PSY101 - Chapter 9: Thinking and Language Flashcards
Cognition
All the mental activites associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, communication.
Problem Solving
Algorithms: methodical, step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution.
Heuristics: simple thinking strategies that allow us to solve problems efficiently, speedier but more error prone.
Obstacles to Problem Solving
- Confirmation Bias: the tendency to seek out info that should confirm out theory and to not seek out or ignore info that might falsify our theory.
- Falsification: (Popper) we can show that the consequences of a theory/idea are not empirically supported. - If P, then Q. If not Q, then not P.
- Fixation: our inability to see a problem from a new perspective, employing a different mental set.
- Functional Fixedness: our tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.
The Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent/match particular prototypes.
The Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory (how readily they come to mind).
Intuitive Heuristics
Representative and availability.
Overconfidence
Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments. (brought on my intuitive heuristics and eagerness to confirm the beliefs we already hold)
Belief Perseverance
Our tendency to cling to our initial concepts even after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
–Capitol punishment
Framing
The way an issue is posed significantly affects decisions and judgments.
– condom failure rate
Anchoring
Final judgments and behaviors are assimilated or become more similar to an initial anchor value.
–nuclear war probability.
Language
Refers to our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them as we think and communicate.
–arbitrary: sounds produced to resemble a word do not reflect the meaning of the word.
Phonemes
Smallest distinctive sound unit in language.
Morphemes
The smallest unit that carries meaning in language, including words such as “bag,” and parts of words, such as prefixes.
Grammar
System of rules that enables us to communicate, including rules for deriving meaning from morphemes (semantics), and rules for ordering words to form sentences (syntax).
Language Development
Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2.
After age 1, we learn ~3,500 words a year, 60,000 by the time we graduate high school.
Language acquisition device
Neurological system which allows us to understand and produce language.
Babbling
4 months: the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, first unrelated to household language, then related.
One-word Stage
Around first birthday: stage of speech development in which the child speaks mostly in single words.
Two-word Speech
Around second birthday: the stage of speech development during which a child speaks mainly in two-word statements.
The Speaker
The stage of speech development in which a child begins uttering longer phrases.
Language Processing
Understanding and producing language.
Damage to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Broca’s: inability to produce speech.
Wernicke’s: inability to understand speech.
Language Influence on Thinking
People express different profiles of personality traits depending on the language in which they take the test.
Expanding vocabulary expands your ability to think - read good writing.
Tetsuro Matsuzawa
Studied chimps’ ability to remember and relate numbers.
Difference Between Human and Animal Communication Systems
- Apes have difficulty acquiring even their limited vocabularies, unlike human children.
- May be a result of behavior shaping.
- Lack human syntax.
Nondeclarative (Procedural) Memory
Thinking of something in images rather than in words.
Outcome Simulation
Mentally visualizing an outcome.
Process Simulation
Mentally visualizing a process/action.
Effect of Thinking on Language
Thinking affects our language, which then affects our thought.
