Chapter 8: Thinking, Reasoning & Language Flashcards
Thinking
any mental activity or processing of information
thinking includes
learning, remembering, previewing, communicating, believing and deciding
thinking =
cognitiion
We are all ________ ______
cognitive misers
what does a cognitive miser mean
invests as little energy as possible unless it’s necessary to do more
when can cognitive economy get us in trouble?
when it leads us to oversimplify
what do our minds use to increase our thinking efficency?
heuristics (mental short cuts)
what does cognitive economy allow us to do
simplify what we attend to and keep the information we need for decisions making manageable minimum
Cognitive economy was refered to by Gigerenzer and Goldstein as
fast and frugal thinking
are heuristics effective?
yes
- a study by Samuel gosling revealed untrained observers make surprising accurate judgements
can you detect people personality from facebook profiles?
yes, some studys have found this
can you tell a persons personality from there online gamers’ avartars and player names
people are less likely to be able to
- suggests that gamer profiles are who they want to be perceived as vs. who they actually are
Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal
showed participants 30-second silent clips and asked to evaluate them on instructors nonverbal behaviours
participants ratings where correlated significantly with the teachers end of course evaluations by students
representativeness heuristics
involves judging the probability of an event based on how prevalent the event has been in the past
representativeness heuristics example
meeting someone shy, awkward, and a tournament chess player, and assuming they are more likely to be a mathematics major than a psychology major
base rate =
how common a behaviour or characteristics is in general
availability heuristics
estimate the occurrence based on how easy it come to our minds or how “available” it is in our memories
availability heuristics example
which has more calories beer or peanuts?
most people answer beer because the idea that beer is high in calories is prevalent in our society when in reality peanuts actually have more calories
Hindsight Bias is also known as
the “ I knew it all along effect”
Hindsight Bias
our tendency to overestimate how accurately we could have predicted something happening once we know the outcome
Hindsight bias example
“Monday Morning Quarterbacking”
- when commentators and spectators of a football game played sunday evening point out the fact that a different strategy would have worked better
conformation bias
tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses or beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that does
top down processing
brain only processes information that it recieves, and constructs meaning from it slowly and surely by building up understanding from expereice
applications of top down processing
sensation
chunking
concepts
knowledge and ideas about objects, actions, and characteristics that share core properties
Shemas
concepts we’ve sorted in memory about how certain actions, objects, and ideas relate to each other
- allow us to know roughly what to expect in a given situation
lingustic determinism
- provides an extreme verson of top down processing in which no ideas can be generated without lingustic knowledge
can though occur without language
yes
lingustice relativity
- maintain and shape our thought processes
linguistic relativity is also called
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
color categorization
regardless of how many colors the language has, most people around the world precieve colors as dividing them into roughly the same color categories (Correlation)
what is higher order cognition?
