I. Thinking
-Thinking (AKA Cognition)
-The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
-Cognitive psychology
-The study of the ways in which we created concepts, solve problems, make decisions, and form judgments
A. Concepts
-Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, and people
-Chair
-High chair
-Dentist chair
-Reclining chair
-Lawn chair
-Chairs vary, BUT a chair is still a chair!
-Life without “concepts” would be difficult!
-Categories get divided into hierarchies
-We form concepts by developing prototypes
-Define a bird…
-Which of the following is a bird?
-Which is “birdier”
- “Mixed” Face Study
-People shown a mix of 70% Caucasian and 30% Asian recall seeing a Caucasian
-Would pick a more prototypically Caucasian face out of a lineup
-Same results with a male/female mix
-Is a tomato a fruit or is it a vegetable?
-Is a whale a mammal or a is it a fish?
B. Solving Problems
-Humans are good problem solvers
-How to best escape a crowded situation
-How to deal with a friend’s criticism
-How to get into our own house/car when we have locked ourselves out
i. Strategies
-Algorithm-A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
-Heuristic-A simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgments. Faster, but more error-prone than algorithms
-Sometimes, insight is enough
-A sudden, and often novel realization
ii. Creativity
-The ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable
-Expertise-you must have a good foundation
-Imaginative thinking skills-connect the dots
-A venturesome personality-seek new experiences
-Intrinsic motivation-being driven by interest
-A creative environment-iron on iron
iii. Obstacles to Problem Solving
-Even though we are excellent problem solvers, sometimes the answer will continue to elude us!
-Multiple reasons for “forgetting”
-Multiple reasons for not “encoding”
-Multiple reasons we struggle with problem solving
-Avoid looking for a single cause
C. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
-How many decisions do you make every day?
-Sometimes, intuition is enough
-We don’t always use a problem solving approach
i. Using and Misusing Heuristics
-Intuitive judgments are instant
-Quick decision making is often bad decision making
-Intelligent people make really dumb mistakes!
a. The Representative Heuristic
-Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes
-Short, slim, and likes to read poetry
-Ivy League Scholar or Truck Driver?
-Stereotyping
b. The Availability Heuristic
-Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
-Recency, vividness, or distinctiveness
-Ethnicity and terrorism…
-Casino techniques
ii. Overconfidence
-Combination of bad ingredients!
-Intuitive heuristics
-Eagerness to confirm our own beliefs
-Ability to explain away failures
-Overconfidence in history
-Lyndon B. Johnson and Vietnam
-George W. Bush and Iraq
iii. The Belief and Perseverance Phenomenon
-Belief perseverance-Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
-Consider the opposite
-Be objective and unbiased
iv. The Perils and Powers of Intuition
-Intuition-an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.
-BASICALLY-Our “gut” feeling
-Sometimes, we just know
-Intuition is adaptive
v. The Effects of Framing
-10 people will die vs 90 people will live
-Information is the same, but does it seem the same?
-Presentation is EVERYTHING
-Marked down prices
-Always “on sale”
-Opting out vs Opting in (Organ donors)
II. Language
-Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
-“jewel in the crown of cognition”
-Translation process from keyboard to your brain
A. Language Structure
-Creating a language is no small task!
-There are 3 major building blocks
-Phonemes
-Morphemes
-Grammar
-J.R.R. Tolkien
-The Hobbit
-Lord of the Rings
i. Phonemes
-The smallest distinctive sound units
-Surveyed 500 languages
-Found 869 different phonemes
-English uses 40
-Many languages use fewer, many use more
-People who learn one language have difficulty pronouncing phonemes from other languages
ii. Morphemes
-The smallest unit of language that carries meaning
-Morphemes include prefixes and suffixes
-Preview
-Edited
iii. Grammar
-A system of rules that enable 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
-Syntax-The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
-white house/ casa blanca
B. Language Development
-Humans learn about 60,000 words between their first birthday and high school graduation
-10 words a day!
-Pulling from a HUGE dictionary (3 words a second)
i. When Do We Learn Language?
-Several milestones in language development
-Receptive Language
-Productive Language
a. Receptive Language
-In fantis- “not speaking”
-By 4 months-can discriminate speech sounds
-Can also read lips
-Infants as young as 7 months can comprehend speech
b. Productive Language
-4 months-babbling stage
-Can produce sounds from ANY language
-10 months-may be able to identify language
-After 1-one-word stage
-18 months-move from learning 1 word a week to 1 word a day
-By 2-two-word stage
-Telegraphic speech
-“TERMS ACCEPTED. SEND MONEY”
-“want juice”
-“big doggy”
-After the two-word stage full sentences will begin to form
ii. Explaining Language Development
-How do we learn language?
-Nature vs Nurture
-Innate or learned
a. Skinner: Operant Learning
-B.F. Skinner (Behaviorist)
-Association
-Imitation
-Reinforcement
b. Chomsky: Inborn Universal Grammar
-Noam Chomsky
-“I hate you daddy”
-Language acquisition device
-Universal grammar
-A natural process
-Biology+Experience
c. Statistical Learning and Critical Periods
-Acquiring language at an early age is easier!
-Ability to learn greatly diminishes over time
III. Thinking and Language
-Thinking and language are one!
-This is why we have you write essays in school…
-We will start writing second semester!
A. Language Influences Thinking
-Linguistic determinism-language determines the way we think
-Hopi tribe has no past tense
-How can you think about the past if you can’t talk about it?
B. Thinking in Images
-Mental preparation works!
-We think in pictures!
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