1. Cognition: Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and Language

2. Introduction
T / F – People more easily detect male prejudices against females than females against males or females against females.
T / F – Humans are the only creatures to display insight.
T / F – Exceptionally creative architects and engineers usually score no higher on intelligence tests than their less creative peers.
T / F – We all have a tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked for us previously.
T / F – In general, people underestimate how much they really know.
T / F – It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to create them in the first place.
T / F – People are more likely to be afraid of snakes and spiders than they are of driving a car, even though driving is more dangerous.
T / F – The babbling of a infant at 4 months of age makes it clear whether the infant is French, Korean, or Ethiopian.
T / F – Many bilinguals report that they have different senses of self, depending on which language they are using.
T / F – Imagining a physical activity triggers action in the same brain areas that are triggered when actually performing the activity.
T / F – People more easily detect male prejudices against females than females against males or females against females.
T / F – Humans are the only creatures to display insight.
T / F – Exceptionally creative architects and engineers usually score no higher on intelligence tests than their less creative peers.
T / F – We all have a tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked for us previously.
T / F – In general, people underestimate how much they really know.
T / F – It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to create them in the first place.
T / F – People are more likely to be afraid of snakes and spiders than they are of driving a car, even though driving is more dangerous.
T / F – The babbling of a infant at 4 months of age makes it clear whether the infant is French, Korean, or Ethiopian.
T / F – Many bilinguals report that they have different senses of self, depending on which language they are using.
T / F – Imagining a physical activity triggers action in the same brain areas that are triggered when actually performing the activity.

3. Introduction Cognition (thinking) Complete Need for Cognition Scale
Complete the Thinking Styles Inventory

4. Thinking

5. Concepts In order to think about the world, we form…….. Schemas
What are they?
Concepts are similar to Piaget’s idea of….
Schemas
These animals all look different, but they fall under our concept of “dogs”.

6. Cognitive Complexity
= How simple or elaborate a person’s system of personal constructs is
Think of a person you like and someone you dislike. Take 5 minutes to write descriptions of these people. Pay special attention to the person’s habit, beliefs, ways of treating others, mannerisms, and similar attributes – any aspect of the person’s personality or behavior, but NOT physical characteristics.
Like –
Dislike –

7. Which better fits your prototype of a bird?
We base our concepts on ….
Prototypes
A mental image or best example of a category.
Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories
If a new object is similar to our prototype, we are better able to recognize it.
Which better fits your prototype of a bird?
If this was my prototype of a man; then what am I? 

8. Prototypes Why does this matter? Prejudices – Faces Experiment
Less likely to recognize prejudice & discrimination that does not fit our prototype
Faces Experiment

18. Faces Experiment
Shown a face 70% Caucasian, people remembered the face more Caucasian than it actually was. (Same for Asian)

19. Problem Solving

20. Problem Solving Tower of Hanoi Problem
Move the tower from the left peg to the right peg, moving only 1 disk at a time and never putting a larger disk on a smaller disk.

21. Solving Problems Strategies
Trial & Error
Algorithms
Step-by-step
Heuristic
Insight

22. Trial and Error

23. Algorithms
Methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
Usually by using a formula.
They work but are sometimes impractical.

24. Heuristics It is fast, but…
A rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
Who would you trust to baby-sit your child?
It is fast, but…
Can be prone to errors
Your answer is based on your heuristic of their appearances.

25. Insight
A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.
No real strategy involved

26. A B The “Aha” Experience Sudden flash of insight
What do you see in each?
What is the relative position of “just?”
you just me
What do the words communicate?
Stood
Well
View A B

27. Creativity Creativity Strernberg’s five components Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills
A venturesome personality
Intrinsic motivation
A creative environment

28. Creativity Creativity Test #1 Creativity Test #2
You have 2 minutes to come up with as many uses as possible for the following object:
Creativity Test #2
Try to think of at least 4 – 8 things that might happen (changes) if we suddenly had three arms?

29. Obstacles to Problem Solving
Confirmation bias
Fixation
Mental set
Functional fixedness

30. Confirmation Bias
A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.
For example, if you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions occur during other nights of the month.

