority of nonhuman species takes place in the form or either mating
or aggression. Efforts to teach animals language have been largely unsuccessful and even with
considerable training animals have difficulty mastering syntactical rules beyond that of a 2-year old.
For individuals who cannot speak or hear, sign language exhibits all the same features of spoken
language including phonemes, generativity, words, syntax, and extralinguistic information. Sign language
involves the same brain areas involved in processing spoken language, and babies who learn sign
languages pass through the same developmental stages as babies who learn spoken languages. Sign
language acquisition occurs at around the same time as spoken language acquisition if the parents are
‘fluent’ signers. Learning a sign language actually facilitates acquisition of a spoken language.
There are several benefits to mastering two languages. Bilinguals often have heightened
metalinguistic insight; that is, awareness of how language is structured and used. Consequently, they
tend to perform better on language tasks. The age at which people learn a second language is important,
for individuals who learn a second language later in life use different brain areas suggesting that the brain
segregates different, later-learned languages into different regions. There seems to be critical periods of
language development that most influence syntax and pronunciation more than vocabulary as age of
exposure increases. Researcher believe adults try to impose more organization and structure to their
learning making learning more challenging compared to children who learn more naturalistically and
gradually; this is called the ‘less-is-more’ hypothesis.
Two differing viewpoints exist in explaining how language influences our thoughts. The first is the
concept of linguistic determinism, which states that all thought is represented verbally and that, as a
result, our language defines our thinking. However, this viewpoint is mainly discredited by studies that
demonstrate children learn complex tasks before they can talk. The second viewpoint is called linguistic
relativity, and it states that the characteristics of language shape our thought processes. It is also known
as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Some evidence supports this view. Language influences some, but not
all, aspects of perception, memory, and thought.
Reading is considered an automatic process. The average reader uses whole word recognition,
which is a reading strategy that involves identifying common words without having to sound them out
based on their appearance. When we are presented with new words that we do not know, we often use a
second strategy called phonetic decomposition, which is a reading strategy that involves sounding out
words by drawing correspondences between printed letters and sounds.
For children to learn how to read they must recognize and are required to learn several important
skills: (1) that writing is meaningful, (2) that it moves in a particular direction, (3) that they must learn
graphemes, the letters of the alphabet, and (4) that the printed letters correspond to specific sounds. The
average student reads approximately 200 to 300 words per minute. Speed-reading, or reading faster than
400 words per minute results in comprehension rates below 50 percent and discredits the belief that much
can be learned through speed-reading.
Given the amount of information that humans process, cognitive economy is necessary and a
valuable aspect of our cognitive functioning. Cognitive Economy refers to the heuristics, or short-cuts,
necessary to increase our thinking efficiency. Without it we would be unable to attend to information we
need for decision-making. The downside to cognitive economies are that heuristics can lead us to make
costly mistakes.

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Humans face many challenges when attempting to solve problems or make decisions. Four hurdles
are often encountered when solving problems: (1) the salience of surface similarities, (2) Mental sets,
(3) Functional fixedness, and (4) context effects.

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▼ LECTURE LAUNCHERS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS


 The Influence of Language on Thought
 Nonverbal Gestures
 Who Talks More: Men or Women?
 Do You Mentally “Hear Yourself Reading?
 Learning to Read: Eye Movements and Developmental Dyslexia
 Intuition
 Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
 Functional Fixedness
 Hormones and Thinking Skills
 Fallacies in Reasoning

Lecture/Discussion: The Influence of Language on Thought

In George Orwell’s chilling novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a totalitarian government tries to narrow thought
by shrinking language. The result, called Newspeak, is supposed to wipe out “thoughtcrime” by
obliterating the words needed to commit it. “We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them,
every day,” boasts a worder in the ironically named Ministry of Truth. “We’re cutting the language down
to the bone.” Words also get new meanings: War is peace, love is hate. (Lest anyone think Orwell’s
projections were pure fantasy, in recent years leaders in our own government have called lying “mis-
speaking,” the wartime killing of civilians “collateral damage,” the accidental killing of American
soldiers by their own side “friendly fire,” nuclear missiles “peacekeepers,” and tax increases “revenue
enhancement.”)
Was Orwell right? Does language provide a mental straitjacket for thought? Can we think only
what we can say? Or does language merely express ideas and perceptions that would exist anyway?
The leading spokesperson for the notion that language shapes thought was Benjamin Lee Whorf
(1897–1941), an insurance inspector by profession and a linguist and anthropologist by inclination. His
theory of linguistic relativity held that (1) language molds habits of both cognition and perception and (2)
different languages point speakers toward different views of reality. Whorf sometimes seemed to believe
that language determines thought in an absolute way. He once wrote, “We dissect nature along lines laid
down by our native languages” (Whorf, 1956). But usually he took the more moderate position that
language has a powerful influence on cognition.
Whorf’s evidence was linguistic and cultural. For example, he noted that English has only one
word for snow, but Eskimos (now called the Inuit) have different words for falling snow, slushy snow,
powdered snow, and so forth. On the other hand, the Hopi have a single noun that refers to all flying
things and beings, with the exception of birds. This word can be used for aphids, airplanes, and aviators.
Thus the Inuit presumably would notice differences in snow that people in other cultures would not, and
Hopis might see similarities between insects and aviators that others would miss. Since Whorf’s time,
other writers have added examples of their own. Chinese, for instance, has at least nineteen words for silk,
but (in keeping with the reticence of the Chinese about discussing sexual matters) it has no common word
for either foreplay or orgasm, making it something of a challenge to do sex surveys in China (Kristof,
1991)! In English, much has been written about how the very word foreplay limits sexual imagination.
Why are all activities other than intercourse merely “fore” play?
Whorf felt that grammar had an even greater influence on thought than did separate words. He
argued, for example, that grammar affects how we think of time. English verbs, he noted, force people to
emphasize when an action took place; you can’t talk about seeing Joan without saying whether you saw
her, see her now, or will see her. But Hopi verbs do not require these distinctions. Instead, they allow a
speaker to convey whether he or she experienced the action personally, observed it, heard about it, or
inferred it. Further, English speakers refer to time as a thing that can be saved, squandered, or spent, or as
something that can be measured; we say time is short, long, or great.

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The linguistic differences pointed out by Whorf and others have fascinated students and teachers
for generations. Clearly culture and language are intertwined: English is full of sports metaphors (“I
scored some points with my boss,” “She plays hardball in negotiations”), whereas French is rich in food
metaphors (un navet, “a turnip,” means a bad film, and C’est la fin des haricots! “This is the last of the
stringbeans,” is equivalent to “It’s the last straw”) (Halpern, 1991). But does language shape thought, or
does it merely reflect cultural concerns? Critics note that it is easy enough to describe in English what the
various Inuit words for snow mean or how Hopis conceive of time, despite linguistic differences. Within a
culture, when a need to express some unlabelled phenomenon arises, speakers easily manufacture new
words. Like the Inuit, English-speaking skiers need to talk about several kinds of snow, so they speak of
powder, corn, and boilerplate (ice).
Linguistic evidence alone cannot prove that language determines, or even influences thought. Do
the Inuit perceive snow differently from people who have fewer words for it? Do Hopis experience time
differently because of their grammar? We cannot know, unless linguistic evidence is supplemented by
psychological evidence, and unfortunately, the few psychological studies that have been done have been
inconclusive, mainly because of difficulties in studying this question.
Yet the theory of linguistic relativity, which has sometimes seemed deader than a dinosaur, keeps
springing back to life. Within a language, it is easier to process some words and grammatical
constructions than others; it is reasonable to assume, then, that it is easier to think certain thoughts in one
language than another, because of the words and grammatical constructions the languages require (Hunt
& Agnoli, 1991). Further, recent research suggests that languages may, at the very least, influence the
acquisition of specific mental skills, by guiding attention in particular directions.
For example, Irene Miura and her colleagues (Miura et al., 1988; Miura & Okamoto, 1989) argue
that linguistic differences can help explain why Asian children tend to outperform English-speaking
children on tests of numerical ability. In many Asian languages, names of numbers reflect a base-10
system: the label for 12 is “ten-two,” the label for 22 is “two ten(s)-two,” and so forth. These names may
help children understand numbers and simple arithmetic. In a study of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and
English-speaking American first-graders, Miura and her associates (1988) had children stack blocks to
represent five different quantities. White blocks stood for single units and blue blocks for tens units. Each
child had two chances to show the numbers. Most of the Asian children could express all five numbers in
more than one way, for example, 12 as either 12 white blocks or 1 blue block and 2 white ones. But only
13 percent of the American children could do the same; most simply used a collection of white blocks.
Further, on their first try most of the Asian children used patterns corresponding to written numbers, for
example, 2 tens and 8 ones for 28. But only 8 percent of the American children did so. Of course, these
results do not prove that linguistic differences are responsible for the differences in math achievement. It
is interesting, though, that bilingual Asian-American students tend to score higher in math achievement
than do those who speak only English (Moore & Stanley, 1986).
Finally, language affects social perceptions (Henley, 1989). In the previous sentence, you read the
name of a psychologist. Would you be at all surprised to learn it was Nancy Henley? Feminists have long
observed that in much of our writing, humanity is male and women are outsiders, the “second sex.” This
is why they have long objected to the use of men or mankind to refer to humanity, and he to refer to any
person, sex unspecified.
Language, then, can influence thinking, reasoning, and social stereotypes. It allows us to
manipulate symbols rather than objects. It directs our attention. It allows us to create detailed plans for the
future. But the degree to which linguistic differences between cultures result in different ways of thinking
and perceiving remains an open question.

