PSYCHOLOGY (8th Edition) David Myers

PSYCHOLOGY (8th Edition) David Myers
PowerPoint Slides Aneeq Ahmad Henderson State University Worth Publishers, © 2006

Thinking and Language Chapter 10

Thinking Thinking, or cognition, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating. OBJECTIVE 1| Define cognition.

COGNITION The early settlers on the Isle of Begile were a rather conservative group who established the Island’s bylaws. One of the first laws passed was that all the men were to be clean-shaven, and furthermore, no man was allowed to shave himself. To make matters even more trying, the bylaws stipulated that all men must be shaved by a licensed barber.

COGNITION For whatever reason, the Isle only issued one barber’s license, and that was to an elder who was nearing eighty years of age. Strangely enough, everything seemed to work until a landed immigrant lawyer arrived on the scene and asked the overlooked question, “If no man is allowed to shave himself, who then shaves the barber?” How did the Begilers avoid this paradox?

COGNITION COMPLETE 9-18a and 9-18b. Pay attention to your thought processes as you solve the problems.

Cognitive Psychologists
Thinking involves a number of mental activities, which are listed below. Cognitive psychologists study these in great detail. Concepts Problem solving Decision making Judgment formation

Concept The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. There are a variety of chairs but their common features define the concept of a chair. Concepts provide us with a lot of information without much cognitive effort. OBJECTIVE 2| Describe the roles of categories, hierarchies, definitions, and prototypes in concept formation.

MEMORY ACTIVITY Group A memorize the first set of words on the computer screen Group B memorize the second set of words on the paper provided.

GROUP A table green bricks mint church pencil steeple five Odyssey
computer Plato bread cross wine Washington silver Lincoln library buildings rafters quarter comic book

We organize concepts into category hierarchies.
Courtesy of Christine Brune

ACTIVITY: RESPOND WITH THE VERY FIRST EXAMPLE THAT COMES TO MIND:
1. a bird 2. a color 3. a triangle (you may draw a picture) 4. a motor vehicle 5. a sentence 6. a hero 7. a heroic action 8. a game 9. a philosopher 10. a writer

Development of Concepts
We form some concepts with definitions. For example, a triangle has three sides. Mostly, we form concepts with mental images or typical examples (prototypes). For example, a robin is a prototype of a bird, but a penguin is not. J. Messerschmidt/ The Picture Cube Daniel J. Cox/ Getty Images Triangle (definition) Bird (mental image)

Categories Once we place an item in a category, our memory shifts toward the category prototype. This affects recognition time. We are slow to recognize information that doesn’t fit our prototype (leads to prejudice) Courtesy of Oliver Corneille A computer generated face that was 70 percent Caucasian led people to classify it as Caucasian.

PROBLEM SOLVING COMPONENTS
Understanding the problem or diagnosis Devising a plan to solve it Executing the plan Evaluating the results

STRATEGIES FOR PROBLEM SOLVING
Decomposition: divide into smaller, more manageable parts Work backward Find analogies Incubation (forgetting incorrect ideas that may have been blocking path to correct solution)

There are two ways to solve problems:
Problem Solving There are two ways to solve problems: Algorithms: Methodical, logical rules or procedures that guarantee solving a particular problem. OBJECTIVE 3| Compare algorithms and heuristics as problem-solving strategies, and explain how insight differs from both of them.

S P L O Y O C H Y G Algorithms
Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities before arriving at a solution. Computers use algorithms. S P L O Y O C H Y G If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word using an algorithmic approach, we would face 907,208 possibilities.

Heuristics Heuristics are simple, thinking strategies that allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. Heuristics are less time consuming, but more error-prone than algorithms. B2M Productions/Digital Version/Getty Images

Put a Y at the end, and see if the word
Heuristics Heuristics make it easier for us to use simple principles to arrive at solutions to problems. S P L O Y O C H Y G S P L O Y O C H G Y P S L O Y O C H G Y P S Y C H O L O G Y Put a Y at the end, and see if the word begins to make sense.

