Post on 04-Jan-2016
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Thinking and language notes (9nc)• What is cognition?• What is a schema?• What is a prototype?• How we solve problems?• What is convergent thinking? Divergent thk?• Obstacles to solving problems? • What are phonemes and morphemes?• What is grammar, semantics, syntax?• Skinner’s and Chomsky’s language development
theories?• ? What are phonemes and morphemes?• What is grammar, semantics, syntax?• Skinner’s and Chomsky’s language development
theories
Thinking and Language
stolen from appsychology.com
Cognition• Another term for thinking, knowing
and remembering
Maybe by studying the way we think, we can eventually think better.
Does the way we think really matter?
Concepts• A mental grouping
of similar objects, events, ideas or people.
• Concepts are similar to Piaget’s idea of….
In order to think about the world, we form……..
SchemasThese animals all look different, but they fall under our concept of “dogs”.
Prototypes
• A mental image or best example of a category.
We base our concepts on ….
•If a new object is similar to our prototype, we are better able to recognize it.
If this was my prototype of a man; then what am I?
How do we solve problems?
Trial and Error
Algorithms• A methodical, logical
rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
What are the benefits and detriments of algorithms?
Heuristics
• A rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
•A short cut (that can be prone to errors).
Who would you trust to baby-sit your child?
Your answer is based on your heuristic of their appearances.
Insight
• A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.
•No real strategy involved
What are some obstacles to problem solving?
Confirmation Bias• A tendency to
search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
For example, if you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions occur during other nights of the month. (Fights during lunch?)
Match Problem
Can you arrange these six matches into four equilateral triangles?
Match Problem
Fixation• The inability to
see a problem from a new perspective.
Mental Set
•A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past.
•May or may not be a good thing.
Functional Fixedness
• The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.
What are some things I can do with this quarter (other than spend it)?
Barriers: Functional Fixedness
Functional fixedness: unable to think of unusual or unique uses for objects
Divergent thinking, Convergent thinking
• Divergent thinking is thinking outside the box. It means you are creative in coming up with solutions nobody else came up with.
• Convergent thinking is more conforming but just as good. Sometimes the standard way is the best.
Types of Heuristics(That often lead to errors)
Representativeness Heuristic
• A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype.
• Can cause us to ignore important information.
Below is Linda. She loves books and hates loud noises. Is Linda a librarian or a beautician?
Chances are, she is a beautician!!!
Availability Heuristic
• Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory.
•If it comes to mind easily (maybe a vivid event) we presume it is common.
Although diseases kill many more people than accidents, it has been shown that people will judge accidents and diseases to be equally fatal. This is because accidents are more dramatic and are often written up in the paper or seen on the news on t.v., and are more available in memory than diseases.
Tornadoes – we overestimate how many die and how often they occur
Overconfidence• The tendency to
be more confident than correct.
• To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments.
Considering “overconfidence” who you want to risk 1 million dollars on an audience poll?
Framing
• The way an issued is posed.
• It can have drastic effects on your decisions and judgments.
How do you think framing played a part in the 2008 election?
Belief Bias
1. Democrats support free speech
• The tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning.
• Sometimes making invalid conclusions valid or vice versa.
2.Dictators are not Democrats.
3. Republicans are not Democrats.
Conclusion: Republicans do not support free speech.
Belief Perseverance
•Clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.All Cowboy fans who still believe that
this is their year are suffering from belief perseverance.
• 1.The belief that the probability of heads is higher after a long string of tails:
• A. is rational and accurate
• B. is an example of “gambler’s fallacy”
• C. reflects the influence of the representatives heuristic.
• D. b and c
• 2. A heuristic is:• A. a flash of insight
• B. guiding principle or rule of thumb used in problem solving
• C. a methodical procedure for trying all possible solutions to a problem.
• D. a way of making a compensatory decision.
• 3. The more confident you are about your predictions of upcoming events in your life:
• A. the more likely it is that your predictions are accurate
• B. the less likely it is that your predictions are overconfident
• C. the more likely it is that your predictions are overconfident
• D. a and b
D, B, C
Language and Thought
Its all about communication!!!
Language
• Our spoken written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.
Believe it or not, this communication is a form of language!!!
Phonemes
• In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
• Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.
How many phonemes does platypus have? Phones make sound.
Morphemes
• In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning.
• Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix).
