Set 8: Thinking & Language Flashcards
Thinking
Thinking, or cognition, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating
intuition
Thinking is different than intuition, which is effortless immediate and automatic feelings.
Executive Functions
We as humans have Executive Functions. These are cognitive skills that work together. They allow us to generate organize, plan, and implement ideas.
Concept
The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. There are a variety of chairs but their common features define the concept of a chair.
Development of Concepts (prototypes)
We form some concepts with definitions. For example, a triangle has three sides. Mostly, we form concepts with a mental image of the best thing that would fit a given concept (prototypes.) For example, a robin is a prototype of a bird, but a penguin is not.
Convergent Thinking
Convergent Thinking is the ability to provide a single correct answer.
Divergent Thinking
Divergent Thinking is the ability to consider many different options and think in new ways.
Algorithms
Try every possible combination until you find the correct answer. (Accurate but time consuming.)
Heuristics
Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. Heuristics are less time consuming, but can lead to mistakes.
Insight
When you just know the answer to a problem immediately.
Confirmation Bias
A tendency to search for information that confirms a personal bias.
Fixation
An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. This impedes problem solving. Two examples of fixation are mental set and functional fixedness.
Mental Set
A tendency to keep solving a problem the same way, even if there is a better solution.
Functional Fixedness
The tendency to only think of the main purpose of an object.
The Gambler’s Fallacy
The Gambler’s Fallacy is the tendency to think what happens previously will affect a future event.
Representative Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype.
Availability Heuristic
If an event readily comes to mind, we presume it is common.
States that memorables things seem more common.
Overconfidence
Intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and the inclination to explain failures increase our overconfidence.
Overconfidence is a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
Sunk-Cost Fallacy
The Sunk-Cost Fallacy is our tendency to stick to the original plan because we’ve already invested time or money, when switching would benefit us more.
Exaggerated Fear
The opposite of having overconfidence is having an exaggerated fear about what may happen. Such fears may be unfounded.
A fear of something that poses little to no danger.
Nudge
$10.50 with a credit card
Example: $10 in cash for a haircut
Opposite of nudge?
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Belief Bias
The tendency of one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning by making invalid conclusions.
Belief Perseverance
Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.
Language
Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others.
Phonemes
The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language.
bat, has three phonemes b - a - t
chat, has three phoneme ch- a - t
Morpheme
The smallest unit that carries meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:
Milk = milk
Unforgettable = un - for - get - table
Grammar
Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others.
Semantics
Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.
Semantic rules tells us that adding -ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past.
Syntax
Syntax consists of the rules for putting words in the correct order within a sentence.
In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.
Language development
Children learn language before learning most other things. (Kids learn language at a rapid pace.)
When do we learn language
Cooling Stage
The Cooing stage begins at 6-8 weeks, when kids start making basic sounds.
When do we learn language
Babbling Stage
Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ah-go. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech.
At what time do we start learning language 1?
One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around his first birthday (1 year), a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.
At what time do we start to learn language 2?
Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year (2 years) a child starts to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car” means “I would like to go for a ride in the car.”
When do we learn language 3?
Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech (2+ years), children begin uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball) with syntactical sense, and by early elementary school they are employing humor.
Overregularization of Grammar
When kids are first learning grammar then tend to overuse grammar rules, we call this Overregularization of Grammar.
Ex: I Goed to the park
Deers
Explaining language development:
Operant Learning
Created by: B.F. Skinner
Explanation: Theory that language is learned by experience through rewards and punishments.
Nature or Nurture: Nurture
Explaining language development:
Inborn Universal Grammar
Created by: Noam Chomsky
Explanation: Theory that language is so complicated, and we learn it so much faster than anything else as kids, that the fundamentals of language must already exist in the brain at birth. (He called this part of the brain the Language Acquisition Device.)
Nature or Nurture: Nature
Explaining language development:
Critical Period Hypothesis
Created by: N/A
Explanation: Theory that there is a certain time where language is learned easiest (critical period), but you must still be taught language to learn it.
Nature or Nurture: Nature & Nurture
Genes, Brain, & Language
Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the brain.
Language & Age
Learning new language gets harder with age
Language & Thinking
Language and thinking intricately intertwine.
Language influences Thinking:
Linguistic Determinism THEORY
Whorf (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think.
Language influences Thinking:
Linguistic Relativism
Many psychologists today believe in Linguistic Relativism, which is less extreme. It believes that language just influences the way we think not controls it.
Do animals Exhibit Language?
There is no doubt that animals communicate, problem solve, and some even show insight.
Some animals can even go as far as learning sign language to communicate. Yet these animals lack syntax in their speech, which shows that they can only really repeat what they have learned and not create their own original thoughts.
Thus, most psychologist DO NOT believe that animals truely have language.
