1. I got tons of Jurassic Park stuff for Christmas! (Happy Ms. Moberg!)
Welcome Back!
Review of Henry Clay Expectations
Syllabus Update/Refinements (new room= new stuff!)
Review of commonly missed exam questions
Creativity
I got tons of Jurassic Park stuff for Christmas! (Happy Ms. Moberg!)

2. Extra Credit Opportunity
The Remix to Cognition-Earn 5 extra credit points on our next test!
Make your own “Remix to Ignition” to AP Psychology Cognition!
Requirements:
10 vocabulary terms defined/explained in your song lyrics
School appropriate
To earn the full points, you will
A) preform your remix in class
B) record your remix to be played for the class in a format that can be played on Windows Media Player
C) upload of video of you preforming your remix to Youtube so we can watch in class!
DUE: Monday January 19th (no exceptions)

3. Chapter 8: Language and Thought

4. Problem Solving

5. Cognition
Cognition- mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information
Concepts- mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people
Prototypes- mental image or best example of a category

6. Creativity
Creativity- the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable
Studies suggest that a certain level of aptitude-a score above 120 on a standard intelligence test- supports creativity
Convergent thinking- narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
Divergent thinking- expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

7. 5 Components of Creativity
Expertise- a well-developed base of knowledge
Imaginative thinking skills- the ability to see things in novel ways, to recognize patterns, and to make connections
A venturesome personality- to seek new experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and perseveres in overcoming obstacles
Intrinsic motivation- being driven by more interest, satisfaction, and challenge than by external pressures
A creative environment- sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas.

8. Problem Solving: Types of Problems
Greeno (1978) – three basic classes
Problems of inducing structure
Series completion and analogy problems
Problems of arrangement
String problem and Anagrams
Often solved through insight
Problems of transformation
Hobbits and orcs problem
Water jar problem
Jim Greeno, 1978, proposed that there are 3 basic types of problems:
Problems of inducing structure – where people are required to discover relations among numbers, words, symbols, or ideas.
Problems of arrangement – where people arrange the parts of a problem in a way that satisfies some criterion. These types of problems are often solved by insight, a sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect attempts based primarily on trial and error.
Problems of transformation – involve carrying out a sequence of transformations in order to reach a specific goal.
Examples of each of these are depicted in the following slides.

9. Word Problems
Susan gets in her car in Boston and drives toward New York City, averaging 50 mph. Twenty minutes later, Ellen gets in her car in New York City driving towards Boston, averaging 60 miles per hour. Both women take the same route, which extends a total of 220 miles between the 2 cities. Which car is nearer to Boston when they meet?

10. Simple Word Problems
In the Thompson family there are five brothers and each brother has one sister. If you count Mrs. Thompson, how many females are in the Thompson family?
Fifteen percent of the people in Topeka have unlisted phone numbers. You select 200 names at random from the Topeka phone book. How many of these people can be expected to have unlisted phone numbers?

11. Figure 8.6 Six standard problems used in studies of problem solving

13. Solution to Water Jar Problem (B-A-2C)

15. Mental Set
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”
– Einstein 
The first four require the same strategy
(B-A-2C)
The 5th is much simpler (A-C), however people get stuck here

16. Without lifting your pencil from the paper, draw no more than 4 straight lines that will cross through all nine dots.
-no retracing lines

17. Unnecessary Constraints
Most people will not draw lines outside the imaginary boundary that surrounds the dots
That constraint is imposed by the problem solver, not the prompt.
People also feel compelled to draw 4 lines, but that’s not necessary

18. The Matchstick Problem
Move 2 matches to form 4 (and only 4) equal squares.

19. Matchstick Solution

20. Effective Problem Solving
Barriers to effective problem solving:
Irrelevant Information
Functional Fixedness
Mental Set
Unnecessary Constraints
Problems vary in the degree to which they are well defined, where the initial state, the goal state, and the constraints are clearly specified; most problems in the real world are ill-defined, that is, one or more elements among the initial state, the goal state, and the constraints are incompletely or unclearly specified.
Common barriers to problem solving include getting bogged down in irrelevant information; functional fixedness, which is the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use; mental set, which exists when people persist in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past; and assuming unnecessary constraints on the problem, as in the 9 dots problem and the matchstick problem depicted on the following slides.

21. Figure 8.12 The tower of Hanoi problem

22. Approaches to Problem Solving
Algorithms
Systematic trial-and-error
Guaranteed solution
Heuristics
Shortcuts
No guaranteed solution
Forming subgoals
Working backward
Searching for analogies
Changing the representation of a problem
An algorithm is a methodical, step-by-step procedure for trying all possible alternatives in searching for a solution to a problem…guarantees a solution.
Heuristics are guiding principles or “rules of thumb” used in solving problems…don’t guarantee success.
Formulating subgoals allows one to solve part of the problem, therefore moving toward success.
Working backward works well for a problem that has a specified end point.
Searching for analogies involves using a solution to a previous problem to solve a current one.
The following figure depicts the representation of a problem heuristic.

