Myers’ EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (5th Ed)

1. Myers’ EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (5th Ed) Chapter 9 Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

2. Thinking (cognition) • Thinking: • Mental activities associated with: • processing • understanding • remembering • communicating

3. Thinking • Concepts: • mental groupings of similar objects or ideas • examples: • truck • dog • sad

4. Example: shape with 3 sides Concepts – formed by definition

5. Prototype  mental image or best example Concepts – formed by developing prototypes

6. Thinking: Solving Problems • Insight: • suddenly realize the solution to a problem • doesn’t require use of strategies • example: “getting” a joke

7. Thinking: Solving Problems • We also use strategies • Algorithms: • methodical • step-by-step • can take longer • Heuristics: • simpler strategies • quicker • more error-prone

8. Problem Solving Obstacles • Confirmation Bias • we tend to search for info that confirms our ideas • overlook contradictory info • example: communication with deceased • Fixation • inability to see a problem from a new perspective

9. The Representativeness Heuristic • judge likelihood of things by how well they match prototypes • ignore other info

10. Representativeness Heuristic • A person is short, slim, and likes to read poetry. • more likely to be a professor of classics at Ivy League university or truck driver?

11. Availability Heuristic • judging likelihood of events based on how readily they come to mind (memory) • quickly comes to mind  we assume it is common • sometimes true, but not always • results in errors

12. Availability Heuristic • Does the letter k appear more often as the first or third letter in English usage? • examples of 1st letter: knife, king, know • think of examples quickly • examples of 3rd letter: take, likelihood, ask • harder to think of • but actually more likely

13. Overconfidence • tend to overestimate: • accuracy of our knowledge • our performance in tasks • examples • school assignments (take longer than we expect) • can also be positive • people who have more overconfidence: • happier • find it easier to make decisions • seen as more credible

14. Framing • same information, presented differently can lead us to feel differently • hearing that 10% die from a surgery vs. hearing that 90% survive • risk is rated as greater when we hear 10% die • risks framed with numbers cause more fear than percentages • 10 people out of 10 million will die versus .000001 will die • survey questions can be framed to support or reject viewpoints

15. Belief Perseverance • stick with our beliefs even if they have been discredited • example: opposing views of capital punishment • subjects were shown mixed evidence: • more impressed by the study that supported their beliefs • disputed the other study

16. Fear: Why do we fear the wrong things? • Flying versus driving • Ancestral history • (snakes, heights) • Fear what we cannot control • driving we control (flying we don’t) • Fear what is immediate • smokers may fear flying • Fear what is most readily available in memory • dramatic tsunami (killed 300,000) vs. malaria killing similar # of children every few months

17. Language • Language • spoken, written, signed words • combined to communicate meaning • 1st birthday to high school graduation • we learn 60,000 words (10 per day)

18. Language • Babbling Stage • beginning at 3 to 4 months • infant spontaneously utters various sounds • at first: unrelated to the household language • can’t identify language (e.g., English, Korean) • at 10 months: household language can be identified

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

20. Language • Two-Word Stage • starts about age 2 • two word statements • Telegraphic Speech • early speech stage (age 2) • child speaks like a telegram • “go car”; “want milk” • mostly nouns and verbs

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

22. Language • Influences • Biological • brains are wired to use language • Environmental • need exposure early on • differences in environment influence language ability • http://a.abcnews.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=7733749&page=1

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

24. Language • Linguistic determinism (1950s) • Benjamin Lee Whorf • hypothesis that language determines the way we think • Now: • “determines” is too strong… • but language influences thinking

25. Language Influences Thinking • English – • more words for self-focused emotions (e.g., anger) • Japanese – • more words for interpersonal emotions (e.g., sympathy)

26. Do Animals Think? • Animals (especially great apes) display capacity for thinking • Form concepts • monkeys learn to classify cats and dogs; different neurons respond • Display Insight • fruit and long stick placed beyond reach • chimpanzee given short stick in cage • couldn’t reach fruit, gave up, suddenly used short stick to get long stick

27. Do animals exhibit language? • They can comprehend and communicate • Monkeys: different alarm cries depending on predator • Whales: clicks and wails • Honeybees: dance to inform others of food source location • Dogs: interact with us; can fetch items by name

28. Do animals exhibit language? • Depends on definition of language • ability to communicate through meaningful symbols? yes (apes) • expression of complex grammar? no • Previously thought that animals could not: • plan, form concepts, count, use tools • show compassion • use language • Animal research has found that animals CAN do all of these