Lecture/Discussion: Nonverbal Gestures

The study of nonverbal gestures and their meaning has received extensive research attention in
psychology, sociology, and communication. Through basic research we know a great deal about what

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gestures convey, how they are culturally variable, and how they act as cues to emotional and other
internal states of a communicator. Roger Axtell, former international business executive and now
professional speaker and author, has cataloged a variety of gestures and their appropriate uses in cultures
around the world. His collection of examples shows clearly that an intended message may not always be
communicated successfully. Some common miscommunicated meanings include:
• The “two-fingered salute.” In most of the contemporary world flashing the index and middle
finger in a “V” shape, palm outward, signifies “victory” or “peace” (depending on the vintage of
the communicator). However, in England, Australia, and several other countries, a simple turn of
the wrist (flashing the sign with the palm toward the communicator) changes this gesture to a
highly insulting one: a two-fingered version of our “one-fingered salute.”
• “The fig.” Brazilians clench their fists with a thumb jutting between the index and middle fingers
to signal good luck and help in warding off evil spirits. In Greece and Turkey, however, this same
gesture is quite insulting, whereas in Holland and Tunisia it has sexual connotations.
• “Hook ‘em Horns.” Texans, especially Austinites, know that an outstretched index and pinky
finger signal a cheer for the University of Texas Longhorns to do well on the playing field. This
same gesture signals a curse in Africa, a good luck sign in Brazil, and an Italian chide that the
recipient is being cuckolded.
• Signaling that someone is “crazy” can take on a variety of forms. In Germany it is done by
rotating the forefingers back and forth around one’s temples. Italians send the same message by
tapping their hands to their foreheads. To complicate matters, in Holland a forefinger to the
temple means “intelligent” whereas a forefinger to the forehead signals “crazy.” The common
North American gesture of a circular motion around the temple actually signals “There’s a phone
call” among Argentineans.
• “Nice job!” Flashing a “thumbs up” to a friend usually signals that the person has done well or
that the communicator wishes good luck. In Australia, however, it is considered the equivalent of
the “two-fingered salute” discussed above, whereas in Japan it signals “five,” in Germany it
indicates “one,” and in Bangladesh it is considered obscene.
• “Pointing” is accomplished in North America and Europe by using the index finger. In Malaysia
the thumb is preferred, whereas in Japan and China an open hand is used.
• The “hand sweep.” Moving one’s hand and arm across a table in a sweeping motion signals
“someone is stealing” in Latin American countries. In Peru, this same gesture means “pay me.”
• Extending the palm of the hand toward someone might be a way of saying “no more” or “no
thanks.” In Greece, however, it is an extremely insulting gesture mimicking shoving dirt (and
other brown matter) into someone’s face.
Axtell, R. E. (1991). Gestures: The do’s and taboos of body language around the world. New York: Wiley.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behaviour: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49–
98.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1972). Hand movements. Journal of Communication, 22, 353–374.

Lecture/Discussion: Who Talks More: Men or Women?

Women talk a lot more than men, right? A long-standing stereotype of the socially gifted, talkative
woman is contrasted with the stereotypical male: somewhat guarded, less social, and less talkative. Do
experimental data bear these stereotypes out? In 2006, Louann Brizendine, founder and director of the
University of California, San Francisco’s Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic, published The Female
Brain. In it was a claim that women speak an average of 20,000 words per day, nearly three times the
mere 7,000 spoken by men. This seemingly sensational claim was immediately questioned by James
Pennebaker, a psychologist at University of Texas, Austin. In a series of studies (prior to the publishing of
Brizendine’s controversial book) at schools in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, researchers used an
electronically activated recorder to record samples of male and female students’ talking for 17 hours per

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day. From the samples of 396 students (210 females and 186 males) it was estimated that women and men
speak roughly the same number of words per day. Women were found to speak an average of 16,215
words per day whereas men speak 15,669. This result does not even approach statistical significance, and
calls into question Brizendine’s claim. Moreover, Pennebaker’s findings indicate that the stereotypes of
the talkative woman / reserved man are simply psychomythology. A discussion of these findings will
nicely illustrate how sound psychological experimentation can lead to the truth. Additionally, most
students hold these stereotypes, and this discussion should elucidate the power of stereotypes—some
students who, even when faced with strong scientific evidence to the contrary, will maintain their views.

Lecture/Discussion: Do You Mentally “Hear” Yourself Reading?

The idea of subvocal speech, where thought is mediated via moving the vocal tract below hearing level,
was an idea posited by behaviourist John Watson. Although the idea that all thought is predicated on
mastery of language raises some issues, many (if not most) people report that they “mentally hear” the
words that they read while reading to themselves. Ask students if they hear (or listen to) themselves while
reading—many may not realize that they do. A discussion of how language can lead to producing
thoughts and reasoning can flow from this question.

Lecture/Discussion: Learning to Read: Eye Movements and Developmental Dyslexia

As noted in the text, many cognitive (e.g., symbolism, meaning, recognition) skills require fine-tuning in
order for a person to learn how to read. Another skill that often goes unappreciated in the development of
reading is proper and accurate eye movements. Reading text involves a series of quick, jutting eye
movements called saccades, with intervening fixations. We are not usually aware of these movements, but
if you’ve ever watched someone’s eyes while they are reading, the saccadic “jumping” of the eyes is quite
conspicuous. In order to read effectively, a person’s eye movements must be precisely controlled. As with
most other facets of development, some variability is apparent among children in developing this skill,
and some people actually never appear to attain the high-performance eye movement control necessary
for good reading ability. This developmental deficiency is thought by some researchers to manifest as
dyslexia, a selective impairment of reading and spelling abilities without a deficit in general intelligence.
Indeed, through careful reading and eye movement experiments involving dyslexics and normal controls,
the voluntary component of saccade control was demonstrated to differentiate dyslexics from controls
(e.g., Bednarek et al., 2006; Ram-Tsur et al., 2006). The result of this slight imperfection in eye
movement timing is that information from the text is not in register with eye-movement mediated visual
input. To approximate the difficulty encountered by a person with dyslexia while reading, have students
rotate their book (or other reading material) 90 degrees (clockwise or counterclockwise is fine). This way,
students will have to read from either up to down, or vice versa (not the usual left-to-right). The most
noticeable change in reading performance is a decrease in reading speed.

