The first part of this experiment was actually pretty challenging. I attempted it with my younger sister. the whole time it was actually pretty amusing because of how complicated it was to communicate without words to the person i talk all day and everyday. Without words we would literally have to get up and act things out or make funny motions to get each others attention. our gestures were at times really helpful but if or when we had to repeat them multiple times either me or her would give up in trying to get our point across.we were actually doing pretty well till she ended up getting frustrated when she was trying to ask for help and i had no idea what she was implying. this challenge made it clear how important verbal communication is in our lives.
It was interesting to see that my little sister was actually the one taking control of the conversation. but that really didnt surprise me since she's the loudest in my family and loves to talk to everyone and anyone. i feel in her mindset it was all a game and being as competitive as she is she was not gonna be the one to talk first. But of course her being a chatterbox she did which did not surprise me either.
In my opinion the culture with the spoken language would have the advantage in communicating complex ideas. i think this because complex ideas could be extremely important and would need to be clearly expressed. as for if they were to use symbolic language an important piece of information could be misunderstood or even missed. An example of two cultures today could be humans and animals. animals can not verbally communicate to people. for example if a pet needs something it cant verbally ask its owner for it. so the animal will try to get the owners attention and the person will observe the pets actions and behaviors to figure out what an animal might need.
Part 2
The second part of the experiment seemed more demanding then the first. It surprised me that this part was actually way more challenging. It took us about five tries before we could even get a solid sentence following the rules. even after that sentence we could only keep the seriousness for maybe one minute. besides that minute we struggled with our hand movements and facial expressions. whatever we were able to say we could definitely understand clearly but it made everything very difficult to wasn't seriously because of how weird we looked not being able to move or put emotion behind our words.
in my opinion the experiment showed that movement is very important. i feel that expression through movement and verbal communication are necessary together to make things clearly understood. a persons movements can literally set the tone for the conversion they are having. movements and expressions are what we use to show the difference between something serious and something with no seriousness. body language is one of the characteristics that makes us human and help by making communication easier between one another. being able to observe a persons body language is an advantage because it helps by being able to read and predict peoples actual feelings and emotions. a situation were body language might not be a reliable source could be if a person has an extremely serious facial expression someone might perceive them as them being mean or rude and non approachable. But in reality they could be the friendliest and kind person you could meet. which is why it is important not to judge someone without giving the opportunity to get to know them first.
I enjoyed reading your language experiment, I agree with you completely using your hands for gesture and body language are very important part of conversation that we take for granted. I really like your comment on getting to know a person before casting judgement, I think that is a very important thing to always remember.
ReplyDeleteHey Ileanna,
ReplyDeleteI actually found the second part of the experiment a lot easier than the first part. It was difficult at first because it is hard to talk with out using any kind of body langue. There were few time where me and my partner slipped up and used hand movements or facial expressions. But not being able to speak is a lot more difficult to me. It is very hard to get your point across without talking.
The instructions for the experiments indicated that only you were supposed to limit your communication. Your partner was supposed to communicate normally. It seems as if you had both you and your partner only using body language in the first experiment and both of you only using symbolic language in the second? This will lead you to different conclusions and different answers for the questions in the guidelines.
ReplyDeleteGood description for your first experiment with the side note that your partner should have been using full communication for this experiment.
If you sister had been using symbolic language in the first experiment, who do you think would have had the control and power in the conversation? With both of you using the same level of communication, it is a toss up as to whom will take control and you may find both sharing it equally.
I agree with your conclusions on the matter of communicating complex ideas.
While I see your point on the human/animal parallel you are attempting to draw, we are talking about the evolution of human symbolic language so it would have been more useful to find a human/human parallel. For example, you see examples of this experiment in our immigrant population. They are able to speak their own languages but have difficulty speaking the local language and this makes communication very difficult and giving power to those who do speak the local language, similar to what you should have experienced here.
Okay on your description for part 2, but you may just want to try this experiment again with your partner using their full level of communication to see if your experience is different.
I agree that body language enhances communications and provides information on emotion, but it goes beyond that. Humans actually use body language as a lie detector. If your words don't match your body language, a warning flag goes up in the head of the person you are talking to, suggesting that what you said was not true. This can be used benignly to figure out if a friend is more upset than they are letting on so you can help them, or it can be used to evaluate the honesty of a stranger you have just met. Can you trust them? Does their body language match their promise to help you? If you lend them money, will they repay it?
"...body language is one of the characteristics that makes us human ..."
Actually, this is what we have in common with non-human animals. It is symbolic language that comes closest to distinguishing us from non-humans, not body language.
"...it helps by being able to read and predict peoples actual feelings and emotions."
So how is this adaptive? How does it help us with our survival and reproductive success? And to take it a step further, how does the use of body language as a lie detector (mentioned above) serve as an adaptation? How does it help your survival to be able to detect those who are lying to you?
Can you identify a group of people who are characterized as having difficulty reading body language? Missing the answer to that question.
While I agree we need to be careful to take physical deformities into consideration, I suggest this wouldn't be reason enough to avoid reading body language. What about if you travel to another country? Do all cultures use the same system of body language? Is it possible that the body language could mislead you?