HEURISTICS We use heuristics to reduce our options
Then we use trial and error

Insight Insight involves a sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem. Humans and animals have insight. Kohler’s experiment with Sultan to the right: Grande using boxes to obtain food

Insight Brain imaging (fMRI) and EEG (electrical signature) studies suggest that when an insight strikes (the “Aha” experience), it activates the right temporal cortex (Jung-Beeman, 2004). The time between not knowing the solution and realizing it is 0.3 seconds. Provides a sense of satisfaction. From Mark Jung-Beekman, Northwestern University and John Kounios, Drexel University

DECISION- GROUP A Imagine that you serve on the jury of an only-child sole custody case following a relatively messy divorce. The facts of the case are complicated by ambiguous economic, social, and emotional considerations, and you decide to base your decision entirely on the following few observations. To which parent would you award sole custody of the child?

DECISION Parent A, who has an average income, average health, average working hours, a reasonable rapport with the child, and a relatively stable social life, or Parent B, who has an above-average income, health problems, lots of work-related travel, a very close relationship with the child, an extremely active social life.

DECISION – GROUP B Imagine that you serve on the jury of an only-child sole custody case following a relatively messy divorce. The facts of the case are complicated by ambiguous economic, social, and emotional considerations, and you decide to base your decision entirely on the following few observations. To which parent would you deny custody?

Obstacles in Solving Problems
Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for information that confirms a personal bias. 2 – 4 – 6 OBJECTIVE 4| Contrast confirmation bias and fixation, and explain how they can interfere with effective problem solving. Rule: Any ascending series of numbers. 1 – 2 – 3 would comply. Ss (?) had difficulty figuring out the rule due to a confirmation bias (Wason, 1960).

CAUSES OF CONFIRMATION BIAS
COGNITIVE CONCEIT COGNITIVE LAZINESS We seek evidence verifying our ideas more eagerly than evidence refuting our ideas Examples: WMD/Iraq; Therapists

Fixation Fixation: An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. This impedes problem solving. Two examples of fixation are mental set and functional fixedness. The Matchstick Problem: How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles? From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Candle-Mounting Problem
Using these materials, how would you mount the candle on a bulletin board? From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Matchstick Problem: Solution
From “Problem Solving” by M. Scheerer. Copyright © 1963 by Scientific American, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Candle-Mounting Problem: Solution

UNSCRAMBLE THE WORDS #1 NYPAS FELA DUB KTALS LOBSOMS LTEPA
Turn your paper over and wait.

UNSCRAMBLE THE WORDS #2 FINEK OPONS KROF PUC ECUSAR LTEPA
Turn your paper over and wait.

Mental Set A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if that way was successful in the past.

MENTAL SET

Functional Fixedness A tendency to think only of the familiar functions of an object. ? Problem: Tie the two ropes together. Use a screw driver, cotton balls and a matchbox.

PSYCHSIM Go to my Web Page; open AP Psych PsychSim Link
Complete PsychSim for Chapter 10: My Head is Spinning

Functional Fixedness Use the screwdriver as a weight, and tie it to the end of one rope. Swing it toward the other rope to tie the knot. ? The inability to think of the screwdriver as a weight is functional fixedness. Another example?

FUNCTIONAL FIXEDNESS

IGNORING NEGATIVE EVIDENCE
Don’t forget: negative means removal or absence not bad The absence of symptoms can provide important evidence for or against a hypothesis, but symptoms or events that do not occur are less likely to be noticed and observed Example: ?

MULTIPLE HYPOTHESES May be due to limited capacity of short-term memory. If time: multi-attribute exercise

Using and Misusing Heuristics
Two kinds of heuristics, representative heuristics and availability heuristics, have been identified by cognitive psychologists. KNOW THEIR NAMES! OBJECTIVE 5| Contrast the representative and availability heuristics, and explain how they can cause us to underestimate or ignore important information. Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University of Louisville and the Tversky family Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University of Louisville and Daniel Kahneman Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman

Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype. If you meet a slim, short, man who wears glasses and likes poetry, what do you think his profession would be? An Ivy league professor or a truck driver? Probability that that person is a truck driver is far greater than an ivy league professor just because there are more truck drivers than such professors.

Availability Heuristic
Why does our availability heuristic lead us astray? Whatever increases the ease of retrieving information increases its perceived availability. Example: mono (explain) How is retrieval facilitated? How recently we have heard about the event. How distinct it is. How correct it is.

