Scarince, Collin2023-06-072023-06-074/6/2023https://hdl.handle.net/1969.6/96437Module 19: Language and Psychology Perry has to prepare a presentation with his study group. They text each other and decide to meet at one of their apartments. Perry arrives right on time and enters his living-room, without closing the door. They begin working when one of the group members says: "It's gotten kind of cold in here." Perry then stands back up and closes the door. Why did Perry do that? His group member did not ask him to close the door, yet Perry knew what they meant. This banal series of events highlights the utility of language. The group members used digital visual symbols to communicate about a future meeting at a location most of them had not been to before. The group was meeting to collectively create a presentation that uses language to share specialized information. Finally, Perry was able to infer that his teammate wanted the door closed without them using the words door or close. Language is a central part of everyday life and communication a natural human necessity. For those reasons there has been a high interest in their properties. However, describing the processes of language turns out to be quite hard. We can broadly define language as a system of symbolic communication through which we code and express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences.en-USAttribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/open educational resourcescognitive psychologylanguageBook chapter