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

2. Unit Overview Thinking Language Thinking and Language Click on the any of the above hyperlinks to go to that section in the presentation.

3. Introduction Cognition Cognitive psychologists

4. Thinking

5. Concepts –Category hierarchies –prototypeprototype

6. Solving Problems Task: move the tower from the left peg to the middle peg, moving only one disk at a time and never putting a larger disk on a smaller one

7. Solving Problems Strategies Algorithms –Step-by-step Heuristic Insight

8. Solving Problems Creativity Creativity Strernberg’s five components

9. Assuming that each card has a triangle on one side and a circle on the other, which card or cards need to be turned over to test this statement: ‘Every card that has a black triangle on one side has a red circle on the other’

10. Solving Problems Obstacles to Problem Solving Confirmation bias Fixation –Mental setMental set –Functional fixednessFunctional fixedness

11. Functional Fixedness

12. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Using and Misusing Heuristics The Representative Heuristic

13. Write down your answer – either ‘a’ or ‘b’ 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

14. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Using and Misusing Heuristics The Availability Heuristic

15. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments Overconfidence Overconfidence

16. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon Belief perseverance –Consider the opposite

17. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments The Perils and Powers of Intuition Intuition –Unconscious intuition

18. Intuition uses past knowledge – we may make mistakes But it allows us to quickly respond so are thought is more automatic.

19. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments The Effects of Framing Framing –Framing experiments

20. Language

21. Language Introduction Language

22. With person next to you share what you did on Friday and Saturday using telegraphic speech. Don’t know what that means? LOOK IT UP

23. Language Structure Phonemes Phoneme –English about 40 phonemes –Learning another language’s phonemes

24. Language Structure Morphemes Morpheme –Includes prefixes and suffixes

25. Language Structure Grammar Grammar –SemanticsSemantics –SyntaxSyntax

26. Language Development When Do We Learn Language? Receptive language Productive language –Babbling stageBabbling stage –One-word stageOne-word stage –Two-word stageTwo-word stage –Telegraphic speechTelegraphic speech

27. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

28. Language Development Explaining Language Development Skinner: Operant Learning –Learning principles Association Imitation Reinforcement

29. Language Development Explaining Language Development Chomsky: Inborn Universal Grammar –Language acquisition device –Universal grammar

30. Language Development Explaining Language Development Statistical Learning and Critical Periods –Statistical learning –Critical (sensitive) period

31. Language Development Statistical Learning – Statistical aspects of human speech – breaking down syllables to create meaning and breaks in sentences – Evidence? – 8 month infants: recognize three-syllable sequences that appeared repeatedly (measuring attention) – 7 month infants: recognize different sequences/language patterns – ABA verse ABB pattern (li-na-li/wo-fe-fe) – What does this show? Nature or Nurture? – Built in ability to learn grammatical rules (Noam Chomsky)

32. Critical Period No exposure to language (spoken or signed) before age seven: lose ability to master ANY language – No stimulation to a brain early on = language learning capacity never fully develops Second languages? Sign language? Conclusion? Is there a critical period of language?

33. Thinking and Language

34. Language Influences Thinking Whorf’s linguistic determinismlinguistic determinism Bilingual advantage

35. Thinking in Images Implicit memory

36. Thinking and Language Benjamin Lee Whorf: – Linguistic determinism hypothesis – Language determines thought – Evidence? Culture differences – How many words a culture has to describe something will change our thoughts on it Book example: Papua New Guinea Berinmo tribe: distinguish between two shades of yellow Bilingual advantage: Canadian program:

37. Taste Write down the difference between Pepsi and Coke – Typically our responses are not very useful: vague and general comments about sweetness or level of carbonation – only an expert taster will pick up on the subtle nuances that distinguish these soft drinks

38. Thinking in Images Helps! How?

39. Question Which comes first? Thought or Language? Thinking affects our language, which then affects our thought -Would not develop language without the thought first – would not have the thought without the language to express it!

40. Create a timeline Part 1: Create a timeline demonstrating the development of language structure but also incorporating important concepts into a cohesive timeline. Must include: ages, examples of each stage/concept, and pictures. Part 2: Compare B.F. Skinner and Noam Chomsky’s theory of language development Examples Picture for each

41. The End

42. Definition Slides

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

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

45. 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).

46. 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.

47. 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.

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

49. Creativity = the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

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

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

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

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

54. 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.

55. 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

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

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

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

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

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

61. Phoneme = in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

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

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

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

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

66. 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.

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

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

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

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