ANCHORING HEURISTIC (BASE RATE FALLACY)
Definition: estimate the probability of an event, not by starting from scratch but by adjusting an earlier estimate Ex: When you begin AP Psychology, you assume ……….

GAMBLER’S FALLACY Definition: Belief that events in a random process will correct themselves Example:

DECISION MAKING PITFALL ACTIVITY
Write a dialogue to illustrate some flaws in thinking. Possible scenarios might include a criminal, a gambler, or a movie star discussing events from their lives with another individual (Reporter? Attorney? Etc). Include at least three of the following pitfalls. Do not identify them by name. Anchoring heuristic Representativeness heuristic Gambler’s fallacy Availability heuristic

DECISION MAKING PITFALLS ACTIVITY
Team up with another group. Read your dialogue to this group. The second group should analyze your dialogue and determine how it illustrates the decision making pitfalls, and label each. Reverse roles.

Making Decision & Forming Judgments
Each day we make hundreds of judgments and decisions based on our intuition, seldom using systematic reasoning. Affects our social judgments. A lot of important decisions involve judgments of risk.

Overconfidence Intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and the inclination to explain failures increase our overconfidence. Overconfidence is a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. OBJECTIVE 6| Describe the drawbacks and advantages of overconfidence in decision making. At a stock market, both the seller and the buyer may be confident about their decisions on a stock.

OVERCONFIDENCE Can have devastating consequences (political example?)
However, overconfidence does have adaptive value: Happier Easier to make tough decisions Seem more credible

OVERCONDIFENCE Researchers have found that people with high self-confidence are more susceptible to flattery than those with low self-confidence. In a sentence or two, why do you think this is true?

The 9/11 attacks led to a decline in air travel due to fear.
Exaggerated Fear The opposite of having overconfidence is having an exaggerated fear about what may happen. Such fears may be unfounded. The 9/11 attacks led to a decline in air travel due to fear. AP/ Wide World Photos

FEAR FACTOR FOUR INFLUENCES ON OUR INTUITIONS ABOUT RISK. WE FEAR:
What our ancestral history has prepared us to fear What we cannot control What is immediate What is most readily available in memory*

FEAR FACTOR Vivid events distort our comprehension of risks and probably outcomes We fear too much those things that have killed people dramatically, in bunches, and recently We fear too little threats that claim lives undramatically, one by one, and in the distant past/future

FEAR FACTOR Cotton swabs injure more people than razor blades or shavers! Chairs are more than 13 times as likely to cause injuries as chain saws. 411,689 Americans in one year experienced injuries related to beds, mattresses, and pillows.

DECISION You’ve decided to see a Broadway play and have bought a $100 ticket. As you enter the theater, you realize you’ve lost your ticket. You can’t remember the seat number so you can’t prove to the management that you bought a ticket. Would you spend $100 for a new ticket?

DECISION You’ve reserved a seat for a Broadway play for which the ticket price is $100. As you enter the theater to buy your ticket, you discover you’ve lost $100 from your pocket. Would you still buy the ticket, assuming you have enough cash left to do so?

DECISION Most people will buy a ticket after losing cash but not after losing the ticket. Why? Tversky suggests people set up a mental account. In problem (a) that account has already been charged $100; to replace the ticket would double the account. In the second problem the $100 loss is charged to some other account, such as next month’s lunch money or next year’s vacation.

Framing Decisions Decisions and judgments may be significantly affected depending upon how an issue is framed. Example: What is the best way to market ground beef — as 25% fat or 75% lean? OBJECTIVE 7| Describe how others can use framing to elicit from us the answers they want.

FRAMING Give an example from the “Blink” article to illustrate framing and thin slicing (inferring the motivations and intentions of others with subtle, fleeting cues) Give an example from the “Blink” article to illustrate the importance of facial expressions.

Blink Why is Gladwell’s book titled Blink?
According to Gladwell, what caused the shooting of Armadou Diallo? What was the relationship between autism and the Diallo shooting? What are some recommendations for dealing with stressful situation according to the information presented in the article? Summarize in a few sentences the conclusions of Gladwell regarding decision making.