Lecture/Discussion: Intuition

Psychologists have long been interested in understanding reasoning, problem solving, and decision
making. But the other, “softer” side of this cognitive coin is the study of intuition; how we develop a “gut
feeling” or “sense” about a judgment, situation, or another person. Far from relying on an aching bunion
or creaky joint to understand intuition, scientists have recently put the notion to the test.
Antonio Damasio and his colleagues at the University of Iowa College of Medicine studied 6
people who had damage to the ventromedial sector of the prefrontal cortex and 10 people who did not.
This area of the brain is responsible for storing information about emotional experiences and is also

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involved in decision making. Armed with $2,000 in fake money, the participants were presented with four
decks of cards and were told they could turn over cards from any deck during the course of a game.
Unbeknownst to the participants, two decks were rigged to produce lower immediate rewards but a higher
overall payoff, whereas the other two decks yielded short-term, large payoffs but at the price of greater
total losses. Participants flipped cards at will while being monitored for GSR as an indicator of
nonconscious (or conscious) anxiety. After the first 20 rounds the research team questioned the
participants, and did so again after each subsequent 10 rounds, in order to determine when the participants
became conscious of the best strategy to win.
Those participants without brain damage began to show signs of anxiety before picking cards
from the losing decks, and began to avoid those decks, although consciously they were not yet aware that
they were losers. By the 80th round 7 of the 10 normal participants consciously knew to avoid the losing
decks, and although the remaining 3 did not reach that insight, they nonetheless continued to make
advantageous choices. The 6 brain damaged participants, however, continued to pick from the losing
decks, never expressed a hunch that something was amiss, and never showed signs of anxiety. In short,
the intuition or unconscious knowledge that arose in the normal subjects was absent in the impaired
group; there never arose a “sense” or “feeling” of what was going on.
One study digs deeper to the roots of intuition. A team of researchers led by David Skuse, a
psychiatrist at the Institute of Child Development of University College in London, found evidence
suggesting intuition is an inherited trait passed from fathers to their daughters. Skuse and his colleagues
defined intuition in terms of social skills, such as the ability to decode nonverbal communication or
recognize socially appropriate behaviour. Although the research team has not identified a gene (or genes)
responsible for these abilities, their patterns of evidence suggest a specific chain of inheritance. The
parents of 88 girls with Turner’s syndrome (characterized by a single X chromosome) were asked to rate
their daughters on various measures of social intelligence, such as awareness of other’s feelings, skill at
following instructions, or awareness of offending others. The researchers next determined whether each
girl’s single X chromosome had come from her father or mother. The results revealed that those girls who
had inherited the mother’s chromosome scored worse on the measures of “intuition” than did those
receiving the X from their fathers.
Parents of normal boys and girls were also asked the same questions. The boys, compared to the
normal girls, scored lower on the measures of social intuition: Like all boys, they also received their X
chromosome from their mothers. Furthermore, the researchers also compared the responses of the
Turner’s syndrome girls with those of normal boys and girls on a battery of neuropsychological measures.
Turner’s syndrome girls who received their X chromosome from their mothers scored worse on tests that
required extensive planning or the inhibition of urges; normal boys also scored worse on the inhibition
measures (but not the planning tasks).
Brown, D. (June 12, 1997). Women inherit intuition from dads, researchers say. Austin American-Statesman, A1, A6.
Stein, R. (March 9, 1997). Intuition affects sensible choices, researchers find. Austin American-Statesman, A25.

Lecture/Discussion: Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This

People sometimes believe in things they ought not to, such as flat Earths, cheese moons, or their own
invulnerability. But forming and clinging to misbegotten beliefs may itself be a consequence of some
fundamental cognitive processes, such as how information gets encoded in memory or what happens to a
disrupted attentional system.
Dan Gilbert, of Harvard University, has been exploring the problem of “believing what isn’t so”
for several years. In explaining the process by which such belief takes place he invokes the thinking of
Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, both of whom wrote quite a bit about how information is perceived
and stored in a mental system. Descartes argued that information is first comprehended, and then in a
subsequent step, a truth value is assigned to it: We decide to accept or reject the information as being true.
This would suggest, of course, that we can easily entertain ideas (indefinitely, perhaps...putting them up

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in a mental guest room, so to speak) without necessarily putting stock in them. If comprehension
(understanding) of information and endorsement (acceptance or rejection) are two distinct steps, humans
should be able to hold an idea without believing it.
Spinoza adopted a different position on the nature of belief, arguing that comprehension and
acceptance of information are accomplished in a single initial step, only later to be followed by
certification or rejection of the information. This view holds that the very act of receiving information
entails assigning a belief to it [“this information is true” (or false, as the case might be)], which only later
can be substantiated or “unbelieved”. Quite unlike Descartes, then, Spinoza argued that ideas could not be
entertained, “beliefless,” in a cognitive system, but rather are believed upon first being received into the
cognitive system.
How to disentangle these competing predictions? Notice that both, if allowed to run their course,
would lead to the same outcome: The acceptance or rejection of information as being true. The difference
lies in when the belief is assigned, either in a Spinozan first step or in a Cartesian second step. Gilbert
reasoned, then, that disrupting a belief system in action would be the only way to tell which system
(Spinozan or Cartesian) was at work. If Descartes was correct, disrupting the system between steps should
have no effect on cognition: We would be left holding a collection of ideas that had not yet been assigned
truth values. If Spinoza was correct, however, disruption should produce a very pronounced tendency: We
should be left believing information to be true (since it was automatically tagged with a truth valued upon
entering the cognitive system) when in some cases it is not.
To test these ideas, Gilbert and his colleagues asked research participants in one of several
experiments to learn some (fictitious) Hopi language terms. Participants saw a Hopi/English word-pairing
flash on a computer screen (such as “A monishna is a star,” “A rirg is a valley,” or “A neseti is a bee”),
which was followed by a brief pause, and then followed by one of three outcomes: The word “True”
(signaling that the preceding pairing was accurate), the word “False” (indicating that the preceding
pairing was incorrect), or a blank screen. Note that Descartes and Spinoza are still neck-and-neck at this
point. Either account of belief would argue that participants could take in the information (untouched, as
Descartes would have it, or believed as true, as Spinoza would have it) and then correct it based on the
True or False cue later given (which would mean assigning a belief in the Cartesian system, or
revising/substantiating an existing belief in the Spinozan system). However, the researchers asked
participants to do one additional task. On some trials participants were asked to press a button if they
heard a particular tone. This additional task served to tax their available cognitive resources, making it
more difficult to perform the correction step of integrating the true/false cues with the prior information.
These participants, however, provided an answer to the riddle of belief. When later polled they showed a
particular pattern of errors; namely, they were left believing propositions that should have been revised
(i.e., those tagged as “False”) as being true. Given the controls of the experiment, the only way to account
for this outcome is that the information must have been encoded as true upon first being read (just as
Spinoza argued). Because these resource-depleted subjects were disrupted from performing Spinoza’s
second task (certifying or, in these cases, rejecting the previously-believed information), they were left
believing what they ought not to.
The implications of this research are startling. For example, as Dan Wegner and his colleagues
have shown, it may help explain the workings of innuendo. When presented with information that may or
may not be correct, our Spinozan belief system compels us to endorse that information upon
comprehension. If our cognitive resources are later disrupted we may be unable to correct our initial
comprehension. Similarly, this research may help explain why belief perseverance takes place. If the
stage of correcting initial information is subject to disruption, we may be left clinging to beliefs even in
the face of clearly disconfirming evidence. Finally, these results fly in the face of what your parents
always told you. Far from “not believing everything you read,” it seems that we can’t escape that fate.
Gilbert, D. T. (1993). The assent of man: Mental representation and the control of belief. In D. M. Wegner & J. W. Pennebaker (Eds.),
Handbook of mental control (pp. 57–87). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gilbert, D. T. (1991). How mental systems believe. American Psychologist, 46, 107–119.

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Gilbert, D. T., Krull, D. S., & Malone, P. S. (1990). Unbelieving the unbelievable: Some problems in the rejection of false
information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 601–613.
Ross, L., Lepper, M. R., & Hubbard, M. (1975). Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: Biased attributional processes
in the debriefing paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 880–892.
Wegner, D. M., Wenzlaff, R., Kerker, R. M., & Beattie, A. E. (1981). Incrimination through innuendo: Can media questions become
public answers? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 822–832.