31. Confirmation Bias
We look for evidence to confirm our beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts them.
For example, if one believes that most of NJ are Italians who are in the mafia or are all about GTL, then they turn on MTV or HBO.
Look…I knew it was true!!!
But is it really?

32. Match Problem
Can you arrange these six matches into four equilateral triangles?

33. Match Problem Fixation
The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.

34. (established thought patterns)
Mental set
a.k.a. rigidity
A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past.
(established thought patterns)
May or may not be a good thing.
Door Problem
You come to this door and want to get to the room on the other side…
WHAT DO YOU DO?!

35. Mental set Mental Set # 1 Mental Set #2
There are 6 eggs in a basket. Six people take one of the eggs each. How is it that one egg can still be left in the basket?
Mental Set #2
What occurs once in June, once in July, and twice in August?

36. Functional Fixedness
Tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
Inability to see a new use for an object.
Think of as many uses as you can for a ……

37. Functional Fixedness

38. Functional Fixedness

39. Functional Fixedness

40. Functional Fixedness

41. Making Decisions and Forming Judgments

42. Using and Misusing Heuristics
The Representative Heuristic
Task #1 – A Die has 4 green sides and 2 red sides and will be rolled several times. You will be paid $25 if either GRGRRR or RGRRR occurs. Which would you choose?
Task #2 – Linda is 31, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy in college. As a student, she was deeply concerned with discrimination and other social issues, and she participated in antinuclear demonstrations.
Which statement is more likely?
A) Linda is a bank teller
B) Linda is a bank teller and active in the feminist movement.

43. Representative Heuristic
Task #3 – Who went to Harvard?
If I tell you that Sonia Dara is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, you would make certain quick judgments (heuristics) about her…like about her interests or intelligence.
She is an economics major at Harvard University.

44. Representative Heuristic
Below is Amy. She loves books and hates loud noises. Is Amy a librarian or a beautician?
A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype.
Can cause us to ignore important information.
Chances are, she is a beautician!!!
Examples –
Why is it funny to think of Mr. Rockwell as a kindergarten teacher?
Any stereotypes –
Blondes are dumb (or have more fun), Irish are leprechauns (or drunks), Germans are not funny, Psych teachers are awesome!

45. Using and Misusing Heuristics
The Base Rate Fallacy
If a test detects a disease whose prevalence is 1 in 1000 has a false positive rate of 5%, what are the chances that a person found to have a positive results, actually has the disease, assuming you know nothing else about the person?
Dr. Swinkels cousin, Rudy
What do you think Rudy’s occupation most likely is?
A) Farmer C) Librarian E) Lawyer
B) Surgeon D) Trapeze Artist
Tendency to ignore or underuse base-rate information and instead be influenced by the distinctive features of the case being judged.

46. Using and Misusing Heuristics
The Availability Heuristic
Handout 7B-5

47. Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their “availability” in our memory.
If it comes to mind easily (maybe a vivid event) we presume it is common.
Although diseases kill many more people than accidents, it has been shown that people will judge accidents and diseases to be equally fatal.
This is because accidents are more dramatic and are often written up in the paper or seen on the news on TV, and are more available in memory than diseases.

48. Availability Heuristic
Which place would you be more scared of getting mugged or even murdered?
Camden, NJ
Orlando, FL
The crime rate of Camden, NJ is about the SAME as Orlando, FL, but when you think of crime, which town comes to mind?
Example –
“The best pizza and wings are from my hometown.”
“Have you tried any others?”
“No”

49. Overconfidence
FBI & Crime Questions

50. Overconfidence The tendency to be more confident than correct.
To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments.
Results from 7B-5
Considering “overconfidence” would you want to risk 1 million dollars on an audience poll?

51. Overconfidence

52. The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon
clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.
Belief Bias - People will tend to accept any and all conclusions that fit in with their systems of belief, without challenge or any deep consideration of what they are actually agreeing with
Capital Punishment Studies
Effect?
Consider the opposite
Examples?
Implications?

53. Language

54. The Effects of Framing
Framing
Framing experiments

55. The Effects of Framing
Tasks
The way a problem is presented can drastically effect the way we view it.
90% of the population will be saved with this medication…..or
10% of the population will die despite this medication.
Meat is 80% Fat-free! … or
Meat is 20% Fat!
Condoms have a 95% success rate! …. or
Condoms have a 5% failure rate!