Belief Bias The tendency of one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning by making invalid conclusions. We more easily see the illogic of conclusions that run counter to our beliefs than of those that agree with our beliefs. OBJECTIVE 8| Explain how our preexisting beliefs can distort our logic.

Often fuels social conflict.
Belief Perseverance Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Often fuels social conflict. If you see that a country is hostile, you are likely to interpret their ambiguous actions as a sign of hostility (Jervis, 1985). OBJECTIVE 9| Describe the remedy for belief perseverance phenomenon.

Perils & Powers of Intuition
Intuition may be perilous if unchecked, but may also be extremely efficient and adaptive. OBJECTIVE 10| Describe the smart thinker’s reaction to using intuition.

Perils & Powers of Intuition

Language Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others. M. & E. Bernheim/ Woodfin Camp & Associates Language transmits culture.

Nonverbal Communication
Demonstration of “meaningful” body language Non-verbal communication - slides Smiling experiment Compare to research results Conclusions?

Nonverbal Communication

GENDER AND COMMUNICATION
Read the handout: Gender and the Communication Process What are the differences between men and women in their communication patterns? Do you agree? Have things changed since this article was written? What evidence supports the statement that gender differences in social power affect cross-sex conversations?

Language Structure Phonemes: The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language. For example: bat, has three phonemes b · a · t chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t OBJECTIVE 11| Describe the basic structural units of language.

Unforgettable = un · for · get · table
Language Structure Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example: Milk = milk Pumpkin = pump . kin Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

Structuring Language Phonemes Morphemes Words Phrase Sentence
Basic sounds (about 40) … ea, sh. Morphemes Smallest meaningful units (100,000) … un, for. Words Meaningful units (290,500) … meat, pumpkin. Phrase Composed of two or more words (326,000) … meat eater. Sentence Composed of many words (infinite) … She opened the jewelry box.

Grammar Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others. Grammar Semantics Syntax

Semantics Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. For example: Semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past.

Syntax Syntax consists of the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. For example: In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.

Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2.
Language Development Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2. We learn, on average (after age 1), 3,500 words a year, amassing 60,000 words by the time we graduate from high school. Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images

When do we learn language?
Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ah-goo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech. OBJECTIVE 12| Trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling stage through two-word stage.

One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.

Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year a child starts to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car,” means I would like to go for a ride in the car.

Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech, children begin uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball) with syntactical sense, and by early elementary school they are employing humor. You never starve in the desert because of all the sand-which-is there.

Explaining Language Development
Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement. OBJECTIVE 13| Discuss Skinner’s and Chomsky’s contributions to the nature-nurture debate over how children acquire language, and explain why statistical learning and critical periods are important concepts in children’s language learning.

Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn. Overgeneralizing (-ed added, etc) is support for this theory LAD (language acquisition device) Surface vs deep structure

3. Statistical Learning and Critical Periods: Well before our first birthday, our brains are discerning word breaks by statistically analyzing which syllables in hap-py-ba-by go together. These statistical analyses are learned during critical periods of child development.

Genes, Brain, & Language Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the brain. Michael Newman/ Photo Edit, Inc. David Hume Kennerly/ Getty Images Eye of Science/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

Williams Syndrome A form of mental retardation marked by the preservation of linguistic functioning in the face of severe cognitive deficits. In a sense, it could be labeled language without thought. Low IQ’s (in the 50’s) yet they can string sophisticated vocabulary words into complex, elegant sentences.

Learning new languages gets harder with age.
Language & Age Learning new languages gets harder with age.

Language & Thinking Language and thinking intricately intertwine. Does this make a case for political correctness in our speech? Rubber Ball/ Almay

DOUBLESPEAK -CAN YOU TRANSLATE?
Revenue enhancement Inoperative statements Social expression products Poorly buffered precipitation Media courier Oral hygiene appliance Negative patient outcome Vertical transportation corps

DOUBLE SPEAK (CONT.) Period of accelerated negative growth
Radiation enhancement device Automotive internist Pre-emptive counterattacks Pupil station Underground condominium Digital fever computer

Doublespeak Definiton: language designed to alter our perception of reality and to corrupt our thinking Sometimes humorous and relatively harmless, it can also be used to avoid responsibility, to make the bad seem good, the negative positive, the unpleasant attractive. Explanation?

