Chapter 9: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Thinking In psychology we call thinking cognition Thinking about thinking is called metacognition And it is what we’re going to be doing today! How do we think?

Basic Approaches to Thinking Concepts Ex. ball, chair, book, car Prototypes Ex. Cat – describe your prototypical cat

Problem Solving What are the basic approaches to solving a problem? Trial and Error Algorithms Heuristics Insight

Things that get in the way of problem solving Confirmation bias Fixation Functional fixedness

More details about Heuristics We tend to use heuristics incorrectly in two basic ways: Based on availability – we make the mistake that if an idea comes to us easily, it must be common Based on representativeness – we make mistakes in judging the likelihood of something if the information we have fits a certain prototype Ken vs. Ed example

Overconfidence Another cognitive mistake people commonly make is to overestimate their own knowledge and accuracy Students often do this after leaving an exam

Framing: Making Decisions Framing, or how an idea/issue is presented can have a huge effect on our approach to it In politics, this is called ‘spin’ Store sales capitalize on the frame of getting a deal

Belief Perseverance Despite evidence to the contrary, we tend to stick by our original beliefs about something To get around this bias, you have to get people to fully consider the opposite position

Skinner & Chomsky: Two theories of Language Acquisition Chomsky & the ‘language acquisition device’ This ‘device’ is a biological mechanism in the brain that allows us to learn language You guys have heard Skinner’s name before – anyone remember from what?

Language Development Four important parts of language: Phonemes Semantics Syntax Pragmatics As early as 4 months old babies begin to babble and try our phonemic sounds Around 1 year babies begin learning semantics & using single words

Development continued During this one-word stage babies use single words to indicate longer sentences Around age 2, they begin using telegraphic speech

Critical Period? If we aren’t exposed to language during childhood, will we ever be able to learn it? Language seems to have more of a sensitive period than a critical one

Thinking and Language Linguistic Determinism is a theory that says language influences the way that we think Lots of cross-cultural research has shown that language does seem to shape the way we think But do we always think in words??

Language and animals Humans have unique language abilities productivity Non-human primates also have language skills, but not with the same level of productivity

Can chimps talk? Common chimps do communicate orally, but their calls don’t resemble human speech They can be taught very basic sign-language & to use other symbolic representations to indicate requests, etc. But they don’t use these gestures and symbols to make unique communications

Intelligence Know key players – Ex. Binet Know different kinds of intelligence Know the controversy/biases that surround intelligence testing

Reminder: Exam #3 on Thursday Chapters 6-9