56. Language

57. Language Introduction
Definition –
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
Examples?

58. Language can be…..

59. Phonemes How many phonemes does platypus have?
In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
English has about 44 phonemes.
Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.
How many phonemes does platypus have?
Phones make sound.

60. Phonemes Experiment

61. Morphemes The smallest unit of meaningful sound.
Most are combinations of 2 or more phonemes
Can be words like a or but.
Can also be parts of words like prefixes or suffixes…
“ed” at the end of a word means past tense.

62. Phonemes & Morphemes Practice
How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?
Chin (3)    
Habits (5)                
Thing (3)
Psychology (8)
Nation (5)   
Quickly (6)
laughed (4)
Phonemes
How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?
Chin    
Habits  
Thing                               
Psychology
Nation    
Quickly
laughed

63. Phonemes & Morphemes Practice
How many prefixes or suffixes can be added to the word READ?
How many morphemes are in the following words?
People (1)
Redevelopment (3)
Language (1)
Waited (2)
George’s (2)—the “-‘s” is a morpheme
Desirability (3)
Unhappy (2)
Water (1)
Higher (2)
Houseboat (2)
Antidisestablishmentarianism (7)
Morphemes
How many prefixes or suffixes can be added to the word READ?
How many morphemes are in the following words?
People
Redevelopment
Language
Waited
George’s
Desirability
Unhappy
Water
Higher
Houseboat
Antidisestablishmentarianism

64. Grammar
A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.

65. Semantics The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language.
Adding ed at the end of words means past tense.
The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules. They usually have totally different symbols for different tenses.

66. Is this the White House or the House White?
Syntax
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
Noun/Subject then Verb/Predicate
In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish!
Is this the White House or the House White?
Casa Blanca

67. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?
Receptive language
Ability to comprehend speech
Productive language
Babbling stage
link
One-word stage
Two-word stage
Telegraphic speech

68. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

69. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

70. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

71. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

72. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

73. Language Development When Do We Learn Language?

74. 4 Stages

75. How do we learn language?

76. Language Development Explaining Language Development
Skinner: Operant Learning
Learning principles
Association
Imitation
Reinforcement
Explanation?

77. Language Development Explaining Language Development
Chomsky: Inborn Universal Grammar
Language acquisition device (LAD)
We acquire language too quickly for it to be learned.
We have this “learning box” inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.
Universal grammar
All languages have same grammatical building blocks

78. Language Development Explaining Language Development
Critical (sensitive) period
It appears that a person who is not exposed to any language (after about age 9) will never be able to fully develop in any language
Once a person passes through this period, ability to develop language is diminished
Genie

79. Thinking and Language

80. Language Influences Thinking
Whorf’s linguistic determinism
Bilingual advantage

81. Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity
The idea that language determines the way we think (not vive versa).
The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

82. Do people that speak more than one language think differently depending on their language at that time?

83. Thinking in Images
Implicit memory

84. Thinking without Language
We can think in words.
But more often we think in mental pictures.
In 1977, Reggie Jackson hit 3 HR’s against the Dodgers. He has stated that before each at bat, he visualizes crushing a home run. Do you think visualization helps?

85. The End

86. Cognition
= the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

87. Concept
= a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

88. Prototype
= a mental image or best example of a category.

89. Algorithm
= a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone – use of heuristics.

90. Heuristic
= a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.

91. Insight
= a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

92. Creativity
= the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

93. Confirmation Bias
= a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

94. Fixation
= the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

95. Mental Set
= a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

96. Functional Fixedness
= the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

97. Representativeness Heuristic
= judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

98. 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

99. Overconfidence
= the tendency to be more confident that correct – to over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

100. Belief Perseverance
= clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.

101. Intuition
= an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

102. Framing
= the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

103. Language
= our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

104. Phoneme
= in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

105. Morpheme
= in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

106. Grammar
= in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

107. Semantics
= the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.

108. Syntax
= the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.

109. Babbling Stage
= beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

110. One-word Stage
= the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

111. Two-word Stage
= beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.

112. Telegraphic Speech
= early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs.

113. Linguistic Determinism
= Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.