Cognition: language and thinking AP Psychology Mr. Fuller

Language Acquisition One of the defining characteristics of humans is the use of complex language-our ability to communicate. Newborn children know zero words in English, or any other language. Yet they have innate abilities to become fluent speakers of any language they hear spoken, or signed regularly.

Innateness-Theory of Language According to the innateness-theory of language, children acquire language not only by imitating but also by following preprogrammed steps to acquire language. Noam Chomsky-Language Acquisition Device-LAD: a mental structure that facilitates the learning of language because it is preprogrammed with fundamental language rules. Globally, all children follow the same pattern of language acquisition. LAD is flexible-any language is possible

Language Language is our spoken, written, or gestured works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning. Phoneme is the smallest distinctive sound unit Morpheme is the smallest unit that carries meaning may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix) -ed/-d = past tense; -s = plural Grammar is a system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand other

Language Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language. also, the study of meaning Syntax is the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language. Do you want to go to the store? vs. Store to go want to do you?

Stages of Early language Summary of Language Development Month (approximate) Stage 4 10 12 24 24+ Babbles many speech sounds. Babbling reveals households language. One-word stage. Two-word, telegraphic speech (water now! Give toy). Language develops rapidly into complete sentences.

Language Stages There are four phases of early speech acquisition that all students pass through: Babbling Stage Beginning at 3 to 4 months The stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language, but noises that represent every sound heard in every language One-Word Stage From about age 1 to 2 The stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Language Two-Word Stage Beginning about age 2 The stage in speech development during which a child speaks in mostly two-word statements Telegraphic Speech Early speech stage in which the child speaks like a telegram-–“go car”--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words

Cognition How do we think?

Cognition: Thinking A concept is a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people Prototype is a mental image or best example of a category-formed on the basis of frequently experienced features. Testing concepts can be hard since they are not observable. We must infer their influence on people’s thinking indirectly by studying their observable side effects. Concept of the color red What is a car? How is a car different from a truck? What is an El Camino?

El Camino

Types of Concepts There are two types of concepts Natural concepts: imprecise mental classifications that develop out of our everyday experiences. Most of the concepts in our everyday life Artificial concepts: concepts defined by a set of rules or characteristics, such as dictionary definition or mathematical equations. Most of the concepts learned in school

Cognitive Maps Cognitive maps are mental representations of a given place or situation. Just the mental image is not enough however. Along with the visual cortex, the frontal lobe of the brain provides us with information on the episode, the context and stimulus of a situation. Ex. Answering the phone at a friends house

Making Inferences To help us figure out the episode, the context and stimulus of a situation we do have tools: Schema: General frameworks that provide expectations about topics, events, objects, people and situations. Script: Schemas about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings.

Problem Solving When we are faced with a problem, we have a few options for figuring out a solution. Algorithms: Problem solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied Heuristics: Simple, basic rules that serve as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks. They do not guarantee a correct solution

Algorithms vs. Heuristics Unscramble S P L O Y O C H Y G Algorithm all 907,208 combinations Heuristic throw out all YY combinations other heuristics?

(in case you didn’t figure that out!!!) PSYCHOLOGY (in case you didn’t figure that out!!!)

Try This:

The Candle-Mounting Problem Using these materials, how would you mount the candle on a bulletin board?

Problems with Heuristics One problem with heuristic are mental sets. When faced with problems, we have a tendency to approach it in a familiar way. Especially a way that has been successful in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem Mental set: the tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for previous problems.

Problems With Heuristics Another problem with relying on heuristics is called functional fixedness, a sort of mental set issue. Functional Fixedness: The inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose.

The Candle-Mounting Problem Solving this problem requires recognizing that a box need not always serve as a container

Judging and Decision making Along with mental sets, bias can make heuristics a faulty decision making tool. Confirmation bias: Tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence. Belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited Hindsight bias: Tendency to second guess a decision after the event has happened. Representative bias: Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match particular prototype Availability bias: Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory if instances come readily to mind we presume such events are common

Solve These

Do This: Use psych to learn psych Mnemonic are memory aids that use imagery and organizational devices Create a mnemonic device to remember: 1) Language terms: grammar, semantics, syntax, phoneme, morpheme,