23. Heuristics in Judging Probabilities
The availability heuristic
Explains why you are afraid of being attacked by a shark, but you shouldn’t be.
The representativeness heuristic
Judging a book by it’s cover
Use your representative heuristic
to make assumptions about this guy 
The availability heuristic involves basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind…estimate divorce rate by recalling number of divorces among your friends’ parents.
The representativeness heuristic involves basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event…this plays into the tendency to ignore base rates...guessing that Steve is a librarian because he looks like a librarian, even though you know that salespeople greatly outnumber librarians in the population.
The conjunction fallacy occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone…this also appears to be due to the powerful nature of the representativeness heuristic.
The alternative outcomes effect occurs when peoples’ belief about whether an outcome will occur changes, depending on how alternative outcomes are distributed, even though the summed probability of the alternative outcomes is held constant.

24. Decision Making: Evaluating Alternatives and Making Choices
Simon (1957) – theory of bounded rationality
Making Choices
Additive strategies
Elimination by aspects
Risky decision making
Expected value
Subjective utility
Subjective probability
Simon’s theory of bounded rationality holds that human decision making strategies are simplistic and often yield irrational results.
Additive decision models are used to make choices by rating the attributes of each alternative and selecting the alternative with most desirable attributes.
Elimination by aspects involves making choices by gradually eliminating unattractive alternatives.
Research shows that people tend to use additive strategies when decisions involve relatively few options that need to be evaluated on only a few attributes, but shift to elimination by aspects when more options and factors are added to a decision making task.
Research shows that people will often pursue useless information that will not alter their decisions when making choices.
Risky decision making involves making choices under conditions of uncertainty.
Expected value involves what you stand to gain…subjective utility and subjective probability help explain why people engage in activities that violate expected value.
Subjective utility represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual…insurance and sense of security.
Subjective probability involves personal estimates of probabilities…often quite inaccurate.

25. Table 8.3 Application of the additive model to choosing an apartment

26. Culture, Cognitive Style, and Problem Solving
Field dependence – relying on external frames of reference
Field independence – relying on internal frames of reference
Western cultures inspire field independence
Cultural influence based in ecological demands
Holistic vs. analytic cognitive styles
Some cultures, because of ecological demands (the necessary survival skills in a culture), foster field dependence, a reliance on external frames of reference.
Others foster field independence, reliance on internal frames of reference. People who are field independent tend to analyze and restructure problems more than those who are field dependent.
Nisbett and colleagues (2001) argue that people from East Asian cultures display a holistic cognitive style – focusing on context and relationships among elements in a field (wholes). People from Western cultures, alternatively, show an analytic cognitive style – focusing on objects and their properties rather than context (parts). While research shows that people from Eastern cultures are more field-dependent than those from Western cultures, Nisbett argues that field-dependence/independence is just one facet of a broader preference for holistic vs. analytic thinking.

27. Understanding Pitfalls in Reasoning About Decisions
The gambler’s fallacy
Assuming something will happen soon because it’s “due”
Overestimating the improbable
More likely to die in an airplane or car?
Confirmation bias
Seeking information to confirm what you already believe
The overconfidence effect
98% confidence intervals only right 60% of the time
Framing
10 people are drowning, you can either save 5 of them OR let 5 of them die
The gambler’s fallacy is the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn’t occurred recently.
Overestimating the improbable describes how people tend to greatly overestimate the likelihood of dramatic, vivid, but infrequent, events that receive heavy media coverage.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek information that supports one’s decisions and beliefs, while ignoring disconfirming information.
Belief perseverance is the tendency to hang onto beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence.
The overconfidence effect is the tendency for people to put too much faith in their estimates, beliefs, and decisions, even when they should know better.
Framing refers to how decision issues are posed or how choices are structured. People often allow a decision to be shaped by context or by the language in which it is presented.

28. Language

29. Wednesday-Friday Language and language development “Genie”
Review of key psychologists and theories from this chapter
“Koko” (if we have time)

30. The Cognitive Revolution
19th Century focus on the mind
Introspection
Behaviorist focus on overt responses
arguments regarding incomplete picture of human functioning
Empirical study of cognition – 1956 conference
Simon and Newell – problem solving
Chomsky – new model of language
Miller – memory
When psychology first emerged as an independent science, the focus was on the mind. Yet introspective methods yielded unreliable results.
The behaviorist focus on overt responses was empirically more sound, yet theorists argued that it provided an incomplete picture of human functioning.
Renegade theorists continued to study cognition, the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.
3 major advances in this empirical study were reported at a scientific conference in 1956, a watershed in the history of psychology.
Simon and Newell described the first computer program simulating human problem solving, Noam Chomsky outlined a new model that changed the study of language, and George Miller presented his famous paper arguing for the 7 plus or minus two capacity of STM.
Cognitive science has since grown into a robust, interdisciplinary field focusing on language, problem solving, decision-making, and reasoning.

