1. PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter ?
Thinking and Language
Walnut
Psychology

2. Fact or Falsehood?
1.) We notice evidence that contradicts our beliefs more readily than evidence that is consistent with them. 2.) In general, people underestimate how much they really know. 3.) It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to create them in the first place. 4.) Some computers are able to learn from experience. 5.) Only human beings seem capable of insight (the sudden realization of a problem’s solution).

3. The Three-Jugs Problem
Using jugs A, B, and C, with the capacities shown, how would you measure out the volumes indicated?

4. The Three-Jugs Problem
Solution: a) All seven problems can be solved by the equation shown in (a): B - A - 2C = desired volume.
b) But simpler solutions exist for problems 6 and 7, such as A - C for problem 6.

5. Thinking
Cognition
mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

6. Thinking Concept Prototype
mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Prototype
mental image of a category
matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including

7. Thinking
Algorithm
A logical procedure that guarantees problem solving.
contrasts with the usually speedier–but also more error-prone--use of heuristics

8. Directions
How many cuts need to be made to make a single line?

9. Thinking Heuristic Making judgments and solve problems efficiently
usually speedier than algorithms
more error-prone than algorithms

10. S P L O Y O C H Y G Thinking Unscramble Algorithm Heuristic
all 907,208 combinations
Heuristic
throw out all YY combinations
other heuristics?

11. Thinking Insight Confirmation Bias Fixation
sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
contrasts with strategy-based solutions
Confirmation Bias
tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions
Fixation
inability to see a problem from a new perspective
impediment to problem solving

12. Thinking Mental Set tendency to approach a problem in a particular way
especially a way that has been successful in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem

13. The Matchstick Problem
How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?

14. The Matchstick Problem
Solution to the matchstick problem

15. Thinking Functional Fixedness
tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
impediment to problem solving

16. The Candle-Mounting Problem
Using these materials, how would you mount the candle on a bulletin board?

17. The Candle-Mounting Problem
Solving this problem requires recognizing that a box need not always serve as a container

18. Heuristics Representativeness Heuristic
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes
may lead one to ignore other relevant information

19. Logic Puzzles
A ladder hangs over the side of a ship anchored in a port. The bottom rung touches the water. The distance between rungs is 20 cm and the length of the ladder is 180 cm. The tide is rising at the rate of 15 cm each hour. When will the water reach the seventh rung from the top?
I am looking at somebody's photo. Who is it I am looking at, if I don't have any brothers or sisters and the father of the man in the photo is the son of my father?
If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have?

20. Heuristics 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
Example: airplane crash

21. Thinking Framing the way an issue is posed
how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments
Example: What is the best way to market ground beef--as 25% fat or 75% lean?

22. Hotel Enigma
Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager finds out that the room rate is $25 and gives the bellboy $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to split among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totaling $27. The bellboy has another $2, adding up to $29. Where is the remaining dollar?

23. Thinking Belief Bias Belief Perseverance
the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning
sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid or valid conclusions seem invalid
Belief Perseverance
clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

25. Artificial Intelligence
designing and programming computer systems
to do intelligent things
to simulate human thought processes
intuitive reasoning
learning
understanding language

26. Artificial Intelligence
Computer Neural Networks
computer circuits that mimic the brain’s interconnected neural cells
performing tasks
learning to recognize visual patterns
learning to recognize smells

27. Language Language Phoneme
our spoken, written, or gestured works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning continues to evolve.
Phoneme
in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

28. Language Morpheme Grammar
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning
may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
Grammar
a system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others

29. Language Semantics Syntax
the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language
also, the study of meaning
Syntax
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

30. Language
We are all born to recognize speech sounds from all the world’s languages
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Percentage able
to discriminate
Hindi
Hindi-
speaking
adults
6-8
months
8-10
10-12
English-
Infants from English-speaking homes

31. Language Babbling Stage One-Word Stage beginning at 3 to 4 months
the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
One-Word Stage
from about age 1 to 2
the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words

32. Language Two-Word Stage Telegraphic Speech beginning about age 2
the stage in speech development during which a child speaks in mostly two-word statements
Telegraphic Speech
early speech stage in which the child speaks like a telegram-–“go car”--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words

33. Language Summary of Language Development Month (approximate) Stage 410 12 24
24+
Babbles many speech sounds.
Babbling reveals households
language.
One-word stage.
Two-world, telegraphic speech.
Language develops rapidly into
complete sentences.

34. Nature Vs Nurture
Noam Chomsky
B.F. Skinner

35. « Universal Grammar » Chomsky
He found, through his studies, that humans have a « language acquisition device » that other animals do not have. When exposed to language, a child will acquire that language where an animal will not. Thus, a language acquisition device (LAD), as Chomsky calls it, is the function of our brain that allows us to transform exposure to a language into acquisition of grammar.
Chomsky argues that the types of grammar that the child needs must be narrowly constrained by human biology. These innate constraints on grammar are what Chomsky refers to as universal grammar, or more commonly known as “language instinct.”

36. Structure-Dependency
Knowledge of language requires dependance on the structural relationships within a sentence.
By examining changes in a particular sentence, one can see structural relationships within the sentence, and not the linear order of words. Therefore, structure dependancy is a universal principle of language

37. Structure-Dependency
A tree diagram representing
phrase structure analysis:
By examining sentence diagrams, one can see how the elements of a
sentence depend on its structure.

38. First Language Acquisition
Chomsky developed a theory in opposition to B.F. Skinner, who argued very generally that language comes about as a result of external stimuli.
example: a child responds to an object which is acting as a stimulus, for example a doll, calling it « doll. »
Chomsky challenges this with the notion of creativity: if a child can regularly produce sentences they have never heard before, how could they be acting through stimuli?  Language is not controlled by stimuli.

39. Poverty of the stimulus
The source of language must be within the mind itself
In other words, a child could not have acquired language from the relatively few samples of language available to the child.
This explains the complexity of our knowledge of language, as compared to the poverty of data at a learner’s disposal.

40. Second Language Acquisition
Grammatical explanation: one does not learn the grammatical structure of a second language through explicit explanation and instruction
Is it possible to become fluent in a second language?
According to Chomsky, yes. But motivation plays a big factor. He once gave an example of his two children. He went to Italy once for a few months, and his young boy picked up the language without even trying. However, his older daughter, who was highly motivated to learn Italian, had to work hard at it.
Poverty of the stimulus does exist in a second language, according to Chomsky.
One cannot truly teach language but can only present conditions for the learner to develop it in his or her own mind.

41. Language
Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience activates them as it modifies the brain

42. Language New language learning gets harder with age 100 90 80 70 60 50
Native
3-7
8-10
11-15
17-39
Percentage
correct on
grammar
test
Age at school
New language learning gets harder with age

43. Language “The limits of your language mean the limits of your world.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein

44. Language Linguistic Determinism
Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

45. Language
The interplay of thought and language

46. Animal Thinking and Language
Is this really language?

47. Animal Thinking and Language
Direction of
nectar source
The straight-line part of the dance points in the direction of a nectar source, relative to the sun

48. Animal Thinking and Language
Gestured Communication