making decions and problem solving
higher order thinking requires
taking ALL the basic aspects of cognitions, such as perception, knowledge, memory, language, and reasoning, and integrate them to generate a plan of action
decision making
the process of selecting among a set of alternatives
system 1 thinking
rapid; intuitive
- relies of heustrinsics
system 2 thinking
slow; analytical
additional factors that influence our decsion making and are known by marketing researchers, advertising exectives, and political pollsters are known as
framing
framing
how we formulate the question about what we need to decide
neuroeconomics
how the brain works while making financial decisions
- uses an fMRI to identify areas of the brain that have become active during this decision making
decision making activates areas of the brain involved in ___________ and _________
processign reward
attending carefully to the relative merits of different opinions
neuroeconimics has the potential to help us understand
why decision making goes wrong some of the time in some people
EXAMPLE: could be used to diagnose psychological disorders
problem solving
generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal
algorithm
step-by-step learned procedure used to solve a problem
algorithms are used got
problems that depend on the basic steps for arriving at a solution
algorithms example
recipes
how can we problem solve
1.algorithms
2.breaking down problem into subproblems so they are easier to solve
3. reasoning from related examples
4. analogies
reasoning from related example
oil is often substituted for butter in baking therefore it might work form an omelette too
analogies
solve problems with similar structure
what are the obstacles to problem solving
- salience of surface similarities
- mental sets
- functional fixedness
mental set
phenomenon of being stuck in a specific problem solving strategy, inhibiting our ability to generate alternatives
functional fixedness
difficultly conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used for another
solution to functional fixedness
shift the problem to be smaller
1980s analogy for how the mind works
compaired the mind to a computer
Language
largely arbitrary system of communication that combines symbols in rule based ways to create meaning
what is one hallmark of language
needs to be arbitary; its sounds, words, and sentences bear no clear relation to their meaning
what is the most crucial function of language
transmission of information
language also has key ______ and _______ functions
social
emotional
why do we take language for granted
it is a highly practiced and an automatic (requires little attention) cognitive practice
ability to use language requires the coordination of
cognitive, social, and physical skills
what are the four levels of analysis for language
a) phonemes
b) morphemes
c)syntax
d) extralinguistic information
phonemes
categories of sounds our vocal apparatus produces
morphemes
smallest meaningful unit of speech
syntax
gramatical rules that govern how we compose words onto meaningful strings
extralinguistic information
elements of communications that aren’t part of the content of information but are crucial to interpreting the meaning
examples of extralingustic information
- facial expressions
- tone of voice
- posture
- gestures
phonemes categories are influenced by
elements of our vocal tract ( lips, teeth, tongue, vibration of vocal cords, opening and closing of the throat)
how many distinct phonemes are there across all the diffrent languages
100
how many phonemes does english contain
between 40 and 45
phonemes are the “_________” of language
ingredients
morphemes are know as the “___________” of language
menu items
how are morphemes created
stringing phonemes together
morphemes convey information about _______
semantics
semantics
meaning derived from words and sentences
syntax is know as “____________” of lanuage
putting together a meal
syntax includes
orders, morphological markers and sentence structure
morphological markers
gramatical elements that modify words by adding sounds to them that change their meaning
examples of morphological markers
s (plural)
ed (past)
ing (ongoing action)
extraliguistic information is known as the “_________” of language
overall dining experience
extralangustic language plays a role in
the interpretation of language
dialects
language variation used by a group of people who share geographic proximity or ethnic background
different dialects may employ slight variations of standard
pronunciations, vocabulary, and syntax of the language
what is the assumption of speakers of non dominate dialects
they are trying, but failing to speak the majority (standard) version of the dialect
What do evolutionary theorists agree on about language
language must offer the human species a strong survival advantage to offset its many disadvantages
what is the challange to explaining how language evolved
language is generally arbitrary
what is the advatage of abitrary language
allows us more flexibility to express complex ideas that do not have sounds naturally associated with them
what is an example of non arbitrary words
onomatopoeia (zoom, buzz, meow, beep, ect. )
sound symbolism
the fact that certain speech sounds seem to be associated with particular meanings
what challenges language as completely arbitrary
sound symbolism
when are children more efficent learners than adults
when learning language
when does the language learning process begin
when the child is born
when can babys begin to make out mothers voices and learn to recognize some characteristics of their mothers language
during the fifth month of pregnancy
high amplitude sucking procedure uses what method of learning
operant conditioning
high amplitude sucking procedure
2 day old infants suck more on a pacifier when they hear their mothers native language than when they hear a foreign language
babbling
any intentional vocalization that lacks specific meaning
babbling represents an babys
