Topic 4: language, understanding and thought

Question 1

what is thought?

Answer 1

• conscious products with both perceptual and non-perceptual origins
• requires a vehicle
  
  • social construct (external, eg.g english)
  • single LoT (internal; mentalises)
  • multiple LoT (internal, propositions, images, models)

place of thought = working memory, units of thoughts= concepts

Question 2

social construct of thought

Whorf hypothesis

Answer 2

publicly observable behaviours such as english. It is an internalised external language

Whorf: linguistic relativity hypothesis

• language provides the structure of thought and therefore determines how we think
• if you have no language you have no thoughts

Question 3

internalised language of though (LoT)

why may thoughts be different from english?

Answer 3

• to escape circular regress
• tip-of-the-tongue (means concepts are not equal to words)
• the ability to aqcuire 10 new words a day and apply overextension (concepts preced words)
• the ambiguity of language

Question 4

Single language of thought

Answer 4

internal conceptual code and mentalese

structure:

• concept ->
• proposition (thought) ->
• simplest unit of thought (has a truth value) ->
• proposition = predicates and arguments

number of proposition = complexity

Question 5

multiple languages of thought

Answer 5

internal propositions and imagery codes

• propositions: symbolic
• imagery: visual kinaesthetic, auditory
• mental models

Question 6

visual imagery

Answer 6

• visual images are similar to percepts, utilising the built-in architectural features of the visual system (scannign and rotation)

Question 7

mental models

wason task

Answer 7

if thought was purely propositions, then two thoughts with the same logical structure should be equivalent, but content seems to matter

• Wason task
  
  • most people turn over E and 4 but the answe is E and 7

Question 8

Mental models

determinants

Answer 8

Determinants:

• represents one realisation of an abstract proposition (a subset of the possible situations that would be true)
  
  • produces explicit content, not logical structure
  • explicit content has an effect on reasoning
• reflects limited processing resources

Question 9

dual approach to reasoning

associations or rules?

Answer 9

associations or rules?

• system 1: associative (conjunction fallacy, feminist bank teller)
• system 2: rational (moral dilemmas)

outputs of each mau conflict (e.g. conjunction fallacy, moral dilemmas)

Question 10

problem solving

defining the problem

difference between experts and novices

Answer 10

Defining the problem:

• internal representation (mental model) = problem space
  
  • coherence (all parts connected)
  • correspondence (representation = referent)
  • relationship to background nowledge

Difference between experts and novices

• relevant information to the exclusion of irrelevant, reduces incomplete information and computational complexity

Question 11

Problem solving

optimal representations

Answer 11

optimal representations can be influenced by a range of factors

• context
  
  • prior exposure to similar problems and recognising their relevance

Question 12

Problem solving

impact on past problms on current problem representations

Answer 12

• functional fixedness (used to using things one way)
• mental set

Question 13

problem solving and controlled attention

Answer 13

• controlled attention, reflected through conscious awareness is not always necessary
• insightful solutions may just pop out
• often after incubation, which might reflect removal of specific intereference, or minimal executive inhibition

Question 14

Judgment and decision making

making choces based upon uncertain information

Answer 14

• if high in computational complexity, associative system is more likely to dominate reasoning, with a reliance on heuristics

Question 15

Heuristics name 3

Answer 15

• usually lead to a correct outocme but not always
• availability heuristic: ease of memory retrieval
• representativeness heuristic: similairty to schematic features
• anchoring and adjustment: impact of initial event/ choice

Question 16

outcomes of judgement and decision making

Answer 16

• entrapment: justification through increased commitment
• over-confidence:
  
  • ​unaware of tenuous basis for decisions
  • cannot recall competing hypotheses
  • bias for positive evidence (confirmation bias)
  • hindsight confused with foresight
  • greater effort leads to greater confidence

Question 17

some points concerning reasoning

Answer 17

• work in this area has so far fucusse don the functional level of analysis (largely descriptive)
• growing evidence for involvement of both exclipcit and implicit domains
• we are very good at reasoning in the defence of particular positions

Question 18

solutions for the mind/body problem

Answer 18

one type of substance: monism-materialism

• consciousness has no function; purely brain activity reaching a threshold

two types of substances: dualism

• cartesian dualism (two-way flow)
• epiphenomenalism (one-way flow)

Question 19

solution for the mind/ body problem

one type fo substance

Answer 19

• consiousness doe shave a function -> a cuasal role
  
  • explicit learning > implicit learning
  • existence of qualia
  • searle’s chinese room and computers