1. Cognition: language, thinking and problem solving Chapter 8

2. Language Acquisition
One of the defining characteristics of humans is the use of complex language-our ability to communicate.
Newborn children know zero words in English, or any other language. Yet they have innate abilities to become fluent speakers of any language they hear spoken, or signed regularly.

3. Skinner- language is learning
Skinner believed that all language was learned through observation or modeled. Others disagreed….

4. Innateness-Theory of Language- Chomsky
According to the innateness-theory of language, children acquire language not only by imitating but also by following preprogrammed steps to acquire language.
Noam Chomsky-Language Acquisition Device-LAD: a mental structure that facilitates the learning of language because it is preprogrammed with fundamental language rules.
Globally, all children follow the same pattern of language acquisition.
LAD is flexible-any language is possible

5. Language parts Phoneme is the smallest distinctive sound unit
Morpheme is the smallest unit that carries meaning
may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
-ed/-d = past tense; -s = plural
Grammar, then, is a system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand other

6. Language
Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language.
also, the study of meaning
Syntax is the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.
Do you want to go to the store? vs. Store to go want to do you?

7. Stages of Early language
Summary of Language Development
Month
(approximate)
Stage 4 10 12 24
24+
Babbles many speech sounds.
Babbling reveals households
language.
One-word stage.
Two-world, telegraphic speech.
Language develops rapidly into
complete sentences.

8. Language Stages
There are four phases of early speech acquisition that all students pass through:
Babbling 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, but noises that represent every sound heard in every language
One-Word Stage
From about age 1 to 2
The stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words

9. 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

10. 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

11. COGNITION/THINKING
A concept is a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Prototype is a mental image or best example of a category-formed on the basis of frequently experienced features.
Testing concepts can be hard since they are not observable. We must infer their influence on people’s thinking indirectly by studying their observable side effects.
Concept of the color red

12. Types of Concepts There are two types of concepts
Natural concepts: imprecise mental classifications that develop out of our everyday experiences.
Most of the concepts in our everyday life
Artificial concepts: concepts defined by a set of rules or characteristics, such as dictionary definition or mathematical equations.
Most of the concepts learned in school!

13. Cognitive Maps
As we saw before, cognitive maps are mental representations of a given place or situation.
Just the mental image is not enough however.
Ex. Answering the phone at a friends house

14. Making Inferences
To help us figure out the episode, the context and stimulus of a situation we do have tools:
Schema: General frameworks that provide expectations about topics, events, objects, people and situations.
Script: Schemas about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings.

15. Problem Solving
When we are faced with a problem, we have a few options for figuring out a solution.
Algorithms: Problem solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied
Heuristics: Simple, basic rules that serve as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks.
They do not guarantee a correct solution

16. Which bet would you choose?
1 in 10
9 in 100

17. Who chooses the large box?
Percentage of participants choosing the box with greater # of total balls
(odds with small box = 10%; odds with large box = value shown on x-axis)

18. What is a heuristic?
“Mental shortcut” used in judgment and decision making
Essential for living in an uncertain world
But they can lead to faulty beliefs and suboptimal decisions
By looking at errors and biases, we can learn how people are reasoning under uncertainty
THREE TYPES OF HEURISTICS

19. Affect HEURISTIC- judgment based on how your feel
Judgments of life happiness:
People asked 2 questions:
1) How satisfied are you with your life these days?
2) How many dates have you had in the last month?
Correlation = -.12
Another group asked in opposite order – 2), then 1)
Correlation = .66
Strack et al., 1993

20. Type of affect - The identifiable victim effect
“A death of a single Russian solder is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.” – Joseph Stalin

21. The availability heuristic
Making judgments about the frequency or likelihood of an event based on the ease with which evidence or examples come to mind
Example: Ebola vs Heart Disease
Video- Which is deadlier, a horse or a shark?
Gx2vM

22. Studies on Availability- don’t write this
Married couples asked to allocate responsibility for:
Positive events: Making breakfast, planning activities, shopping for family, making important decisions
Negative events: Causing arguments, causing messes, irritating spouse
Results:
Overclaiming occurred for 16 of 20 activities
Equivalent overclaiming for positive and negative events
Ross & Sicoly, 1979; Kruger & Gilovich, 1999

23. The Representativeness heuristic
Determining class inclusion or likelihood by similarity:
A member ought to resemble the overall category
An effect ought to resemble or be similar to the cause
An outcome ought to resemble the process that produced it
Like goes with like
Often easier to assess similarity than probability
Does he look like an engineer?
Does it look like it could cause a clogged artery?
Does it look like a random sequence?

24. The Linda problem
Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and criminal justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Rank likelihood that Linda is:
A teacher in elementary school
Active in the feminist movement
A member of the League of Women Voters
A bank teller
An insurance salesperson
A bank teller and active in the feminist movement

25. Algorithms vs. Heuristics
Unscramble
S P L O Y O C H Y G
Algorithm
all 907,208 combinations
Heuristic
throw out all YY combinations
other heuristics?

26. activities
In groups of 2 or 3, come up with a solution. Write or draw it out. Did you use algorithm or heuristic?

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

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

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

30. Problems with Heuristics
One problem with heuristic are mental sets.
When faced with problems, we have a tendency to approach it in a familiar way.
Especially a way that has been successful in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem
Mental set: the tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for previous problems.

31. Problems With Heuristics
Another problem with relying on heuristics is called functional fixedness, a sort of mental set issue.
Functional Fixedness: The inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose.

32. The Matchstick Problem
Solution to the matchstick problem

33. 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.

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

35. Judging and Decision making
Along with mental sets, bias can make heuristics a faulty decision making tool.
Confirmation bias
Hindsight bias: Tendency to second guess a decision after the event has happened.
Representative bias: Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match particular prototype
Availability bias: Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
if instances come readily to mind we presume such events are common

36. Exit ticket
On the first day of class, you see a new teacher. Explain how each of the following will affect your judgment of that person: Affect Heuristic Availability Heuristic Representativeness Heuristic