Lecture/Discussion: Functional Fixedness

To demonstrate functional fixedness, gather a number of household items, such as an egg carton, film
container, baby food jar, nail, paper clip, baking cup, empty toilet paper roll, piece of string, paper napkin,
clothes pin, safety pin, Band-aid, and cotton ball. You may wish to have several of each item depending
on how many students are in your class.
Arrange the class in small groups and have each group choose several items. Their task is to
brainstorm as many new uses for their items as possible in the time allowed. For four or five items, allow
10 to 15 minutes. Have each group report their results to the class.
The following discussion should allow you to reinforce ideas about the nature of creativity and the
meaning of functional fixedness. If a person suggests using a baby food jar to store small items such as
buttons, this is still fixating on the function of the jar as a container. A more creative suggestion would be
to break the jar and use a piece for cutting, or to draw around it to make a circle.

Lecture/Discussion: Hormones and Thinking Skills

Uriel Halbreich, UB professor of psychiatry and gynecology and obstetrics, and an expert in
psychopharmacology, hormonal disorders and behaviour, has reported that the performance of
postmenopausal women on certain tests measuring the ability to integrate several cognitive functions
improved significantly after a course of estrogen-replacement therapy (ERT).
It was found that low levels of estrogen may impair some cognitive functions, while
estrogen-replacement therapy may help improve certain thinking and biological brain processes, and also
may play a role in elevating mood, results of studies involving postmenopausal women conducted by
researchers at UB have shown.
Post-menopausal women and women of child-bearing age were given a wide variety of tests that
measure different areas of cognitive functions according to Halbreich. The women were then given
estrogen for 60 days, and there appeared to be a significant improvement. This increase in cognitive
ability was correlated with the plasma levels of estrogen. The results indicated that integrative abilities,
reaction times and short-term verbal memory of many of the postmenopausal women improved after
estrogen therapy. Halbreich believes that estrogen may help maintain some functions that typically
decline with age or menopause.

Lecture/Discussion: Fallacies in Reasoning

We often have lapses in critical thinking as we speak and write. A fallacy is a belief or argument that rests
on invalid or false inference, that is logically unsound. Fallacies are often used unintentionally, but they
are also used intentionally when an effort is being made to deceive or mislead the listener or reader.

1. “If you know about BMW, you either own one or you want one.”

What’s wrong with this statement? It is an example of the fallacy called false alternatives. It is also
called dualistic or black-and-white thinking and bifurcation. The fallacy occurs when it is presumed that a

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classification is exclusive or exhaustive. It often takes the form of overlooking alternatives that exist
between two polar opposites.
Here is another example of false alternatives written by an educator who was suggesting that
children should begin public school at the age of four and that high school should end after the eleventh
year: “Twelfth grade has become a bore for able students and a holding tank for the rest.”

2. “I asked my doctor why my mouth was so dry and he told me that it was because my saliva glands are
not producing enough saliva.”

What do you think of the doctor’s diagnosis? This is an example of the fallacy of begging the
question, or circularity. The fallacy occurs when the solution to a problem is a restatement of the
problem, or, an argument for a proposition is equivalent to the proposition, such as “He throws tantrums
all the time because he has a terrible temper.” Diagnoses of mental disorders are sometimes considered to
beg the question: “Why is he so nervous and agitated?” “He has generalized anxiety disorder.” “What
does that mean?” “It means that he has anxiety and apprehension.”
Here is another example that may seem ridiculous, but when things such as this occur in the
context of speech or writing, they often sound all right, maybe even impressive: “Bodies fall because they
have a downward tendency.”

3. “He is an innocent man. He was tried before a jury of his peers and the prosecution was unable to
prove him guilty.”

Is the assumption of innocence justified? This is an example of the fallacy called appeal to
ignorance. This fallacy occurs when it is argued that because we cannot prove a proposition to be true, it
must be false; or if we cannot prove a proposition to be false, it must be true.
Here is another example: “There has never been any scandal about this candidate for prime
minister. Therefore, he must be an honest, moral person.”

4. “If you don’t pick up your clothes before you go to bed at night, pretty soon you’ll be knee-deep in
dirty clothes.”

Is that the way it is? This is an example of the fallacy called slippery slope; certain applications of it
have been called the domino theory. The argument is that if the first in a possible series of steps or events
occurs, the other steps or events are inevitable.
Here is an example from a letter to the editor of a metropolitan newspaper. The writer was responding
to an article discussing the morality of euthanasia in the case of a person with an advanced case of
multiple sclerosis: “If we allow this to happen, where do we stop? Who would decide at what point
someone should die? Do we give them poison the moment they know they have multiple sclerosis or
cancer, before they have any suffering?”

5. “TV can’t be harmful for children because it occupies their attention for hours and keeps them off the
streets.”

Is this argument against the idea that TV can be harmful for children convincing? It is an example of
the fallacy called irrelevant reason. This fallacy occurs when the argument given to support a proposition
has little or no relevance to the proposition.
Here is another example: “Conservationists have suggested that we could conserve fuel by
increasing the tax on gasoline. But more taxes, whether they’re paid by the oil companies or passed on to
the consumer at the pump, will not produce one more barrel of oil.”

6. “I don’t see how she can get elected. No one I know is going to vote for her.”

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What’s wrong with this argument? This is the fallacy called hasty generalization. It occurs when an
isolated or exceptional case is used as the basis for a general conclusion. In more statistical language, it is
making a conclusion about a population based on information obtained from a sample that is biased or too
small. It is an error of inductive reasoning—going from the particular to the general when it is not
justified by the evidence.
Another example is attributed to the brother of a former president of the United States: “I never read a
book by a woman because I never met a woman who had sense enough to write a book.” (Either he hasn’t
met very many women, in which case the sample is too small, or the ones he has met are a biased sample.
Of course, there is the possibility that he is a devout sexist.)

7. “If socialized medicine will result in better and lower-cost healthcare, shouldn’t the same logic be
applied to automobiles? Wouldn’t nationalization of the auto industry produce better and lower-cost
cars? And if we nationalized auto mechanics, wouldn’t we get better and less-expensive repairs?”

These words were spoken in rebuttal after Senator Kennedy had called for national health insurance
in a speech at a meeting of the United Auto Workers. Does the speaker’s argument make sense? It
represents the fallacy called questionable analogy. In questionable analogy an attempt is made to make
two situations seem more similar than they actually are.

Another example is from a state senator who was using the crucifixion as a rationale for capital
punishment:
“Where would Christianity be if Jesus got 8 to 15 years with time off for good behaviour?”

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES, DEMONSTRATIONS, AND EXERCISES


 Channels of Communication
 Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
 Is Reading Automatic? A Survey
 Linguistic Determinism, Linguistic Relativity, or Neither?
 Stroop Task
 Learning a Concept
 Breaking Sets in Problem Solving
 Availability Heuristics

Activity: Channels of Communication

Nonverbal behaviour is often taken for granted, probably because it occurs so effortlessly in our
interactions that we fail to notice it. It provides such a valuable aspect of communication, however, that it
is definitely noticed when it is missing. You can illustrate the importance of nonverbal behaviour to your
students with a simple demonstration.
Start by drawing a simple dichotomy between verbal channels of communication and nonverbal
channels. The verbal channel is easy; it is the words used, or perhaps a transcript of them. Ask your
students to list the nonverbal channels of communication as you write them on the blackboard. The first
response will usually be a generic “body language,” but tell them to be more specific; body language is a
catch-all term incorporating many nonverbal channels. In short order you should find that students list
facial expressions, eye contact, vocal cues (mainly tone of voice), and gestures, and with a little prodding
they will add touch, interpersonal distance, speech dysfluencies, posture, gait, or appearance (such as hair
or clothing style) as ways of communicating nonverbally. Seeing the board fill up with one verbal means
of communication and 5 to 8 nonverbal channels will illustrate clearly the importance of nonverbal
behaviour.
After generating these ways of communicating, illustrate what kind of information each adds to a
message. This will take some acting on your part, but it is easy to master with a little practice. Start by
saying a very emphatic message (“I’m absolutely thrilled to be here today!”) while keeping all other
channels of communication constant. In other words, hold your body perfectly still (arms at your side),
keep a neutral facial expression, and say the words in a monotone. It should be clear that although the
verbal channel is quite enthusiastic, the nonverbal channels belie the impact of the message. Next repeat
the message, adding the appropriate vocal inflections and tone cues, but keeping all other channels
constant. Add a happy facial expression in the next iteration, and finally repeat the gushing message with
inflection, a happy face, and a broad sweep of your arms. Your students will get the idea that words
actually “say” very little; most of this message is carried by other channels.
A variation on this idea is suggested by Richmond and McCroskey, focusing on the vocal
channel. You can demonstrate this yourself or by enlisting the help of 4 or 5 students willing to ham it up
in front of the class. Consider the following phrases: “Gee, thanks,” “This turned out to be a fine day,” “I
just love it when you do that,” “Way to go, dude,” “I would like nothing better,” “Wow, this is fun,”
“Wonderful,” “That’s my favourite,” “Truly awesome,” “Real nice,” “This stinks,” and “Rhonda’s a real
winner, isn’t she?” Ask your students to say each phrase using a variety of vocal styles, and have the class
comment on the change in meaning that results. In each case the most obvious difference will come from
the use of sarcasm, where the vocal inflection runs opposite to the verbal content. But many of these
phrases (as well as others you might generate that are more specific to your university or to your class)
can carry other meanings as well. For example, “Real nice” can convey sarcasm, sincerity, or sexuality
depending on how it is delivered. Like the facial expression demonstration described earlier, these are fun
and easy ways to introduce the topic of nonverbal behaviour.
Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (1995). Nonverbal behaviour in interpersonal relations (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn
and Bacon.