Language Influences Thinking
Linguistic Determinism: Whorf (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think. For example, he noted that the Hopi people do not have the past tense for verbs. Therefore, the Hopi cannot think readily about the past. OBJECTIVE 14| Summarize Whorf’s linguistic determinism hypothesis, and comment on its standing in contemporary psychology.

Language Influences Thinking
When a language provides words for objects or events, we can think about these objects more clearly and remember them. It is easier to think about two colors with two different names (A) than colors with the same name (B) (Özgen, 2004).

Word Power Increasing word power pays its dividends. It pays for speakers and deaf individuals who learn sign language. Helps explain the bilingual advantage: learning to inhibit one language while using their other language, are also better able to inhibit their attention to irrelevant information.

Linguistic Determinism Questioned
Although people from Papua New Guinea do not use our words for colors and shapes, they still perceive them as we do (Rosch, 1974).

Thinking in Images To a large extent thinking is language-based. When alone, we may talk to ourselves. However, we also think in images. We don’t think in words, OBJECTIVE 15| Discuss the value of thinking in images. 1. When we open the hot water tap. 2. When we are riding our bicycle.

THINKING IN IMAGES You are going to be tested on how well you can re-create something based on a mental picture. View image for 10 seconds Form a picture of it in your mind.

THINKING IN IMAGES How many crossing are there? Try to draw the knot.

CREATING A MENTAL MODEL
I will be reading a description of a place. Listen carefully because I will be asking questions about it when I finish.

CREATING A MENTAL MODEL
What is above your head? What is below your feet? What is ahead of you? What is behind you? What is to your right? How did your reaction time vary with each question?

Images and Brain Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually performing the activity. Jean Duffy Decety, September 2003

Language and Thinking Traffic runs both ways between language and thinking. Process simulation is superior to outcome simulation.

Do animals have a language?
Animals & Language Do animals have a language? Honey bees communicate by dancing. The dance moves clearly indicate the direction of the nectar.

Do Animals Think? Concept formation. Insight Problem Solving Culture
Common cognitive skills in humans and apes include the following: Concept formation. Insight Problem Solving Culture Mind? William Munoz OBJECTIVE 16| List five cognitive skills shared by the great apes and humans. African grey parrot assorts red blocks from green balls.

Chimpanzees show insightful behavior when solving problems.
Sultan uses sticks to get food.

Apes are famous, much like us, for solving problems.
Problem Solving Apes are famous, much like us, for solving problems. Courtesy of Jennifer Byrne, c/o Richard Byrne, Department of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, Scotland Chimpanzee fishing for ants.

Animal Culture Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over generations. Michael Nichols/ National Geographic Society Copyright Amanda K Coakes Dolphins using sponges as forging tools. Chimpanzee mother using and teaching a young how to use a stone hammer.

Can animals infer mental states in themselves and others?
To some extent. Chimps and orangutans (and dolphins) used mirrors to inspect themselves when a researcher put paint spots on their faces or bodies.

Do Animals Exhibit Language?
There is no doubt that animals communicate. Vervet monkeys, whales and even honey bees communicate with members of their species and other species. OBJECTIVE 17| Outline the arguments for and against the idea that animals and humans share the capacity for language. Copyright Baus/ Kreslowski Rico (collie) has a 200-word vocabulary

The Case of Apes Chimps do not have a vocal apparatus for human-like speech (Hayes & Hayes,1951). Therefore, Gardner and Gardner (1969) used American Sign Language (ASL) to train Washoe, a chimp, who learned 182 signs by the age of 32.

Gestured Communication
Animals, like humans, exhibit communication through gestures. It is possible that vocal speech developed from gestures during the course of evolution.

When asked, this chimpanzee uses
Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is instrumental in teaching chimpanzees a form of communication. Paul Fusco/ Magnum Photos When asked, this chimpanzee uses a sign to say it is a baby.

