How did humans think about things before they had language?

In partnership with The Conversation, #Trending brings you Curious Kids, a series in which we ask experts to answer questions from kids.

How did humans think about things, before they had language to think with? – Katie, aged 11, Sydney, Australia

Nick Chater, professor of behavioural science, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK

“It is easy to imagine that we think in whatever language we speak. But this is entirely wrong: language can express some of the results of our thinking, but it’s not the thinking itself.

The thoughts come first, and the expression of our thoughts in words, whether out loud or in our heads, comes later and much more slowly – if at all.

We can, and do, think about things without language, all the time. I don’t think in English, but I can report some of my thoughts in English, when I have the time to do so.

And it turns out that people who have aphasia – which means they sometimes can’t use or understand language, perhaps because they had a stroke – can do difficult maths, problem-solving and reasoning tasks, as long, of course, as these don’t involve language.

You can test this yourself by shutting down your inner voice. Simply repeat a single word quickly, either out loud or in your head – a trick psychologists call “articulatory suppression”.

You’ll find that while you’re repeating the word, you can no longer think using words, but you can still plan, reason and imagine, pretty much as normal.

But even though we don’t think in language, it does help us make our thoughts clear. The real magic of language is that it helps us share our thoughts with other people.

This means we don’t have to face the world all by ourselves – we can learn from the cleverness of the generations who have gone before us. This lets humans develop the really complicated scientific theories, laws, financial systems, histories and stories that make our lives so incredibly rich.

So we can, and do, think without language. But the invention of language is the special trick that makes us so amazingly smart as a species.”

. To read more of Chater’s answer, go to theconversation.com

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