Cognition: Thinking and Language

1.Think of a number between 1 and 10 2.Multiply that number by 9 3.Add the digits of the answer 4.Subtract 5 from that number 5.Figure out which letter of the alphabet your number corresponds with (A = 1, B =2, C = 3, etc) 6.Take that letter and think of any country in the world that begins with that letter 7.Take the letter that comes next in the alphabet (if you letter was b now you would use C) and think of an animal that begins with that letter 8.Now think about what color that animal is 9.Now take the last letter of your country’s name and think of an animal that starts with that letter 10.Take the last letter of that animal and think of a fruit that starts with that letter

Cognitive Psychologists Cognition involves a number of mental activities, which are listed below. Cognitive psychologists study these in great detail. 1.Concepts 2.Problem solving 3.Decision making 4.Judgment formation Intuition is not enough, we need cognition when faced with problems

Concepts Concepts – Mental categories used to group objects, events, and characteristics Helps to generalize Makes processing simpler

Classical Model Some chairs have four legs, some three, some none. Most chairs can be sat upon but some chairs are too small for sitting. It seems that chairs have a family resemblance to each other but not a definition. Classical model All instances of a concept share defining properties

Prototypes Fruit  Apple  Peach  Pear  Grape  Strawberry  Lemon  Blueberry  Watermelon  Raisin  Fig  Coconut  Pomegranate  Avocado  Pumpkin Bird Robin Bluebird Seagull Swallow Falcon Mockingbird Starling Owl Vulture Sandpiper Chicken Flamingo Albatross Penguin Prototype model All instances of a concept are compared to a prototype (ideal example) of that concept

Problem Solving Strategies: Problem solving: an attempt to find an appropriate way of attaining a goal when the goal is not readily available Subgoaling  Set intermediate goals to help you reach the final solution Algorithms  Step by step strategies that guarantee a solution  Uses methodical, logical rules  Formulas  Instructions Heuristics  Shortcut strategy (“rule of thumb”) that suggests, but does not guarantee, a solution  By using a heuristic one has to accept the possibility of making an error  They are faster than algorithms

A panel of psychologists have interviewed and administered personality tests to 30 engineers and 70 lawyers, all successful in their fields. Based on this information, thumbnail descriptions for each of these individuals have been written. For each description, please indicate the probability that the person described is an engineer, from 1 to 100.

Jack is a 45 year old man. He is married and has 4 children. He is generally conservative, careful, and ambitious. He shows no interest in political and social issues and spends most of his time on his many hobbies, which include home carpentry, sailing, and mathematical puzzles. Indicate the probability, from 1 – 100, that Jack is an engineer.

Half of all newborns are girls and half are boys. Hospital A records an average of 50 births per day. Hospital B records an average of 10 births per day. On a particular day, which hospital is more likely to record 80% or more of female births?

Linda is 31, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy in college. As a student, she was deeply concerned with discrimination and other social issues, and she participated in antinuclear demonstrations. Which statement is more likely? A. Linda is a bank teller. B. Linda is a bank teller and active in the feminist movement.

Representative Heuristic Strategy that people use when they want to extrapolate from the information they’ve gathered, making inferences or predictions based on their experience Think stereotypes Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful, but with little interest in people, or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail. Is he a farmer, politician, librarian? Which PROTOTYPE does he meet?

Factors that Influence Rep. Heuristic Insensitivity to probabilities 70 lawyers and 30 engineers Insensitivity to sample sizes Births in a hospital Misconceptions of chance Gambler’s fallacy In other words…. Statistics are generally ignored

Availability Heuristic Relying on availability in order to judge frequency Estimating the number of deaths by accidents, heart attack, etc.  Overestimated deaths  All accidents  Tornadoes  Flood  Cancer  Fire  Underestimated deaths  Smallpox vaccination  Diabetes  Stroke  Asthma

DEATH! All accidents vs strokes Strokes Blood poisoning vs suicide Blood poisoning Homicide vs diabetes Diabetes Motor vehicle accidents vs colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer Leukemia vs drowning leukemia

Population Saudi Arabia vs Morocco Morocco Myanmar vs Australia Myanmar Vietnam vs South Africa Vietnam Libya vs Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Iraq vs Tanzania Tanzania

Crimes Chicago vs Kansas City Kansas City Las Vegas vs Stockton, CA Stockton Miami vs Phoenix Phoenix Raleigh, NC vs Honolulu Raleigh Aurora, IL vs New York Aurora

Factors that influence the Availability Heuristic Bias due to retrievability Hear about homicide and fires in the news all the time Bias due to effectiveness of a search set R for the first letter? R for the third letter? Illusory correlation Number of sunny days and your happiness Migraines and rain

Conclusion We make many mistakes by using these heuristics, but these heuristics are economical, efficient, and an easy way to estimate an outcome In many cases, these estimations can be accurate or at least useful

Problem Solving Obstacles Optimal problem solving might require humility – methods are open to revision Fixation Using a prior strategy Think outside of the box! Functional Fixedness

What is the next number in this sequence?