Grammar
• A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.
Semantics
• The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language.
• Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.
The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules. They usually have totally different symbols for different tenses.
Syntax
• The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish!!
Is this the White House of the House White?
• Which is the smallest unit of meaning in a language?
• A. genome
• B. morpheme
• C. phoneme
• D. phonogram
Research suggests that bilingualism has a negative effect on:
• A. language development
• B. cognitive development
• C. metalinguistic awareness
• D. none of the above
The answer was B for the last question.
Language development
• How many words do you think you know now?
Probably around 80,000.
After age 1 you average about 13 words a day.
Language Development
• Babbling Stage: starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds. Not limited to the phonemes of the infant’s household language.
•One-word stage: 1-2 years old, uses one word to communicate big meanings.
•Two word stage: at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings- called telegraphic speech.
How do we explain language development?
Skinner
• Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory (which is?). The young boy imitates
his dad, then gets a reward.
ChomskyInborn Universal Grammar
• We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.
• We have this “learning box” inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.
Does language influence our thinking?
Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity• The idea that
language determines the way we think (not vive versa).
•The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.
Do people that speak more than one language think differently
depending on their language at that time?
Thinking without Language• We can think in words.
• But more often we think in mental pictures.
In 1977, Reggie Jackson hit 3 HR’s against the Dodgers. He has stated that before each at bat, he visualizes crushing a home run. Do you think visualization helps?
Language is creative
• Do you feel “starbucky” today?
Do Animals think?
Kohler’s Chimpanzees• Kohler
exhibited that Chimps can problem solve.
Honeybees seem to communicate
Apes and Signing
How Do ChildrenAcquire Language?
Infants and children face an especially important
developmental task with the acquisition of language
How Children Acquire Language
• Innateness theory of language –Children learn language mainly by following an inborn program for acquiring vocabulary and grammar
• Language acquisition device (LAD) – Structure in the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar
How Children Acquire Language
• Early stages of language acquisition include the following:– The babbling stage (ba ba ba ba)– The one-word stage (daddy)– The two-word stage (Elmo red)– Telegraphic speech (short, simple sentences)
(I like ice cream.)
– The naming explosion
The Rules of Grammar
– Grammar – The rules of a language
– Morphemes –Meaningful units of language that make up words
– Overregularization –Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms(e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”)
How Children Acquire Language
• Other language skillsSocial rules of conversation
Abstract words (e.g. hope, truth)
Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses
information from the senses, emotions, and memory to
create and manipulate mental representations, such as
concepts, images, schemas, and scripts
What Are theComponents of Thought?
Concepts• Concepts –
Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience– Natural concepts represent objects and
events– Artificial concepts are defined by rules
• We organize much of our declarative memories into concept hierarchies
Animal
FishBird
SalmonSharkOstrichCanary
Has skinEats
Breathes
Has finsCan swimHas gills
Has wingsCan fly
Has feathers
Can singIs yellow
Can’t flyIs tall
Can biteIs dangerous
Is pinkIs edible
Schemas and Scripts Help you Know What to Expect
• Schema – A knowledge cluster or general framework that provides expectations about topics, events, objects, people, and situations in one’s life
• Script – A cluster of knowledge about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings
Selecting a Strategy• Algorithms –
Problem-solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied
• Heuristics – Cognitive strategies used as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks; they do not guarantee a correct solution
Heuristics
• Useful heuristics include:– Working backward– Searching for analogies– Breaking a big problem into smaller problems
Working Backwards
Obstacles to Problem Solving
• Mental set – Tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for a previous problem
• Functional fixedness – Inability to perceive a newuse for an object associatedwith a different purpose
Unscramble These Words
• nelin• ensce• sdlen• lecam• slfal• dlchi• neque
• raspe• klsta• nolem• dlsco• hsfle• naorg• egsta
Unscrambled Words• linen• scene• lends• camel• falls• child• queen
• pears• talks• melon• colds• shelf• groan• gates
The algorithm you used to solve the first column probably kept you from seeing the multiple
solutions for the words in the second column
Obstacles to Problem Solving
• Other obstacles include:– Self-imposed limitations– Lack of interest– Fatigue– Drugs (legal and illegal)
The Nine-Dot Problem
. . .
. . .
. . .
Without lifting your pen from the page, can you connect all nine dots with only four lines?
