© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Chapter 8: Cognition and Language

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Thinking and Reasoning Thinking –Manipulation of mental representations of information Mental images –Representations in the mind that resemble the object or event being represented

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Thinking and Reasoning Mental imagery –Try to mentally rotate one of each pair of patterns to see if it is the same as the other member of that pair

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Categorizing the World Concepts –Categorizations of objects, events, or people that share common properties that enable us to categorize Prototypes –Typical, highly representative examples of a concept

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Categorizing the World Concepts and prototypes

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind Therefore, Socrates is mortal (conclusion) Socrates is a man (premise) All men are mortal (premise) Syllogistic reasoningSyllogistic reasoning –Formal reasoning in which people draw a conclusion from a set of assumptions (or premises)

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Reasoning: Algorithms Algorithms –A rule that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a solution to a problem

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Reasoning: Heuristics Heuristic –Cognitive shortcut that may lead to a solution –Cannot ensure a solution X

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Reasoning: Heuristics Representativeness heuristic –Rule we apply when we judge people by the degree to which they represent a certain category or group of people Availability heuristic –Involves judging the probability of an event on the basis of how easily the events can be recalled from memory

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Artificial Intelligence Field that examines how to use technology to imitate the outcome of human thinking, problem solving, and creative activities, computers show rudiments of human like thinking because of their knowledge of where to look for an answer to a problem

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Preparation: Understanding and Diagnosing Problems Well-defined problem –Both the nature of the problem itself and the information needed to solve it are available and clear Ill-defined problem –Both the specific nature of the problem and the information to solve it are unclear = ?

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Kinds of Problems Arrangement problems –Require the problem solver to rearrange or recombine elements in a way that will satisfy a certain criterion

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Kinds of Problems Problems of inducing structure –Identifying the existing relationships among the elements presented and then construct a new relationship among them ? Baseball is to bat like tennis is to _________.

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Kinds of Problems Transformation problems –Consist of an initial state, a goal state, and a method for changing the initial state into the goal state

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Representing and Organizing the Problem framedOur ability to represent the problem and the kind of solution we eventually come to is affected by the way a problem is phrased, or framed Will it take a person the same amount of time in order to climb up 8 stories as it does to climb down 8 stories?

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Representing and Organizing the Problem

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Production: Generating Solutions Trial and error –Most basic means of seeking a solution Means-ends analysis –Repeated testing for differences between the desired outcome and what currently exists

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Production: Generating Solutions Subgoals –Dividing a problem into intermediate steps, and solving each of those steps Insight –A sudden awareness of the relationships among various elements that had previously appeared to be unrelated to one another

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Impediments to Solutions Functional fixedness –Tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use Mental set –Tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Impediments to Solutions Inaccurate evaluation of solutions –Confirmation bias Tendency to favor information that supports one’s initial hypotheses and ignore contradictory information that supports alternative hypotheses

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Creativity and Problem Solving Creativity –Ability to generate original ideas or solve problems in novel ways Cognitive complexity –Preference for elaborate, intricate, and complex stimuli and thinking patterns

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Creativity and Problem Solving Divergent thinking –Ability to generate unusual, yet nonetheless appropriate, responses to problems or questions Convergent thinking –Ability to produce responses that are based primarily on knowledge and logic

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Language Communication of information through symbols arranged according to systematic rules

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Grammar: Language’s Language Grammar –System of rules that determine how our thoughts can be expressed Phonology –Study of the smallest units of speech, called phonemes

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Grammar: Language’s Language Phonemes –The smallest units of speech that affect meaning Syntax –Ways in which words and phrases can be combined to form sentences Semantics –Rules governing the meaning of words and sentences

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Language Development Babbling –Meaningless speechlike sounds made by children from around age 3 months through 1 year –Critical period Telegraphic speech –Sentences in which words not critical to the message are left out

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Language Development Overgeneralization –Phenomenon by which children apply language rules even when the application results in an error –He walked. He runned.

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Understanding Language Acquisition Learning-theory approach –Suggests that language acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Understanding Language Acquisition Universal grammar –Noam Chomsky –Theory that all the world’s languages share a common underlying structure Language-acquisition device –Neural system of the brain hypothesized to permit understanding of language

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. The Influence of Language on Thinking Linguistic-relativity hypothesis –Notion that language shapes and may determine the way people in a particular culture perceive and understand the world

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. The Influence of Language on Thinking Research suggests that speaking several languages changes the organization of the brain, as does the timing of the acquisition of a second language