Reasoning and Decision Making Reasoning The mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions Inductive reasoning Driven by data; bottom-up; general  specific Deductive reasoning Driven by logic; top-down; specific  general

26 Do Animals Think? Common cognitive skills in humans: 1.Concept formation. 2.Insight 3.Problem Solving 4.Culture 5.Sense of Self? African grey parrot assorts red blocks from green balls. William Munoz

27 Concept Formation Pigeons can sort objects according to their similarity. Shown pictures of cars, cats, chairs, and flowers they learn the category Shown a picture of a chair they reliably peck the key for ‘chairs’

28 Insight Chimpanzees show insightful behavior when solving problems. (Kohler) Sultan uses sticks to get food.

29 Problem Solving Apes are famous, much like us, for solving problems. Chimpanzee fishing for ants.

30 Animal Culture Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over generations. Dolphins teach their young to use sponges as forging tools. Chimpanzee mother using and teaching a young chimp how to use a stone hammer. Copyright Amanda K Coakes Michael Nichols/ National Geographic Society

31 Do Animals Exhibit Language? There is no doubt that animals communicate. Vervet monkeys, whales and even honey bees communicate with members of their species and other species.

Clever Hans

33 Rico Collie Knows 200 items by name and can fetch any one of them from a group of 10 items If asked to retrieve a toy he has never heard, Rico will pick out the novel toy When hearing that novel word four weeks later will as often as not pick out that toy.

Alex the African Grey Parrot Knew approximately 150 words and could use them to identify shapes, colors, and objects Knew how to add and understood the concept of zero Recognized when a researcher looked annoyed and would apologize Asked to go places and became annoyed when taken to the wrong place

35 The Case of Apes Chimps do not have a vocal apparatus for human-like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951). Therefore, Gardner and Gardner (1969) used American Sign Language (ASL) to train Washoe, a chimp, who learned 182 signs by the age of 32.

36 Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is instrumental in teaching chimpanzees a form of communication. When asked, this chimpanzee uses a sign to say it is a baby. Paul Fusco/ Magnum Photos

37 Anecdotal: Washoe’s Phrase “You me go out, please.” Combined words creatively? Swan as “water bird” Pinocchio doll as “elephant baby” Second Infant died Repeatedly asked “Baby” She is told “Baby dead, baby gone, baby finished.” When told about a foster baby Washoe signed “Baby, my baby.”

38 Koko Signs spontaneously Modestly bilingual in that she can translate English to ASL

39 Gestured Communication Animals, like humans, exhibit communication through gestures. It is possible that vocal speech developed from gestures during the course of evolution.

40 Computer Assisted Language Others have shown that bonobo pygmy chimpanzees can develop even greater vocabularies and perhaps semantic nuances in learning a language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991). Kanzi and Panbanish developed vocabulary for hundreds of words and phrases. Copyright of Great Ape Trust of Iowa

41 Criticism 1.Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates. 1.Noam Chomsky says that language is innate – and naturally learned. Thus – apes signing is not “language” 2.Over-regularization: – grammar mistake where childern over use certain morphemes (I go-ed to the park) – happens because we naturally learn from our environment and apply the principles we’re hearing. Apes don’t do this 2.Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language. 3.Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax. 4.Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see. (Washoe was just separately naming water and bird.)

Support B.F. SKINNER – says that: Language acquisition is governed by operant learning principles. Association of the sight of things with sounds of words Imitation of the words/syntax modeled by others Reinforcement by the caregiver

43 Nim Chimpski (Terrace) Learned 125 signs in four years and signed 20,000 utterances with two or more signs Stuck at Two-Word Stage Nim eat Nim eat Drink eat me Nim Me eat me eat You me banana me banana you

44 Conclusions If by language we mean the ability to communicate through a meaningful sequence of symbols... than YES If by language we mean verbal or signed expression of complex grammar... than NO

Language Influences Thinking Linguistic Determinism: Whorf (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think. For example, he noted that the Hopi people do not have the past tense for verbs. Therefore, the Hopi cannot think readily about the past. –Research only mildly supports the idea –Not determinism but influence

We create when we need Skiers have different words for snow –Powder, corn, and ice Computer Revolution –I hate that my hardware won’t run the new software –I’m going to google it –I’m just going to word process instead of IM’ing my friends or updating Myspace. You see, I’m really depressed that my Ipod won’t log on to Itunes. Experience shapes language.

Word Power Increasing word power pays its dividends. It pays for speakers and deaf individuals who learn sign language. To expand language is to expand the ability to think

Influences on Language Biological Influences  Language universals  Hemispheric specialization Environmental Influences  Behavioral view  Language exposure  Maternal speech  Be an active conversational partner  Talk as if the infant will understand what you’re saying  Use a language style that you feel comfortable with

Constant TV is bad for Babies 30% of Americans ALWAYS have the TV on For every hour the TV is turned on with raised volume, babies hear 500 – 1000 fewer words from adults Children who receive more adult attention have a wider vocabulary and better reading skills