Thinking and Language Today we will analyze all aspects of thinking and language

1. Thinking and Language Today we will analyze all aspects of thinking and language

2. Do Now: Read about learning development and the different types of learning theories With your partner (at your table) select three take away points to share out.

3. Thinking • Cognition • mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating • Cognitive Psychologists • study these mental activities • concept formation • problem solving • decision making • judgment formation

4. Thinking • Concept • mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people • Prototype • mental image or best example of a category • matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin)

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

6. Thinking • Heuristic • simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently • usually speedier than algorithms • more error-prone than algorithms

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

8. Thinking • Insight • 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

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

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

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

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

14. The Matchstick Problem • Solution to the matchstick problem

15. 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.

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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Thinking • Overconfidence • tendency to be more confident than correct • tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments

20. 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?

21. Thinking • Belief Bias • 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

22. Language • Language • our spoken, written, or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning • Phoneme • in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

23. Language • Morpheme • 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

24. YouTube: The McGurk Effect (3:23)

25. Language is constructed from phonemes, morphemes, phrases, & sentences. By following explicit or implicit rules for the encoding and understanding of information contained in language, humans manipulate & communicate ideas. Even unspoken languages, such as American Sign Language, allow complex conceptual thinking. cat play Cow

26. Language • Semantics • 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

27. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage able to discriminate Hindi t’s Hindi- speaking adults 6-8 months 8-10 months 10-12 months English- speaking adults Infants from English-speaking homes Language • We are all born to recognize speech sounds from all the world’s languages

28. Language • 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 • One-Word Stage • from about age 1 to 2 • the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words

29. Language • Two-Word Stage • 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

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

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

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

33. Language Acquisition • is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

34. Genie’s Story • What does the story of Genie tell us about the nature of language acquisition? Is it simply a matter of learning language, or does it appear to be more complicated than that?

35. Language • Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf argued that language determines the way we think • Linguistic Determinism: hypothesis, different, languages impose different conceptions of reality.

36. Language • The interplay of thought and language • The traffic runs both ways between thinking and language. Thinking affects our thought.

37. Animal Thinking and Language • Animals, especially apes display remarkable capacities for thinking. • Animals demonstrate insight, and problem solving skills

38. Do Animals Exhibit Language & Do Animal’s Communication Make up Language • YES! Animals Communicate • Apes have a large capacity of learning sign words • Honeybees dance in direction and distance of food source

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