31. Language: Turning Thoughts into Words
Properties of Language
Symbolic
Semantic
Generative
Structured
Language is defined as consisting of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages.
Language is symbolic, that is, people use spoken sounds and written words to represent objects, actions, events, and ideas.
It is semantic, or meaningful.
It is generative, that is, a limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite number of ways to generate novel messages.
It is structured; there are rules that govern arrangement of words into phrases and sentences.

32. Language Acquisition
Innateness Hypothesis- humans are hard-wired to acquire language in a way that mammals cannot
Cultural Transmission
Language is learned by its speakers
Humans are not pre-programmed to speak a specific language
Darwin – language ability is “an instinctive tendency to acquire an art”

33. The Hierarchical Structure of Language
Phonemes = smallest speech units
100 possible, English – about 40
Morphemes = smallest unit of meaning
50,000 in English, root words, prefixes, suffixes
Semantics = meaning of words and word combinations
Objects and actions to which words refer
Syntax = a system of rules for arranging words into sentences
Different rules for different languages
Basic sounds are combined into units with meaning, which are combined into words, which are combined into phrases, which are combined into sentences.
Phonemes are the smallest units of speech. Research indicates that there are about 100 possible phonemes, but most languages use between 20-80, English about 40.
Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language, consisting of root words, prefixes, and suffixes. S has meaning beyond being a letter (pluralization).
Semantics refer to the meaning of words and word combinations. Learning semantics involves learning the variety of objects and actions to which words refer.
Syntax is a system of rules for arranging words into sentences. Different languages have different rules. (Verb or subject first in a sentence?)

34. Language Development: Milestones
Initial vocalizations similar across languages
Crying, cooing, babbling
6 months – babbling sounds begin to resemble surrounding language
Twin Talk
1 year – first word
similar cross-culturally – words for parents
receptive vs. expressive language
Infant vocalizations are initially similar across languages, involving all phonemes. Infants cry, coo, and make repetitive babbling vocalizations of all phonemes.
By the age of 6 months, the babbling sounds being to resemble those of the infants’ surrounding language.
By the time an infant is 12 months of age, the first word is typically spoken, usually dada, mama, papa, etc. This is similar across cultures.
While few words are spoken (expressive language) at this stage, research indicates that very young children may actually understand (receptive language) more language than they can produce.

35. Table 8.2 Overview of Typical Language Development

36. Language Development: Milestones Continued
18-24 months – vocabulary spurt
fast mapping
over and underextensions
Overextension = Child calls all things round “ball”
Underextension = Child uses word “puppy” only in reference to their family pet, fails to recognize other puppies
End of second year – combine words
Telegraphic speech = “Me have now!”
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) = # of morphemes
End of third year – complex ideas, plural, past tense
Overregularization = “I runned over here fast!”
At about the age of months, the previously very slow acquisition of new words suddenly spurts. This proceeds at a dizzying pace, by the first grade the average child has a vocabulary of approx. 10,000 words, by the 5th grade, 40,000. Some 2-year-olds learn as many as 20 new words a week.
Fast mapping is the process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure.
Toddlers often make errors in using new words. Overextensions occur when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than it is meant to…using the word ball for anything round.
Underextensions occur when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than it is meant to…using the word doll only to refer to a favorite doll.
By the end of the second year, children begin combining words to produce meaningful sentences. These sentences are characterized as telegraphic, because they resemble telegrams, consisting mainly of content words, with articles, prepositions, and other less critical words omitted…ex., “Give doll,"
Researchers study the language of young children by calculating the MLU (mean length of utterance), the average length of their spoken statements (measured in morphemes).
By the end of the third year, children can express complex ideas; however, they continue to make mistakes such as overregularizing…generalizing grammatical rules incorrectly to irregular cases where they do not apply…”he goed home,” for example.

37. Bilingualism: Learning More Than One Language
Research findings:
Smaller vocabularies in one language, combined vocabularies average
Higher scores for middle-class bilingual subjects on cognitive flexibility, analytical reasoning, selective attention, and metalinguistic awareness
Slight disadvantage in terms of language processing speed
2nd languages more easily acquired early in life
Greater acculturation facilitates acquisition
Does learning two languages simultaneously cause problems? There is little empirical evidence that learning two languages has a negative effect on language development.
Research findings are summarized on this slide.
Acculturation is the degree to which a person is socially and psychologically integrated into a new culture.

