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Automaticity and Higher-Order Control in Communication: A Brief Introduction to Language and Social Cognition

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Subcortical Structures and Cognition

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Abstract

Language is a powerful cognitive tool. It enables us to live in groups and to socialize. These are easy things to take for granted, and we often neglect the fact that language is actually much more than a social enabler. At base, language serves as a categorizer. It allows us to organize our world, to acquire information about it, to think about the world, to manipulate ideas, and to express all of this information to others. It evolved because it was biologically adaptive. It was necessary for language to evolve in order to facilitate interaction with a complex environment.

You can only see properly with the heart. The essence of things is invisible to the eyes.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince

Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

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  1. Park Ridge, IL, USA

    Leonard F. Koziol

  2. Manhattan Beach, CA, USA

    Deborah Ely Budding

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Koziol, L.F., Budding, D.E. (2009). Automaticity and Higher-Order Control in Communication: A Brief Introduction to Language and Social Cognition. In: Subcortical Structures and Cognition. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84868-6_6

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