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Activity: Do Animals Have Language? A Survey

A fairly large number of people believe that animals have language abilities. Most scientific data on the
point, however, indicate that animals communicate, but do not use a complicated system of symbols and
syntax to convey ideas. The following three questions can be used by students as an informal survey of
people (including fellow students, parents, etc.) regarding the issue of animal language:

1) Do you believe that animals have language?


a. If so, what specific species?
2) Why or why not?
3) Why do you think humans have such well-developed language abilities?

Students can potentially learn a great deal by teaching those that they survey (presumably there will be
many people who may not grasp the vast difference between animal communication and human
language). Additionally, the answers to #3 may be interesting, enlightening, and even humorous.

Activity: Is Reading Automatic? A Survey

The sentences presented contain words that are spelled identically, but have different pronunciations and
meanings (these kinds of words are called homographs). This leads to potentially ambiguous reading of
the sentences! However, most readers of English are extremely adept at reading the sentences, probably
due to the context in which the words are used. In any case, students can use these 12 sentences as a sort
of survey to be conducted on their fellow students. The idea is to have the subjects read each sentence
aloud and determine whether any errors (even pauses could be interpreted as errors) occur. Each sentence
should be presented individually, so as not to allow subject to “preread” the sentences. Additionally,
subjects should attempt to read a sentence immediately after being presented with it. Total errors made
should be tallied. If the homographs were indeed completely ambiguous, then we would expect errors in
pronunciation for every sentence (a total of 12 errors). Most subjects will probably not exhibit this kind of
error rate! A list of all homographs in the English language can be found at this website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_homographs

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.


2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
6) I did not object to the object.
7) They were too close to the door to close it.
8) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
9) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
10) After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
11) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
12) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

Activity: Linguistic Determinism, Linguistic Relativity, or Neither?

1-page response essay: The well-known researcher in artificial intelligence, Walter Fritz, has a view of
the relationship between language and thought that can be summarized by this statement, “We certainly

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Instructor’s Manual for Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding, Second Canadian Edition

don't think in words. For if we did, we would have to learn everything we know, our lifelong experience,
anew when learning another language! I read a lot in English, Spanish and German: books, articles, e-
mails. Often, when I try to think of where I got specific information from, I discover that I don’t even
know in which language I read it.” (from ebook “Intelligent Systems and Their Societies”:
http://www.intelligent-systems.com.ar/intsyst/index.htm).

Have students evaluate this statement critically using evidence presented in the book on linguistic
determinism and / or linguistic relativity.

Activity: Stroop Task

As stated in the text, reading is automatic. Therefore, attributes of the text other than the word itself are
largely ignored when reading. This selectivity is apparent when performing the Stroop task. Go to
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/ready.html for an interactive example of Stroop task stimuli—
if you do not have the ability to go online in your classroom, you can either print colour copies from this
site or assign the website as an Out-of-Class assignment in preparation for class. Enlist one or two student
volunteers. If you are using the hard copy version, be sure to have a timekeeping device handy. The
website will automatically calculate time. The student’s task is to first go through the list of words,
simply reading them all as fast as s(he) can. Be sure to make a note of the elapsed time. Then, ask the
student to go through the list a second time, naming the colour of each word (not the word itself). This is
usually considerably more difficult than the first task, and should manifest as an elapsed time increase
(plus quite a few errors!).

Activity: Learning a Concept

Objective: To demonstrate concept learning


Materials: 3 x 5 index cards
Procedure: Draw one square and one triangle on each index card. The figures should vary in size
(large/small), colour (green/red), and position (up/down). The fourth concept is, of course, shape. Select
one student to learn the concept you have chosen but not revealed from the four possibilities. Give the
student feedback after each card as to whether his or her response was correct. For instance, you have
selected size as the relevant concept. If the student selects a large, blue triangle on the card, tell the
student the choice is wrong (since you secretly selected small). See how many cards it takes the student to
discover the relevant concept. You may want to repeat this exercise using a different concept for at least
two other students.
Conclusion: Discuss how concept formation is an important but often difficult task.

Activity: Breaking Sets in Problem Solving

Objective: To demonstrate how psychological set (e.g., stating the problem) can interfere with the
generation of solutions to problems
Materials: See Handout Master 8.1
Procedure: Ask students to think about a problem; the problem may be a corporate problem (e.g., crime
or pollution) or a personal problem (e.g., poor grades). Using the handout, each student should reword or
describe the problem in several different ways. This may open some doors in terms of solutions. Next,
students should develop at least two solutions to the problem.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada, Inc. All rights reserved.


314
Chapter 8: Language, Thinking, and Reasoning

Activity: Availability Heuristics

Objective: To demonstrate the potential shortcoming of availability heuristics


Materials: See Handout Master 8.2
Procedure: When people judge the relative frequency of objects or events, they are often influenced by
the relative availability or accessibility of such events in their own memories. Distribute the handout and
ask the students to indicate their answers to the questions. Their estimates are influenced by the
availability heuristic if they indicate that the number of words beginning with r or k is greater than the
number of words with those letters appearing third. This is because first letters are more useful cues than
third letters for referencing and accessing items in one’s personal word collection. It is easier to generate
(i.e., make available) words that begin with the letters. Actually, words with those letters appearing third
are far more numerous. Similarly, their estimate of the number of women faculty on campus should be
positively correlated with the number of female professors they have actually had.

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Instructor’s Manual for Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding, Second Canadian Edition

▼ HANDOUT MASTERS FOR CHAPTER 8: LANGUAGE, THINKING, AND INTELLIGENCE


 Handout Master 8.1 Breaking Sets in Problem Solving
 Handout Master 8.2 Availability Heuristics

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Chapter 8: Language, Thinking, and Reasoning

Handout Master 8.1


Breaking Sets in Problem Solving

Think of a problem. Describe it concisely, then list four alternative ways to describe the difficulty.

Initial statement of the problem:

Alternate 1:

Alternate 2:

Alternate 3:

Alternate 4:

Describe the problem from the point of view of other parties involved:

Describe two solutions to this problem, indicating how these solutions are influenced by the particular
statement of the problem you have chosen:

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Instructor’s Manual for Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding, Second Canadian Edition

Handout Master 8.2


Availability Heuristics
Heuristics

1. In the English language, are there more words beginning with the letter r or more words with the
letter r appearing as the third letter?

 First position

 Third position

2. In the English language, are there more words beginning with the letter k or more words with the
letter k appearing as the third letter?

 First position

 Third position

3. What percentage of the faculty at this college/university are women?

________ %

4. How many of your courses have been taught by female professors?

________ courses

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Chapter 8: Language, Thinking, and Reasoning

WEB RESOURCES
Language

Centre for the Study of Language and Information: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/


This independent research centre founded by researchers from Stanford University provides information
about their current and past publications.

Language Learning: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/learn.jsp


A National Science Foundation site on language learning in children and adults provides interesting
information on theory, critical periods for language acquisition, and a section on why we need to further
study language.

Do Apes Use Language?—The Why Files: http://whyfiles.org/058language/ape_talk.html


Interesting article on the topic.