38. Figure 8.4 Age and second language learning

39. Critical Period
A span/period of time in one’s life which one must acquire a first language
Full proficiency can never be acquired if no language is acquired during the critical period
Exact cut-off age is not certain but is before puberty
Ex. “Genie” and deaf children born to hearing parents

40. Theories of Language Acquisition
Behaviorist
Skinner (Verbal Behavior 1957)
learning of specific verbal responses
Nativist
Chomsky
learning the rules of language
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Interactionist
Cognitive, social communication, and emergentist theories
According to Skinner and the behaviorists, children acquire language through conditioning and imitation.
Nativist theorists, led by Noam Chomsky, assert that humans have an innate capacity to learn the rules of language, an LAD, which facilitates language development.
Interactionist theories hold that biology and experience both make important contributions. Two prominent interactionist theories are the cognitive and social communication theories.
Cognitive theory asserts that language development is an important aspect of more general cognitive development, depending, like all development, on both maturation and experience.
Social communication theory holds that interpersonal communication has functional value and emphasizes the social context in which language evolves.
Emergentist theories hold that neural circuits supporting language are not prewired, but rather emerge gradually in response to learning experiences via incremental changes in connectionist networks.

41. B.F. Skinner v. Noam Chomsky
Attempts to explain language development have sparked a spirited intellectual controversy. At the heart of this controversy is the nature-nurture debate. Behaviorist B. F. Skinner believed that we can explain how babies acquire language entirely with principles of learning, such as the association of objects with the sounds of words, the imitation of language modeled by others, and the reinforcement of correct use of words and syntax by parents and teachers. Linguist Noam Chomsky, who favors the nature position, believes that much of our language capacity is inborn. According to this perspective, just as "learning" to walk is programmed according to a timetable of biological maturation, so children are prewired to begin to babble and talk.
In this exercise, review each of the following examples of language use by children and decide whether it best supports the position of B. F. Skinner or Noam Chomsky.
While Marie and her mother are looking at a book together, Marie's mother shows her a picture of an animal and says "cow." Marie says "cow," and her mother praises her for her correct utterance. Two pages later, Marie spontaneously points to a picture and correctly identifies it as a cow.
2. When his day care teacher asks 2-year-old Jack what he did last Saturday, he responds with "We goed to the zoo." His teacher smiles, marveling at the fact that all children Jack's age make this type of grammatical error.
3. Nicole, who is deaf and was not exposed to sign language until age 3, lacks the manual linguistic skills of deaf children born to deaf-signing parents.
4. Twelve-year-old Malcolm, who emigrated to the United States at age 4, understands English grammar much better than 20-year-old Maya, who was first exposed to English at age 12.

42. Can Animals Develop Language?
Dolphins, sea lions, parrots, chimpanzees
Vocal apparatus issue
American Sign Language
Allen and Beatrice Gardner (1969)
Chimpanzee - Washoe
160 word vocabulary
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
Bonobo chimpanzee - Kanzi
Symbols
Receptive language – 72% of 660 requests
Researchers have attempted to teach language to a variety of animals, but the most success has been shown with chimpanzees.
One of the biggest problems in teaching human language to non-human animals is that the vocal apparatus is not the same. Researchers, therefore, began to use ASL with chimpanzees.
The Gardners were successful at teaching a chimpanzee, Washoe, to use ASL. In fact, Washoe developed a vocabulary of about 160 words, combining them into simple sentences, but showing little evidence of mastering the rules of language.
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and colleagues have reported striking advances with the bonobo pygmy chimpanzees. These bonobos have been trained to use geometric symbols that represent words on a computer-monitored keyboard. Kanzi, the star pupil, has taught his younger sister much that he has learned about this system. Kanzi has acquired hundreds of words and has used them in thousands of combinations, many apparently spontaneous and rule governed. In addition, his receptive language appears much more developed, as he was able to carry out 72% of 660 spoken requests such as “Pour the Coke in the lemonade."
Still, chimps by no means approach the language facility of a human toddler, suggesting an evolutionary basis for human language development.

43. Perspective Taking: Do Animals Have Language?
Few controversies have so divided the scientific community as has the controversy about the apes’ capacity for language. Although many scientists have made serious attempts at rearing apes in language-rich environments, the results have not overwhelmingly demonstrated that apes can use language as human beings us it.
At the heart of the argument are the criteria we use to determine true capacity for language. Generally, scientists specializing in the study of language impose the following criteria for the debate:
Is the language symbolic: Can it be used to represent absent objects?
Does the language have systematic syntax, or word order?
Can the language be used in a creative or productive manner?

44. Figure 8.5 Interactionist theories of language acquisition