increasing control over theur vocal tract
do all babaies initially share the same basic phehems regardless of their parents native language
yes
when are phonemes adjusted to match the parents native language
over the first year
when are the phoneme categories of infants categoried much like adults
10 months
what key principle characterizes early word learning
comprehension precedes. production
whn do children begin to produce their first words
around their first birthday
what is the vocabulary of children 12-18 months of age
20-100 words
what are the typical mistakes children make when learning new words
overextend and under extend
what is the first major milestone in childrens synatic development
combining words into phrases
one word stage
early period of language development when children use single phrases to convey an entire thought
when do children begin to use 2 word phrases
around the age of 2
what is a misconception of sign language
it is an elaborative form of gesturing and a charade’s type attempt to act out silently what people would otherwise speak
sign language contains its own
phonemes, words, syntax, and extralinguistic information
what are the 3 common misconceptions about sign language
- people with hearing loss dont need sign language because they can lip read
- learning sign language slows down the ability of children with hering loss to learn to speak
- american sign language is just english translated word for word into signs
when do babies acquire sign language
around the same age that babies aquire spoken language
bilingualism
proficient and fluent at speaking and comprehending 2 distinct languages
is there a delay in syntax when a child is bilingual
yes
metalinguistic insight
awareness of how language is structured and used
advantages of bilingualism
- can converse with 2 language communities
- heightened metalinguistic insight
- soemargue may add protection from cognitivr decline in patients with Alzheimers
wht brain areas are activated when bilingual individuals learn a second language in early development
similar brain areas
what areas of the brain are activated when bilingual individuals learn the second language later in development
use different brain areas
the age of exposure more dramatically effects
syntax and pronouciation
case study for critical periods
Genie was seriously neglected and deprived almost entirely of social interactions for 13 years of her life. Once rescued, genie displayed a rudimentary ability to communicate. But she failed to become a fluent language user
homesign
system of signs invented by children when hearing loss of hearing parents who receive no language input
language is described by scientist by having as having a ________ _________
sensative period
sensative period
interval during which people are more receptive to learning and can acquire language more easily
Elissa Newport “less is more” hypothesis
children have more limited information processing abilities, fewer analytic skills, and less specific knowledge about hoe language works than adult.
Adults try to impose more organization and structure on their learning. Ironically making learning a new language more challenging
what is the simplist explanation of children’s language learning
learn through imitation
why is a imitation based approach unlikely to tell the whole story
language is generative
generative
allowing an infinite number of unique sentences to be created by combining words in novel ways
nativist account
account of language asquission that suggests children are born with some basic knowledge of how language works
- children are born with expectations that there will be syntactic rules that influence how sentences are constructed
language acquisition device
hypothetic construct suggested by Noam Chomsky in which nativists beleives syntax resides
what is a key weakness of nativist veiw
claims are difficult to falsify
social pragmatics
account of language acquisition that proposes that children infer what words and sentences mean from context and social interactions
weakness of social pragmatics account
requires us to assume that infants understand a great deal about how other people are thinking
general cognitive processing account
children’s ability to learn language results form general skills that children apply to a variety of activities
what are the challenges to the general cogntive processing account
- children are better at learning languages than adults
- specific areas of the brain (especially left temporal lobe) are more active in language processing than in other types of learning, memeory, and pattern recognition activites
communication in nonhumans i largely based on
sex and violence
what were the 3 findings for communication of baboons
- learn better as young animals than adults
- tend to learn through observation rather than direct reinforcement
- use symbols to comment on or engage in social interactions
Stroop colour naming task
identify the color of the ink used to print the words; however the printed words contradict the colored ink
what does the stroop test demonstrate
reading is automatic and hard to inhibit
Whole word recognition
reading strategy that involves identifying common words based on their appearance without having to sound them out
phonetic decomposition (phonics)
strategy involves sounding out words by drawing correspondence between printed letters and sounds
is speed reading effective
yes in the sense that it speeds up reading however beyond a certain point our comprehension suffers enormously
how fast does the average post secondary student read
200-300 words per minute
comprehension results when reading fater than 400 words per minute
below 50%
scientific scepticism
requires us to evalute all claims with an open mind, but insists on compelling evidence before accepting them
what are the 6 principles of scientific thinking
- rule out rival hypothesis
- correlation vs. causation
- falsifiability
- replicability
- extraordinary claims
- occams razor