Primate Use of Language


http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/language.htm
Very nice review of studies of language acquisition in primates by Lauren Kosseff, of Tufts University.

Language and Thought

The Role of Language in Intelligence: http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/rolelang.htm


A link to an interesting essay by Daniel Dennett on the link between language and thought.

TableContents
Reading
Speed Reading Test Online:

http://ww.readinsoft.com/

Students should get a kick out of this Web site, given that the text exposes the fact that evidence for the
effectiveness of speed reading is basically nonexistent.

Thinking and Reasoning

Anagram Server: http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html


Find anagrams for any word.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada, Inc. All rights reserved.


319
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Horses
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Horses

Author: Roger Pocock

Author of introduction, etc.: J. C. Ewart

Release date: March 25, 2024 [eBook #73259]

Language: English

Original publication: London: John Murray, 1916

Credits: Al Haines

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORSES ***


HORSES

BY ROGER POCOCK
Author of "A Frontiersman"
Founder of the Legion of Frontiersmen
Editor of "The Frontiersman's Pocket Book"

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
PROFESSOR J. COSSAR EWART, F.R.S.

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1917

FIRST EDITION ... FEB., 1916

REPRINTED ....... JUNE, 1917


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WORKS BY THE
SAME AUTHOR
PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY.

JESSE OF CARIBOO.

THE SPLENDID BLACKGUARD.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

INTRODUCTION

I. THE ORIGIN OF THE HORSE

II. THE ORIGIN OF HORSE VARIETIES

III. HABITS OF OUTDOOR HORSES

IV. THE CONQUEST OF THE HORSE

V. THE HORSE IN HISTORY

VI. HORSEMANSHIP
VII. THE PLEASURE HORSE

VIII. THE SOLDIER HORSE

CONCLUSION

INDEX

PREFACE.

By PROFESSOR J. COSSAR EWART, F.R.S.

Roger Pocock's book is in many ways remarkable. It affords evidence of


far more erudition than seems compatible with the unsettled and busy life of
a frontiersman. In some parts it is highly speculative, deals with problems
rarely discussed or even mentioned by hippologists, in others it is severely
practical, and affords evidence of the close study of horses and
horsemanship in all parts of the world. The more the reader knows of
cosmic changes and of the origin, history and habits of horses, wild, feral
and tame, the more he is likely to be fascinated by "Horses." The chapters
on the History of the horse and on horsemanship are highly suggestive and
interesting, but at the moment those on the Pleasure Horse and the Soldier
Horse claim and deserve most attention. We soon forgot about the loss of
over 300,000 horses in the Boer War, with the result that when the World
War broke out in 1914 we were as deficient in horses as in men and
munitions. If the suggestions made by a horsemaster who knows more
about Range than Indoor or Pleasure horses—suggestions as to the
breeding, rearing, and management of military horses—are duly considered
we may have an ample supply of suitable horses for our next war.

J. COSSAR EWART.
UNIVERSITY, EDINBURGH,
September, 1916.

INTRODUCTION.

In the world where the horse lives there is one god. This god is only a
human creature, soldier by trade, stockrider, groom, or drayman, but from
him all things proceed. So far as the horse knows his god made the girth
gall and the harness, the oats and the weather, and most certainly provides a
lump of salt to lick, a canter over turf, or any other little scrap of Heaven
which falls into the world. So he hates his god or loves him, fears or trusts
him, trying always to believe in him, even if he has at times to kick the
deity to make sure he is really divine. His religion, his conduct, his whole
value, depend upon that poor god, who is usually well-meaning enough
although wont to practise a deal of ignorance. To get better horses one must
improve the strain of gods.

As a god to horses I was never quite a success, however hard I tried to


live up to a difficult situation. I attempted, for example, to learn about my
horses from scientific books, yet found the scientific writer rather trying. He
calls an animal who never injured him by such a name as Pachynolophus.
This may be safe enough behind the animal's back, provided the
philosopher makes quite sure that it is really and truly extinct. But suppose
he met one, would he call it a perissodactylic ungulate to its face? Not at
all! He would shin up a tree and use worse language than that.

So if the Reader finds me ignorant, I beg him to lay the blame on men
of science who have dug up dead languages to make them a trade jargon
lest any education should reach the vulgar.

In his "Tropical Light," Surgeon General Woodruff, of the U.S. Army,


makes no mention of horses, but opens up a new field of thought. Professor
William Ridgeway, in his "Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred
Horse," commands the respect of every horseman by his researches in
history. Professor Cossar Ewart, by far the greatest living authority on
hippology, has, apart from the teaching of his books, most generously
granted me his private criticism. For the rest, burning my books behind me,
I have ventured to write about horses just because I love them. An old
rough-neck of the American ranges, who, living with horses, has tried to
understand them, sets down a few ideas which may be of use to horsemen.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN OF THE HORSE.

The material used in making a horse consists of grass and water. We


cannot make one because we are too ignorant. We know that for such a
making wisdom is needed beyond the last conception of our hearts,
knowledge far above the scope of our pretentious little sciences, power
omnipotent. Such attributes of wisdom, knowledge and power are divine.

The Almighty made the horse out of grass and water. From the
generating engine which we call the sun He used certain energies dimly
perceived by our science, the chemical, physical, electrical and psychical
forces which evolved, moulded and coloured the mechanism of a creature
strong, swift, enduring and beautiful, which is inhabited by a pure,
courageous, generous spirit like that of a human child. It only remains for
man to shut this creature up in a box, and then cut off his tail.

HORSE ANCESTORS.—To find the origin of the horse, one must trace
back to the Sixth Day of the Creation, a period known to science as the
Dawn of Times Present. The lands and seas were not arranged as in our
maps, for there was a Continent on the site of the North Atlantic, and broad
seas rolled over the areas now filled by Europe and North America. The
climate, too, was different, for except along the Equator, the skies were
rarely clear, but very cloudy, with enormous rains. The air was that of a hot-
house, and, even at the poles, trees such as the magnolia slept through the
winter night, and flowered in the warmth of the summer day. Except to
leeward of big continents and mountains the lands of the whole earth were a
continuous forest.

The forest ages That was the closing phase of the long Age of Dragons.
The principal beasts of the sea, the land and the air were
reptiles who laid and hatched eggs instead of giving birth to living children.
Few of them were so large as the elephants and whales of our own time, the
greatest were already extinct, but still there were enough uncouth and
monstrous beasts to make life exciting for the creatures on which they fed.

Longtails Hidden away in the forest there were little animals, of


reptile descent indeed, but quite free from family pride.
These converted reptiles were filled with the first divine quality which ever
appeared in the world, that mother-love which suckles the young at the
breast. We will call them the Longtails.

We humans often feel that there is not enough food to go round. We find
it hard to make both ends meet. We have to defend ourselves or run from
our enemies. So it was with the Longtails, who were always hungry, hard
up, and bound to fight or run. To put it roughly, some tribes of the Longtails
took to hunting, and became the ancestors of all beasts of prey, some took
to the trees as a refuge and feeding place, and so became the ancestors of
apes and men. But our business is with those who took to a vegetarian diet
and a habit of hiding or running. These stood on tip toe looking out for
danger, or ran to escape being eaten. For such purposes the five-toed foot of
the ancestral reptile, most useful on soft ground, became somewhat clumsy
and awkward. For running they were better off without a widely splayed
foot, so with the passing of many generations their needless inner and outer
toes shrank up the leg, became useless, and finally withered away, until no
trace remained. Here came the parting of the vegetarian running animals
into two big families. One family ran on the middle pair of toes, thus
becoming the ancestors of the cloven-hoofed pig, deer, antelope, sheep, and
ox. The other family ran upon the middle or third toe, and became the
ancestors of the rhinoceros, the tapir, and the horse.
Horse In the dense forests some of the vegetarian tribes of
ancestors animals had on the face two little bags or glands, to hold a
strong-smelling liquid. This perfume dropped on the
herbage helped the members of the herd to scent one another's trails, and so
keep together for company or defence. On the skulls of some kinds of
horses there may still be seen the hollow where the sac used to be.

The bald skin of the pig is boldly painted in splashes of pink and brown
to imitate the lights and shadows of forest undergrowth. The forest
ancestors of the horse were bald, and painted just the same way; and their
forest colouring may still be seen under the hairy coat, especially at the
muzzle, where the hair is thin.

