Chapter 10

1. Chapter 10 Cognition and Language

2. What is Cognition? • Cognition – all mental activities that are associated with processing, knowing, remembering, understanding, communicating • Metacognition – thinking about one’s thinking

3. CONCEPTS • Concepts – mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, people • Ex. – “Shoe” (Shoe String, Tennis Shoe, Shoe Store, Horseshoe, Shoe polish) • Concepts give us much information without a lot cognitive effort • Concepts are organized into more broad hierarchies • Concepts allow us to avoid relearning

4. Forming Concepts • Ways to form concepts: • By Prototypes – a mental image or best example of a category • Ex. A Rose is a prototype flower • Ex. A Robin is a prototype bird • Ex. A lab is a prototype dog • Prototypes give mental pictures of average features that make it easier and quicker to determine if another object fits into that category.

5. PROBLEM SOLVING • Algorithm – a step-by-step procedure or logical rule that guarantees solving a particular problem • Algorithms oftentimes consume large amounts of time • Ex. Unscrambling the word SPLOYOCHYG you place each letter in every possible position. • Ex. Solving 10 x 2 can be determined by adding 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 • Ex. Computer chess may use algorithms to determine its next move • How could you use an algorithm to find toothpicks at Harris Teeter?

6. PROBLEM SOLVING • Heuristic – a simple thinking strategy (rule of thumb, shortcut) that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. Heuristics are speedier but also more error prone than algorithms • Ex. Unscramble the word SPLOYOCHYG but eliminating various possibilities like placing the two Ys Together • Ex. Work backwards – hypothesize an answer and see what you find • How could you use a heuristic to find toothpicks at Harris Teeter?

7. During problem solving we often experience insight… Insight – a sudden realization of the solutions to a problem (Aha..) Insight contrasts with strategy based solutions. – The answer just comes to us! PROBLEM SOLVING

8. Obstacles to Problem Solving • sometimes we are mislead as we search for solutions to problems • Confirmation Bias – tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions • Peter Wason’s Confirmation Bias experiment • Pg. 399 – Can you guess the rule? 2 – 4 – 6 • Give more examples that confirm your hypothesis • The actual rule…. Any three ascending numbers

9. Confirmation Bias in American Life • Ex. Watching MSNBC OR FOX News strengthens this obstacle to problem (truth seeking) solving. Media watchdog groups find misinformation or disinformation all the time

10. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Fixation – the inability to see a problem from a new perspective • Using a box of matches, thumbtacks, and a candle – think of how to mount the candle on a bulletin board. The candle must be able to be lit in a certain way without falling over

11. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Mental Set – continuing to use problem solving strategies that have worked in the past rather than trying new ones. • O-T-T-F…. what are the next 3 letters? F (Five), S(Six), S(Seven) • Try this one… J-F-M-A. what are the next 3 letters? (M, J, J)

12. Obstacles to Problem Solving • Functional Fixedness – the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions. (Knife and pillow examples) • Use a paper towel when you ran out of coffee filters • Not recognizing that the box of matches could be used in assembling a candleholder.

13. Using/Misusing Heuristics • Heuristics could cause us to make quick / poor decisions. • Representative heuristic – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match particular prototypes. • A person is short, slim and likes poetry? Would you guess that this person is an ivy league professor or a truck driver? (pg. 401)

14. Using/Misusing Heuristics • Availability heuristic – we base our judgments on the availability of information in our memories. We assume information and experiences that are readily available in our minds are common. • Do more words in the English language begin with k or have k as their third letter? (page 402) • Availability heuristics can affect our social judgments • 9/11, Virginia Tech/Columbine, Insurance agents, Politicians (Daisy commercial), 2004 election Osama Bin Laden.

15. We have the tendency to be overconfident… • – our tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments • One of the causes of Stock Markets crashes of 1929 and 2008. People that speculate on the Stock Market are more likely to be arrogant and overconfident. • Overconfident people are looked up to in society but should be viewed with skepticism as they are more wrong than they think

16. Framing • Framing – the way an issue is posed • Framing can greatly affect our decisions and judgments. • Ex. Which ground beef would you most likely buy – 75% lean or 25% fat? • Q Are you in favor of death panels that decide whether or not grandma lives or dies. Politicians frame issues in a way that manipulates voters minds all the time.

17. Belief Bias • Belief Bias – the tendency for our beliefs to distort logical reasoning – sometimes this affects our conclusions. Valid conclusions seem invalid and invalid conclusions seem valid. • Example: • Some Professors wear ties. • Some men wear ties. • Some professors are men. • (true statement but this flow of thinking is not always correct) • Some Prof. wear ties. Some scarecrows wear ties. Some prof. are scarecrows. • Belief bias is related to Confirmation Bias – seek to confirm our beliefs.

