Unit 7B: Cognition: Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language

Cognitive psychologists: Introduction Cognition: mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Cognitive psychologists: Study logical & illogical ways in which we create concepts, solve problems, make decisions and form judgments.

Nuclear War!!! Repopulation of the earth will begin with those survivors chosen by YOU. Look closely at: Health, experience, age, sex and intelligence INDIVIDUALLY: 7 people to stay and why? 5 people to go and why? GROUP: Debate the people you have chosen Group consensus

150+: Genius (Ms. T!!!) 145-150: Very Superior Intelligence 130-145: Superior Intelligence 115-130: Above Average Intelligence 85-115: Average Intelligence 70-85: Below Average Intelligence 55-70: Borderline Deficiency Below 55: Mental Deficiency

James Stanley Janie Stanley Wanda Brice Bill Waters Michelle Patterson Ray Wilson Gerald White Martha Gray William Gray John Davis Marjorie Blaylock Fred Fredrick

Thinking Concepts Prototype Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people Category hierarchies Prototype Mental image that incorporates all the features we associate with a category Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories

Thinking Concepts Prototype Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people Category hierarchies Prototype Mental image that incorporates all the features we associate with a category Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories

Solving Problems

Strategies 1. Algorithms Step-by-step process Methodical, logical rule or procedure Guarantees a solution

SPLOYOCHYG Find another word using all the letters listed above… Try each letter in each position Generate and examine 907,200 results

2. Heuristic More simple Allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently Speedier More error-prone than algorithms.

3. Insight Sudden and often novel realization of the solution Contrasts with strategy-based solutions A-Ha! moment

Creativity Ability to produce novel and valuable ideas Strernberg’s 5 components 1. Expertise 2. Imaginative thinking skills 3. A venturesome personality 4. Intrinsic motivation 5. A creative environment

Creativity Sternberg’s 5 components 1. Expertise Well-developed base of knowledge, furnishes ideas, images and phrases we use as mental building blocks. More blocks = more chances to use in a novel way.

Creativity Sternberg’s 5 components 2. Imaginative thinking skills Provide the ability to see things in novel ways Recognize patterns Make connections Ex: Funny cartoons!

Creativity Sternberg’s 5 components 3. A venturesome personality Seeks new experiences Tolerates ambiguity and risk Perseveres in overcoming obstacles Ex: Thomas Edison

Creativity Sternberg’s 5 components 4. Intrinsic motivation Being driven more by interest, satisfaction and challenge than by external pressures Ex: Isaac Newton

Creativity Sternberg’s 5 components 5. A creative environment Sparks, supports and refines creative ideas! Mentors Relationships

Obstacles to Solving Problems

Mary’s father has 5 children. 4 are named: Nana, Nene, Nini, & Nono So what is the 5th child’s name?

Confirmation bias Search for information that supports our preconceptions Ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Fixation Mental set Functional fixedness Inability to see a problem from a new perspective Employ a different mental set. Mental set To approach a problem in 1 particular way Successful in the past. Functional fixedness Think of things in terms of their usual functions An impediment to problem solving

A hunter sees a bear 1 mile due south A hunter sees a bear 1 mile due south. He shoots and misses, and the bear runs off. The hunter walks the 1 mile south to where the bear had been, then 1 mile due east, then 1 mile due north… at which point the hunter is standing again at exactly the same spot from which the gun had been fired. Question: What color was the bear?

Where on the globe is the hunter? Where can one go, successively, 1 mile due south, then 1 mile due east, then 1 mile due north, and end up at the same place one started?

THE NORTH POLE… The bear is a WHITE Polar Bear!

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments

The Representative Heuristic Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes May lead us to ignore other relevant information.