Of direct ancestors to the horse the earliest known was a little fellow
called Hyracotherium, coloured no doubt like the pig or the hairless
Mexican dog, and not bigger than a toy terrier. His range extended from
England to New Mexico, across the old Atlantic continent. In him the
original five toes had been reduced to four on the front foot, and three on
the hind, as with the tapir, who is the very portrait of a horse-ancestor,
although of larger growth.

The tapir The tapir was ever a staunch conservative preferring


death to reform. So he remains, one of the most ancient of
all living animals, and relic of the long forgotten ages when the world was
one big forest. Nowadays the tapir range which covered all the northern
continents has shrunken to three districts widely sundered: Brazil, Mexico,
and the Malay Peninsula. In all three he is dying out, and in a few more
years will be extinct.

From the tapir's habits we may reason that the horse ancestors were
creatures not only of the deep glades of the forest, but also of closely
wooded mountain ranges. They were shy and harmless, feeding at night on
buds, leaves and the tender shoots of bushes, not on grass. To this diet the
horse reverts quite readily in times of famine, and in spring before the new
grass sprouts, while the stable vice called cribbing develops when there is
not enough bulk in his forage. The ancestors were fond of bathing, and
when hunted would take refuge in the water. It will be noted that although
wild horses do not bathe, the tame stock are excellent at swimming. The
dappled skin of the tapir had grown a coat of hair, dark brown in the
Americas, their original home. The long tail had shrunk, and in the tapir is
reduced to a mere bud.

But the main interest is in the tapir's snout, which, like the elephant's
trunk, has wonderful powers of holding and tearing down branches, of
feeling, sensing, and handling. The horse-ancestor had a tapir snout of
which the horse's upper lip is the survival. Play with any horse and you will
notice how the lips try to curl round and grip one's fingers, to bring them
within reach of the teeth. They will curl round, grip, and tear the bunch
grass or pampas grass of the wild ranges. They are softer than velvet,
delicate as a baby's hand, sensitive as the fingers of an artist, will caress like
a woman's lips. The short hairs have an exquisite sense of touch, the beard
bristles are used to sense grass with in the dark, and the whole instrument is
wondrously designed to select sweet grasses, rejecting poisonous or
unwholesome plants, so that feeding goes on through hours of total
darkness.

The earlier Had the Earth remained an unbroken forest under a roof
world of cloud there had been no change since the Age of
Dragons, no mighty drama of Creation lifting man and horse
out of the shadows to work together as master and servant in the conquest
and taming of the wilderness and final subjugation of the World.

The one great factor in Earth's history is the lessening of the sun's heat.
Through long revolving ages the heat which the Earth received from the sun
diminished. Ever less vapour was lifted from the Equatorial seas, the world-
roof of cloud thinned out and disappeared; direct sunshine poured down
instead of the endless rains; there was no moisture left to nourish the
worldwide forest. Little by little glades opened in the woodlands caused by
drought, savannahs replaced the timber, of tall jungle grasses, the openings
widened into prairies, and vast grassy steppes, thousands of miles in
breadth, evolved at their centres an aching core of desert. So we have
reached the phase when forest, prairie and desert each claim one-third of the
land surface. We are passing on to the phase, which Mars has reached, of
world-wide desert, and beyond that is the far future when, like the Moon,
our Earth will swing dead through the great deeps of space.
The changing As the slow tremendous change of the Earth's climate
climate narrowed the forest, there was no longer food for all the
woodland animals, and some of them ventured out into the
open glades. Here was a final parting of the ways between the tapir who
stayed in the woods and the horse-ancestor who went out into the open. He
was as yet no bigger than a sheep, and still wore three toes on each foot, but
the grass diet agreed with him, for his tribe soon grew to the size of an
English donkey. The firmer ground no longer needed a wide tread to the
foot. Slowly the second and fourth toes shrank away up the leg, and hung
there like the dew claw of a dog, sometimes surviving more or less even in
human times, as with Julius Cæsar's charger. The next ages evolved an
animal the size of our ponies, running on one toe hardened to the hoof we
know to-day. The snout diminished, while the tail became a fly whisk.

Varieties of the So we have the beginning of a group of animals the


horse tarpan (Prejevalski) zebra, quagga and ass. They are so
much alike that one cannot easily tell from the bones to
which kind a skeleton belongs. We must think of them, then, as varieties of
the horse.

CHAPTER II.

THE ORIGIN OF HORSE VARIETIES.

PROPOSITIONS. In the study of any subject, if we can only begin by


clearing our vision, we shall have a sporting chance of avoiding muddle.

The horse, like man or any other animal, reflects his environment in
times past and present.

1. If all countries had equal lighting, all horses would reflect one colour.
2. If all countries were equally warm, all horses would grow the same
thickness of coat.

3. If all countries had equal moisture, all horses would show similar
endurance.

4. If all countries had one type of landscape, all horses would show the
same markings.

5. If all countries had one soil, all horses would be of one build.

6. If all countries had one weight of forage to the acre, all horses would
have one bulk.

7. If all countries had one quality of forage, all horses would have one
strength.

8. It follows that the study of light, heat, moisture, landscape, soil, and
food should explain the origin of the wild types of horses. Our breeds are
got by crossing from these varieties.

If, therefore, the facts which we find out by study shall correspond with
the reader's own experience of horses, no further proof is needed; but if they
fail to appeal to the reader's sense and judgment, no balancing of proofs
upon a point of falsehood will save a useless book from the flames which
await waste paper.

PART I. COLORATION BY SUNLIGHT.

Coloration by The best way to train one's sense of colour is to dabble


sunlight in landscape painting. At first, one feels that there must be a
personal Devil, but with luck the colours begin to clear,
showing that the tones of night and the deep sea are based on indigo, while
those of the day are blue, red and yellow variously mixed. The blend of blue
and red is violet; the mixture of blue and yellow gives us green; and if we
want an orange we use red and yellow. The blending of all seven is sunlight
in theory, but makes mud in practice.

In nature there are permanent colours like those of the night, and
transient hues like those of the sunrise or sunset. So the blue of the sky and
yellow of the earth make the green of living plants which seems to be
permanent until, in decay, the blue turns out to be transient, and passes
away leaving the herbage yellow. It is odd that the natural food of the horse
is dried herbage from which the blue has faded.

And so it is with man. We may eat green salads, containing transient


blue, but the permanent colours of our food are free from blue, and based
on red and yellow. Neither horse nor man would fatten on blue food.

Magic of Sunlight shining through blue glass will stop the growth
sunlight of plants. The various actions of coloured light upon the
human body are being studied in many hospitals.

Climate and The blue indigo and violet, or actinic rays, appear to
colour have a special mission in burning bad microbes, such as the
germs of disease. A green forest, for example, despite the
permanent yellow in its colour, is said to be partly transparent to these rays
which kill germs lurking in the soil. The flesh of men and beasts is red and
yellow, save only for the blue tinge of blood from which the oxygen has
been exhausted. Yet even despite its colouring, the tissue of the flesh is
partly transparent, so that actinic rays may kill bacilli, and sunshine is used
as a medicine for the sick. But the rays which begin by killing germs may
be strong enough in time to burn the living tissues. For that reason man and
the greater animals are armoured by red and yellow liquid paints in the
layers of skin, which vary in strength and volume with the degree of
sunlight in each climate, from pale hues in cloudy districts of low sun to an
intense black in the tropics.

Stocks native to forest shelter such as men, elephants and pigs are
guarded only with skin body colour. Those exposed to direct light—horses,
cattle and sheep, have also a coat of hair as a second armour against the
actinic rays, and this also varies in colour with the strength of sunshine,
from white in the regions of snow to the golden dun of lions and tigers, the
dun and bay of horses and the black of many species in regions of strong
light.

In men and other animals there is little red flesh covering for the brain,
the spine and the great ganglia of the nerve machinery. So many animals
like the lion and bison have manes as an extra shield for the nerve centres.
The human head and neck, for instance, grow hair, not to encourage
barbers, but for the prevention of sunstroke, and this varies in colour with
the degree of sunlight. So all natural breeds of horses have a dark forelock
and mane with a streak of strong brown or black colour from the withers to
the root of the tail, thus guarding the whole length of the spine. This armour
and shield defines for us two primitive types:

The Bay of the Desert produced in fierce light the year round.

