Michael Scorie, Verrazano Class of 2018, earned majors in Psychology and Philosophy, and minors in English, East Asian Studies, and History.
A twelve-page essay on the topic of my
choice? How easy I thought. After all, I had already written papers of similar
length for several classes during my college career. However, it soon became
clear to me that this was not just another paper.
I
half-heartedly started my capstone paper in the Spring of 2017. I say
half-heartedly because for me, it was a long, drawn-out process. Part of the
reason for my apprehension in completing this assignment was because of a
combination of school and work that competed for my attention. However, I also
realized that this project was in-a-way symbolic of the end of my time at CSI.
Having spent three years here, this project lingering over my head was a
constant reminder that I would soon have to apply for graduate schools and pay
much more serious attention to my future. As someone who hates (or at the very
least dislikes) change, I was not looking forward to making potentially
life-altering decisions and leaving the place that I had grown so comfortable
with and accustomed to.
Though I got off to a slow start, once I
organized my thoughts into an outline and started doing research, I really
rather enjoyed completing this paper. As I was able to write about any academic
subject, I decided to write about the history of psycholinguistics. What I
previously learned from my classes very nicely complimented the new information
I was learning. I have always been interested in studying how language
influences human psychology and vice versa, and this paper gave me the freedom
and impetus to do so. As I intend to become a school psychologist, I feel as
though what I learned about language can be very helpful when working with
children in and out of a school setting. In addition, what I learned can also
just as easily be applied to an adult population.
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| Getting the work done at the library |
One of the many things that I learned from my
research is that true mastery of a language is very unlikely to occur if one
begins to learn said language following puberty. This is a result of a decrease
in neuroplasticity in the brain. However, what really stood out to me is that
the same holds true for users of signed languages. People who learn a sign
language in childhood are far more likely to demonstrate mastery of it than
those who learn it in adulthood. In hindsight, I realize that this probably
doesn’t surprise anyone all that much. After all, even if you’re one of the few
people who knows more than “si” after four years of high school Spanish or
Italian (I certainly don’t fall into that category), you still probably find
yourself struggling at least a little to keep up with native speakers. This is
understandable, and a crucial aspect of what psycholinguistics is all about.
I also learned just how much language can be
used to sway psychological research. For example, framing effect is a
phenomenon where one’s choice is dependent on how two or more stimuli are
presented. In one study I reviewed, native Thai speakers were more willing to
select a risky option when presented said options in English than in Thai (with
researchers hypothesizing that this is due to first languages being associated
with early basic emotions). Perhaps most interesting to me however was wording
effect. This occurs when words or the ordering of words can sway a studies
results. One of the main causes of this is when researchers use synonyms to describe
something when another word may be more fitting. I think this is something that
most of us encounter in our lives. Despite having similar or even identical definitions,
do “good,” “okay,” and “fine” really have the same meaning?
I had a lot of
initial apprehension in completing this project, but I’m glad that I (eventually)
finished it. I learned a lot, and even the knowledge that won’t help me in my
future career is still very much welcome. I’m grateful to my faculty advisor who
helped me organize my ideas and motivated me to meet and exceed my deadlines,
and I’m grateful to the Verrazano School for four years of amazing
opportunities.
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