A Cognitive Account of the Puzzle of Ideography
This is an incremental contribution to cognitive science and linguistics, addressing a theoretical problem for researchers in these fields.
The paper tackles the puzzle of why spoken languages dominate over graphic codes in human communication by proposing a cognitive account based on modality effects, chunking, multi-sensory integration, and serialized attention, complementing an existing standardization account.
In this commentary article to 'The Puzzle of Ideography' by Morin, we put forth a new cognitive account of the puzzle of ideography, that complements the standardization account of Morin. Efficient standardization of spoken language is phenomenologically attributed to a modality effect coupled with chunking of cognitive representations, further aided by multi-sensory integration and the serialized nature of attention. These cognitive mechanisms are crucial for explaining why languages dominate graphic codes for general-purpose human communication.