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias
Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias
Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias
Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias
Availability BiasAvailability Bias
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
• Ignoring or finding fault with information that does not fit our opinions, and seeking information with which we agree
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
• Tendency, after learning about an event, to believe that one could have predicted the event in advance
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
• Faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a completely unrelated quantity
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias
Availability Bias
• Faulty heuristic strategy based on presumption that, once a person or event is categorized, it shares all features of other members in that category
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability BiasAvailability Bias
• Faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled from personal experience
End of Chapter 7
Chapter 8 Quiz
Language and Thought
Don’t forget to write your answers on a separate piece of paper to grade when
you’re done!1. Phonemes are:
a) The rules of grammar that dictate letter combinations in a language
b) The smallest unit of sound in a language
c) The smallest unit of meaning in a language
d) Semantically the same as morphemes
2. Because it has all the features commonly associated with the concept bird, a robin is considered a(n):
a) prototypeb) heuristicc) algorithmd) phenotype
3. Compared to convergent thinkers, to solve a problem divergent thinkers are more likely to:
a) Process information to arrive at the single best answer
b) Think creatively and generate multiple answers
c) Problem solve in a systematic step-by-step fashion
d) Frequently suffer from functional fixedness
4. Unlike B. F. Skinner, Noam Chomsky believes that childrena) Learn to speak by mimicking the sounds around themb) Speak more quickly if their parents correct their mispronunciations earlierc) Are hard-wired for language acquisitiond) Learn language more quickly if positive rewards are given to them
5. Which of the following is a good example of functional fixedness?
a) Failing to use a dime as a screwdriver when you have lost your screwdriverb) Not being able to solve a physics problem because you apply the same rule you always doc) Using a blanket as a pillowd) Adding water to a cake mix when it calls for milk
6. Having been told that Syd is an engineer and Fran is an elementary school teacher, when Arnold meets the couple for the first time, he assumes that Syd is the husband and Fran is the wife, rather than the opposite, which is the case. This best illustrates:
a) Confirmation biasb) The mere exposure effectc) The anchoring effectd) The representativeness heuristic
7. Which of the following is a holophrase one-year-old Amanda is likely to say?
a) “Mmmmm”
b) “Gaga”
c) “Eat apple”
d) “Bottle”
8. Which of the following exemplifies retroactive interference?
a) After suffering a blow to the head, Jean cannot form new memories.
b) Elle failed a Spanish test because she studied for her Italian test after studying Spanish.
c) Lee cannot remember an important date on the history exam.
d) Gene cannot remember his new locker combination, but he remembers the one from last year.
9. According to the nativist theory, language is acquired
a) By parents reinforcing correct language use
b) Using an inborn ability to learn language at a certain developmental stage
c) Best in the language and culture native to the child and parents
d) Only if formal language instruction is provided in the child’s native language
10. In light of their views on language acquisition, which theorist would expect apes to progress the furthest in language development?
a) B. F. Skinner
b) Noam Chomsky
c) Jean Piaget
d) Herb Terrance
11.The linguistic relativity hypothesis predicts that
a) People should have difficulty thinking about things they cannot describe in words
b) Language and thought should develop independently
c) People in all cultures should think alike, despite their language differences
d) Language development should consistently lag behind cognitive development
12. In cultures that depend on hunting and gathering for subsistence, __________ style is more adaptive.
a) A field dependent
b) A risk-averse
c) A field independent
d) An algorithmic
13.Corey was serving on a jury in a criminal case, and the jury reached a unanimous “not guilty” verdict. Several months later, some additional evidence came to light that strongly suggested that the defendant was, in fact, guilty of the crime in question. Corey is still not convinced by the new evidence, and claims he wouldn’t have voted guilty, even if the new information had been presented during the trial. In this example, Corey is showing evidence of
a) The conjunction fallacyb) The availability heuristicc) Belief perseveranced) Mental set
14.Dr. Grath believes that both an innate predisposition and a supportive environment contribute to language development. Dr. Grath’s views are MOST consistent with those of
a) Behavioral theories
b) Nativist theories
c) Whorfian theories
d) Interactionist theories
15.Fast mapping is
a) The development of a mental representation of one’s environment
b) The pacing activity associated with genetics, allowing for anticipation of motivational events
c) The type of play a child engages in at an early age
d) Mapping words to underlying concepts after only one exposure