Computer Assisted Language
Others have shown that bonobo pygmy chimpanzees can develop even greater vocabularies and perhaps semantic nuances in learning a language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1991). Kanzi and Panbanish developed vocabulary for hundreds of words and phrases. Copyright of Great Ape Trust of Iowa

Criticism Apes acquire their limited vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates. Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack syntax. Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see (Clever Hans Phenomenon).

Video of Chimps and Language

Conclusions If we say that animals can use meaningful sequences of signs to communicate a capability for language, our understanding would be naive… Steven Pinker (1995) concludes, “chimps do not develop language.”

iClicker Questions for
Psychology, 8th Edition by David G. Myers Karla Gingerich, Colorado State University Chapter 10: Thinking and Language

While working on a word problem, Jenae has an “aha
While working on a word problem, Jenae has an “aha!” moment of sudden insight about how to solve the problem. If you were mapping her brain activity on an EEG at that moment, you would expect to observe a burst of activity in her: A. left frontal lobe. B. right frontal lobe. C. left temporal lobe. D. right temporal lobe.

To find Tabasco sauce in a large grocery store, you could systematically search every shelf in every store aisle. This best illustrates problem solving by means of: A. the availability heuristic. B. functional fixedness. C. an algorithm. D. the representativeness heuristic.

Pablo vainly searches for a screwdriver while failing to recognize that a readily available coin in his pocket would turn the screw. His oversight best illustrates: A. functional fixedness. B. the availability heuristic. C. belief perseverance. D. the representativeness heuristic.

A defense attorney emphasizes to a jury that her client works full-time, supports his family, and enjoys leisure-time hobbies. Although none of this information is relevant to the trial, it is designed to make the defendant appear to be a typical member of the local community. The lawyer is most clearly attempting to take advantage of: A. confirmation bias. B. functional fixedness. C. belief perseverance. D. the representativeness heuristic.

Which of the following is TRUE?
A. People underestimate the accuracy of their judgments. B. People pay closest attention to information that disconfirms what they believe. C. It is difficult for most people to explain away their failures. D. People are overconfident about how they will perform on various tasks.

Advertisers know that a thirty-three percent discount sounds like a better deal than a discount of one third. This best illustrates: A. framing. B. belief bias. C. representativeness heuristics. D. confirmation bias.

Maintaining one's conceptions even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited is known as: A. the representativeness heuristic. B. belief perseverance. C. confirmation bias. D. functional fixedness.

In English, it is appropriate to refer to “a pretty bird,” but not to “a bird pretty.” This best illustrates the importance of: A. syntax. B. semantics. C. morphemes. D. phonemes.

Using different words for two very similar objects enables people to recognize conceptual distinctions between the objects. This illustrates: A. telegraphic speech. B. linguistic determinism. C. functional fixedness. D. the representativeness heuristic.

Which language theorist would have been most likely to emphasize that children master the rule for forming the past tense of regular verbs like "push" before they learn common past tense constructions of irregular verbs like "go"? A. B. F. Skinner B. Benjamin Lee Whorf C. Noam Chomsky D. Beatrix Gardner

Critical Thinking Questions

Problem solving is one type of cognitive activity in which we all engage. Which of the following cognitive tendencies is seen to be an obstacle to problem solving? A. availability heuristic B. insight C. prototype confusion D. confirmation bias

A typical one-year-old child:
A. uses telegraphic speech. B. imitates two-word phases. C. is in the cooing stage. D. has lost the ability to discriminate phoneme sounds outside her native language.

Noam Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition holds that people have an inborn universal grammar that makes learning of language easy for children. Which of the following statements is used as support for this theory? A. Children repeat words that they hear frequently. B. Regardless of the language learned, children tend to make similar errors of grammar when they first begin to learn language. C. Chimpanzees and other apes can easily learn language. D. Some children’s vocabularies are extensive, despite the fact that they may live in poor environments.

Which of these findings have been cited as evidence supporting the viewpoint that animals have capacity for language? A. Washoe, a language trained chimp has been observed trying to teach other chimps to use language without trainer intervention. B. Chimpanzees’ and other apes’ use of language is seemingly unlimited. C. Chimps simply imitate the gestures of the trainers. D. Language behaviors are strongly reinforced by the trainers.

PSYCHOLOGY (8th Edition) David Myers

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