Chapter 8: Thinking, Reasoning & Language

Question 1

Thinking:

Answer 1

“ALPACABD”

A - Activity
L - Learning
P - Perceiving
A - Any mental processing of information
C - Communicating
A - And
B - Believing
D - Deciding

Any mental activity or processing of information, including learning, remembering, perceiving, communicating, believing, and deciding

Question 2

what does cognitive psychology focus on?

Answer 2

the processes and content of thought

Question 3

System 1 Thinking (Intuitive)

Answer 3

Quick and reflexive

Little mental effort required

Relies on heuristics

Question 4

System 2 Thinking (Analytical)

Answer 4

Slow and reflective; deliberate

Requires mental effort

Question 5

Humans are ___

Answer 5

“cognitive missers”

humans tend to conserve cognitive resources by simplifying information processing and decision-making. Engaging in system 2 uses mental energy. Being cognitive misers allows us to simplify our world and attend primarily to what is meaningful and manageable.

Question 6

Representativeness heuristic:

Answer 6

Involves judging the probability of an event by its similarity to a prototype

Imagine you meet a person named Sarah, who is an introverted, quiet, and shy individual. She enjoys reading books, spending time alone, and is very organized. When asked to guess Sarah’s occupation, you might immediately think she is a librarian, as her personality traits and interests seem to match the stereotype of a librarian. However, this assumption doesn’t take into account the actual statistical probability of Sarah being a librarian, considering the wide range of other possible occupations she could have.

In this case, the representativeness heuristic leads you to judge Sarah’s occupation based on the stereotype of a librarian rather than considering other possible occupations or the actual likelihood of her being a librarian.

Question 7

what does ignoring base rates mean?

Answer 7

People do not consider the actual frequency (number of people) of the membership in categories

Question 8

Availability Heuristic:

Answer 8

estimates of the likelihood of an occurrence are based on the ease with which examples of the occurrence come to our minds

if something can be easily recalled or imagined, people tend to assume it’s more common or likely to happen.

Question 9

Hindsight Bias:

Answer 9

Tendency to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it has already occurred

Once we know what happened or what worked or didn’t work, it is easy to see how events led to it. It does not mean we could have predicted the outcome.

A.K.A. the “I knew it all along effect”

Question 10

confirmation bias

Answer 10

the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort anything that contradicts them

Important to consider disconfirming evidence

Question 11

what do we need to consider in order to prevent hindsight bias?

Answer 11

disconfirming evidence.

Question 12

what influences lower-level processes

Answer 12

context and higher-level knowledge

Question 13

what is a concept?

Answer 13

knowledge an idea about a set of objects, actions, and characteristics that share core properties

Question 14

what are schemas?

Answer 14

can guide us in situations

Question 15

what is decision-making?

Answer 15

the process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives

Question 16

what is framing?

Answer 16

the way information is presented activates different information in the LTM, which influences decisions

Question 17

what is problem-solving

Answer 17

generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal

Question 18

what are two approaches to solving problems and what do they do?

Answer 18

Algorithms: step-by-step procedure used to solve a problem
Heuristics: use of mental shortcuts to solve a problem

Question 19

what is the salience of surface similarities?

Answer 19

Focus on attention-grabbing features of problems and try to solve two superficially similar problems in the same way

Example: Imagine you are shown pictures of two animals - a dolphin and a shark. Both have streamlined bodies, fins, and live in the ocean. The salience of surface similarities might lead you to think that dolphins and sharks are closely related species, as they share several apparent features. However, in reality, dolphins are mammals, while sharks are fish, and their similarities are a result of convergent evolution rather than close relatedness. By focusing on the superficial similarities, one might overlook the significant differences in their biological classification and evolutionary history.

Question 20

Mental Sets:

Answer 20

The phenomenon of being stuck in a specific problem-solving strategy, which inhibits our ability to generate alternative strategies

Question 21

Functional Fixedness:

Answer 21

Difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used for another

Question 22

Language

Answer 22

A largely arbitrary system of communication that combines symbols (such as words or gestural signs) in rule-based ways to create meaning

Question 23

what is language based on?

Answer 23

for the most part, arbitrary symbols

Question 24

Phonemes:

Answer 24

the basic units of sound in a language

ex: Bat and Pat have one different phoneme (/b/ vs. /p/)

Question 25

Morphemes:

Answer 25

smallest units of meaning in a language

Created by linking phonemes together

Question 26

Syntax:

Answer 26

set of rules for arranging words to form sentences

Question 27

Linguistic Determinism:

Answer 27

All thought is represented verbally, therefore language determines thinking

Question 28

Linguistic Relativity:

Answer 28

language can shape our thinking but is not absolute in determining our thoughts

A.K.A. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
E.g., Colour perception
E.g., Intentionality and memory