Q: How many Ivy League Universities are there Q: How many Ivy League Universities are there? A: About 10 Q: How many classical professors at each? A: Maybe 4 Q: 40 Ivy League classics professors… what fraction of these are old and slim? A: Let’s say half Q: And of these 20, how many like to read poetry? A: Let’s say half: 10 professors

Q: How many truck drivers fit the description Q: How many truck drivers fit the description? A: Maybe 400,000 Q: What fraction are old and slim? A: Perhaps 1 out of 8 Q: Of these 50,000, what % like to read poetry? A: Hum, maybe 1 in 100…. A-Ha! I get it, that still leaves 500 old, slim poetry-reading truck drivers! Q: Yep! So even if your stereotype is accepted, the odds are 50 to 1 that this person is a truck driver.

The Availability Heuristic Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory If instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common Recency Vividness Distinctiveness

Overconfidence Tendency to be more confident than correct Over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. Live more happily Easier to make tough decisions Seem more credible

Belief perseverance Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited Consider the opposite Prejudice exists

Intuition An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling/thought Smart Intuition: born of experience Unconscious intuition Intuition is Recognition

Framing The way an issue is presented Can significantly affect decisions and judgments Framing experiments Preferred portion sizes Being an organ donor & where you live Saving for retirement

Language our spoken, written, or signed words the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Language Structures

Phonemes The smallest distinctive sound unit About 40 in English Changes meaning Learning another language’s phonemes

Morphemes Smallest unit that carries meaning May be a word or a part of a word Combination of 2 or more phonemes I and s Prefixes and suffixes

Grammar Rules that enables us to communicate and understand others Semantics we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language study of meaning Syntax rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Language Development

When Do We Learn Language? Receptive language Ability to comprehend speech Productive language Ability to produce words Babbling stage One-word stage Two-word stage Telegraphic speech

When Do We Learn Language? Productive language Babbling stage about 4 months Infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

When Do We Learn Language? Productive language One-word stage About age 1 to 2 Child speaks mostly in single words Family quick to understand

When Do We Learn Language? Productive language Two-word stage About 2 years Child speaks mostly two-word statements.

When Do We Learn Language? Productive language Telegraphic speech early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” using mostly nouns and verbs

Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

Explaining Language Development Skinner: Operant Learning Learning principles Association Sight of things with sounds of words Imitation Words and syntax modeled by others Reinforcement Smiles and hugs

Explaining Language Development Chomsky: Inborn Universal Grammar Language acquisition device Pre-wired Universal grammar Same grammatical building blocks Nouns, verbs, subject, questions

Explaining Language Development Statistical Learning and Critical Periods Statistical learning Statistically analyze which syllables go together: “Hap-py-ba-by” Critical (sensitive) period Master certain aspects of language Learns no language, language learning capacity never fully develops Window closes, 2nd language

Figure 7B.9 New language learning gets harder with age  Young children have a readiness to learn language. Ten years after coming to the United States, Asian immigrants took a grammar test. Although there is no sharply defined critical period for second language learning, those who arrived before age 8 understood American English grammar as well as native speakers did. Those who arrived later did not. From Johnson & Newport, 1991 © 2011 by Worth Publishers

Thinking and Language

Language Influences Thinking Whorf’s linguistic determinism Words may not determine what we think, but they influence our thinking Bilingual advantage Increased word power

We think in images! Implicit memory Turn the cold water on in your bathroom at home? fMRI scans show brain internal stimulation Watch something Think or visualize Imagine Psychology students

The End

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Definition Slides

Cognition = the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concept = a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototype = a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin).

Algorithm = a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone – use of heuristics.

Heuristic = a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

Insight = a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

Creativity = the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Confirmation Bias = a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Fixation = the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

Mental Set = a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Functional Fixedness = the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

Representativeness Heuristic = judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

Availability Heuristic = estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Overconfidence = the tendency to be more confident that correct – to over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Belief Perseverance = clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.

Intuition = an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

Framing = the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Language = our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phoneme = in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Morpheme = in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

Grammar = in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Semantics = the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.

Syntax = the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.

Babbling Stage = beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

One-word Stage = the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Two-word Stage = beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.

Telegraphic Speech = early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs.

Linguistic Determinism = Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.