18. Belief Perseverance • Belief perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. • Belief perseverance may fuel social conflict. • Ex. Belief about yourself – you may stick to it even though others have tried to discredit your belief • Ex. Belief that you should invest in a stock or that a child is academically gifted

19. Ethnocentrism • The belief that one’s nation and/or culture is superior to all others • View Human Experience- Video # 32? • Ethnocentrism can distort our judgments of world events. Americans rank high in the ethnocentrism scale.

20. Causes of Americans high degree of Ethnocentrism • Media (TV, movies and news) bias Q: Explain how this might take place? • Glorification of our history in textbooks. (views of negative historical events like the invasions of Vietnam or Panama or the internment of Japanese-Americans).

21. American Ethnocentrism • Normative Social Influence (desire for social approval). Not being ethnocentric is interpreted by some people as being anti-American or anti-patriotic. Example includes those opposed to the Iraq war. • Lack of Proximity to other cultures/nations increase ignorance which is correlated with ethnocentrism. Example rural Americans higher levels of ethnocentrism, ignorance, prej.

22. Language • Language – our spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

23. Components of Language • Phonemes – the smallest distinctive sound unit in spoken language • English language has about 40 • See phoneme handout • Changes in phonemes = changes in meaning • Ex. Wall, Well, Will • But in and of themselves, phonemes do not mean anything

24. English Phonemes A/a/b/k/d/E/e/f/g/h/I/i/j/l/m/n/O/o/p/kw/r//s/t/U/u/v/w/ks/gz/y/z/OO/oo/oi/ou/aw/ ar/sh/hw/ch/th/ng/zh/ 

25. Components of Language • Morpheme – the smallest unit in language that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word • In English, there are only a few phonemes that are also morphemes • Ex. “A” or “I” • A morpheme could be a complete word or part of a word (Prefix/Suffix) • Ex. “hat” or “pre”

26. Grammar – rules that enable communication • Semantics – set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences • Add –ed for the past tense • Limb – arm? Or a tree branch? • Context can affect meaning • Syntax – the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. • Ex. Adjectives before nouns • Ex. I am happy instead of Happy am I

27. Language Development • Children’s language development moves from simple to complex • By age 4 months – • Babbling stage – infants spontaneously utter sounds at age 3-4 months • At first, these sounds are unlike household language • Cannot distinguish between Chinese babies babbling and English babies babbling • Nature vs. Nurture • Nature allows us to create consonant-vowel pairs (ma, da, goo, ba) • Nurture eventually molds our language • Eventually, babbling begins to resemble the household language

28. Some words Charlie knows at 24 mo. • Mama/Dada – Mother/father • Nana/TA – Deanna/TJ • me yummy – food • Hello - phone • Doe doe – sleep • Meenu – cat (Cajun) • Poowoo – I pooped • Bobo - dog • Ball • Juice • Noonee – pacifier • Meimei – Maddie made a mess • Bye bye – let’s go • Eye • Nose • Bo – elbow • Back • Knees • Hello – yellow • Blue • Red • Toke – Coke • Iiiik – something yucky • Sucker – ice cream • Buden buden – 4 wheeler • Bath – bath • Boops - boots

29. Language Development • 10 months – phoneme sounds outside the infant’s household language begin to disappear • One year old – child enters the one-word stage • “juice” – I am thirsty • Two years old – child enters the two-word stage (combination of a verb and noun) • “want sleep” – I am ready to go to bed • Telegraphic speech – two word sentences that contain the most necessary words • Older than two years old – begin to form complete sentences

30. Explaining language development • BF Skinner – operant learning • Children learn to speak through imitation, association, and reinforcement • Imitation – saying words as mom and dad say them • Association – associating sound with pictures • Reinforcement – hugs, smiles, high fives

31. Explaining language development • Noam Chomsky – language is almost entirely inborn, children are “prewired” to learn language • Children acquire untaught words and grammar rules quickly • Video – Scientific American Frontier – “Born to Talk” • Ex. – incorrectly adding –ed (Cindy hitted me) • Overgeneralization – the misapplication of grammar rules • Children have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that allows them to extract the basic rules of grammar. (aka language acquisition or the nativist theory)

32. Language and Thinking • Linguistic determinism hypothesis (aka linguistic relativity hypothesis)– Benjamin Whorf theorized that language can control or limit our thinking • Hopi Indians have no past tense verbs. This affects their ability to a Hopi’s ability the think in the past tense. • English is a language of many self-focus emotions whereas Japanese has many words for interpersonal emotions (sympathy) • Bilinguals report having a different sense of self when speaking two different languages