The Dun of the Steppes produced in fierce light limited to the summer.

Protective And here the need of clear thought leads to a new


colour definition of "protective" colour.

The dun Siberian tiger, largest and fiercest of all cats, hunted the Dun
pony of the Steppes. The dun lion of Africa hunted the Bay horse. Had both
cats and both horses been painted sky blue, their relative chances in the
chase would be exactly the same. They do not owe meat or safety from
attack to their body colour. Both species would have perished under the
actinic rays of sunlight but for their equal shield of non-actinic colour.

The purpose of body colour is defence from actinic light. Only the
markings are protective as concealing animals from one another.

So far I have not been able to find in books about horses these
applications of facts accepted by men of science, which are of use to
horsemen. In the light of such evidence the close hogging of horse's manes
needs reconsidering.
PART II. THE GREAT ICE AGE.

The great Ice Unless a fellow can swim he has no business to go out of
Age his depth; but if he minds his business, he loses all the fun.

It is the application of these two principles which leads me to a problem


in the history of the horse which nobody has solved.

The species is native to the Americas, where it became extinct. One


theory of this extinction imagines a germ, like that of horse-sickness, whose
range covered all latitudes from tropic to sub-arctic. Such a hearty microbe
as that would seem unusual.

The other theory relates to a disagreeable change in the climate, which


overwhelmed the drainage basin of the North Atlantic with a field of
massive ice. That seems conclusive until one reflects that the Pacific slope
of the United States and the continent of South America remained as warm
as ever. The cold of the Great Ice Age does not explain the wiping out even
in North America of the camel, elephant, tapir and horse.

The Ice Age It has been my good fortune to make a series of voyages
to Bering Sea and Norway in the winter, and in summer
along the flanks of both the St. Elias and the Greenland ice-caps. In these
journeys by sail and steam, in boats, in canoes, with many landings and
scrambles across county, I was able to test the theories of Glacialogists
against the actual facts of the Great Ice Age.

The Croll theory makes the orbit of the Earth to change at regular
intervals into a long ellipse. By roasting one entire hemisphere it provides
vapour to cover the whole of the other hemisphere with snows which do not
melt. Evidence is scratched up and made the most of for previous ice ages.
An imaginary series of cosmic cataclysms is invoked to explain one merely
local unpleasantness.

Another theory sinks Central America—politically quite a good idea—


and throws the Gulf Stream into the Pacific, leaving the North Atlantic to be
frozen. It does not explain the American lobe of the icefield which brushed
the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in a region outside the influence of the
Gulf Stream.

It was never the business of Glacialogists to notice that under the inland
ice and the great lava floods of Greenland lie pressed magnolia leaves in the
high Arctic. These tell me of cloudy skies saving the summer's warmth all
through the polar night, of a vast cloud sphere sheltering the whole Earth
from a sun much hotter than we know to-day. The Ice Age to me is an
incident in that clearing of the skies which dried the world-forest, made the
grass steppes and deserts, and evolved the horse.

The Ice-field The Glacialogists make the Ice Age an episode of the
to-day past. Without the slightest relevance to any obliquity of the
Orbit, or vagaries of the Gulf Stream, the Ice-cap persists to-
day as a living fact. I have been there, have seen it, and cannot be persuaded
otherwise. The forces which created the Ice-cap are still at work, and as
they merely strengthen or relax, the Icefield grows or shrinks. These forces
made the Ice flood to plough the fields and train the folk for seeding a crop
of human empires—British, American, Russian, and German world-powers.
The ice which prepared town-sites for Moscow, Petrograd, Berlin, London,
and New York, may come again to sweep them all away. We are not
behaving ourselves so very nicely.

I have no theory as to what forces enlarged or contracted the ice flood.


The theme of this study is the horse, a creature of grass and water
constructed by the forces in sunshine and fresh air, and coloured by the
skies. To the skies we must look if we would trace his origin, to the
mechanism of the Ice-cap if we would know how his varieties were
specialized out of the general type. So let us have a look at the machinery
which made and maintains the Ice-cap.

PART III. THE SOU'-WESTER.

The Sou'- We have to study four regions of one great Sou'-wester


wester wind, which is known to navigators as the South-west
Counter-Trade.

WESTERN REGION. The tropic sunshine lifts masses of hot,


tremulous vapour from the surface of the Equatorial Pacific. This vapour
lifts to a great height and there condenses into clouds. The clouds are swept
by the south-west wind and form their floor at a height above the sea of
about two miles. The Rocky Mountains reach up bare and stony hands to
clutch at the flying moisture and bring down whirling snowstorms. On
sweep the cloud fleets across the Canadian Plains with rarely a drop of rain
to spare through the summer for the thirsting grass beneath. But slowly the
cloud-floor slopes downward until at last the cloud-fleets come to ground,
and the breath of the sou'-wester becomes visible as the Northern Forest.
Beyond that forest the wind trails its cold vapours over the sub-Arctic
tundras of North-Eastern Canada, lashing bleak rains on Baffin's Bay, to
spend the last of its moisture in the form of snow upon the Greenland Ice-
cap.

Central region CENTRAL REGION. From the eastern part of the


Equatorial Pacific, about the neighbourhood of the
Gallipagoes, a second echelon of the sou'-wester brings its immense load of
flying clouds high in the air across the United States to slant down out of
the skies and brush the Atlantic in the Forties. Strong gales trail their clouds
along the Gulf Stream, taking a deal of warmth out of that current. Exposed
trees in North-western Europe are slightly bent by the stress of Atlantic
gales, while all the trailing clouds discharge their cargoes of warm rain
across the Baltic Region. The British Isles, for example, get an annual
ration amounting to thirty cubic miles of water fresh from the Equatorial
Pacific.

These two large echelons of the sou'-wester carried the vapour which
once fell as snow to form the Icefields of the Great Ice Age.

The Ice-cap The skies were clearing. The planet was being stripped
of its cloud roof, so that its warmth from the sun was
radiated at night and in winter directly into Space. Except to leeward of the
Gulf Stream, the lands of the North Atlantic are still sub-Arctic as in
Labrador. These lands were more extensive then than now, forming a bridge
about a thousand miles wide from Arctic Canada across Smith's Sound to
Greenland, and thence by way of the Faroes to Scotland, which was part of
the European main. On this bleak bridge which spanned the North Atlantic
permanent snows heaped up to mountainous heights forming the nucleus of
the giant Ice-cap. Its western lobe touched the Rocky Mountains and the
Missouri Valley, its eastern wing covered the Russian plains as far as
Moscow, and southward flooded the German Empire. It may be that the
North Atlantic bridge, remnant of an elder continent, sank slowly until it
foundered under its load of ice. So the sea melted the ice and the climate
began to mend.

EASTERN REGION. A third echelon of the sou'-wester comes from the


equatorial belt of South America down to 15°S. This does not take up any
great load of moisture, for the wind blows nearly dry across the heights of
air which overhang the Atlantic. It has little moisture to spare for the
Mediterranean summer, none at all for the levels of the Sahara, Arabia,
Persia, and the deserts of Central Asia. The lands to leeward of Brazil are
deserts.

FAR EASTERN REGION. In Asia, the movements of the sou'-wester


are complicated by the south-west monsoon, and the immense ranges of the
Himalaya. Eastward lies one more echelon of the South-west Counter
Trade. Just as the sou'-wester in the North Atlantic is warmed by the Gulf
Stream, so the sou'-wester of the North Pacific is warmed by the Japan
current. Before the uplift of the St. Elias Alps, the region of Alaska, and of
Bering-Sea was a warm and well-watered lowland. Alaska still grows
gigantic timber in latitudes where North Scotland and South Norway have
only scrubby bushes.

PART IV. THE STORY OF BERING LAND.

Bering land Any reader who is really and truly interested in tapirs
will remember that some live in the Malay States, and the
rest of them in South and Central America. Between these countries there is
a slightly flattened facet of the planet filled from remote ages by the Pacific
Ocean. Nobody with the slightest liking for tapirs would suspect them of

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