Topic 7 - Language, Cognition and decision making

Question 1

Define thinking.

Answer 1

Manipulating mental representations for a purpose.

Question 2

What are the 3 ways people think?
Define.

Answer 2

words

mental images - visual representations such as the image of a street or a circle.

mental models - epresentations that describe, explain or predict the way things work.

Question 3

What is object visualisation?

Answer 3

the process of visually memorising and processing scenes in great detail.

Question 4

What is spatial visualisation?

Answer 4

a heightened ability to judge distances, relative dimensions and velocities with spatial visualisers.

Question 5

What is theory of mind?

Answer 5

the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and to others. Ability to recognise that others have beliefs, intentions, feelings and thoughts that are different to your own.

Question 6

What is a concept vs a category?

Answer 6

Concept: A concept is a mental representation of a class of objects, ideas or events that share common properties.

Categories: are groupings based on common properties.

Question 7

What are defining features?

Answer 7

qualities that are essential, or necessarily present, in order to classify the object as a member of the category.

Question 8

Define prototype.

Answer 8

an abstraction across many instances of a category. It represents a typical example of a category of things.

Question 9

Define exemplar.

Answer 9

a particularly good example of a category e.g. parrot for the category of bird.

Question 10

How to people categorise objects or situations?

Answer 10

Rapid, implicit categorisation = similarity (prototypes).

Explicit categorisation = defining features.

Question 11

Define reasoning.

Answer 11

The process by which people generate and evaluate arguments and beliefs.

Question 12

What is inductive vs deductive reasoning?

Answer 12

Inductive reasoning: reasoning from specific observations to more general populations. Involves inferring a conclusion based on probabilities rather than certainties.

Deductive reasoning: is logical reasoning that draws a conclusion from a set of assumptions or premises that are based on the rules of logic.

Question 13

Define syllogism.

Answer 13

consists of two premises that lead to a logical conclusion

Question 14

What is analogical reasoning?

Answer 14

the process by which people understand a novel situation in terms of a familiar one.

Question 15

What are 3 barriers to problem solving?

Answer 15

Functional fixedness: the tendency for people to ignore other possible functions of an object when they have a fixed function in mind.

Mental set: the tendency to keep using the same problem-solving techniques that have worked in the past.

Confirmation bias: the tendency for people to search for confirmation of what they already believe.

Question 16

Define weighted utility value (in decision making).

Answer 16

A combined judgement of the importance of an attribute and the extent to which a given option satisfies it.

Question 17

Define expected utility.

Answer 17

a combined judgement of the weighted utility and the expected probability of obtaining an outcome.

Question 18

Define heuristics

Answer 18

cognitive shortcuts that allow people to make rapid judgements but can sometimes lead to irrational choices.

Question 19

What is bounded rationality.

Answer 19

that people are rational within the bounds imposed by their environment, goals and abilities. Thus instead of making optimal judgements, people typically make good enough judgements.

Question 20

What is analytical vs intuitive decision making?

Answer 20

Analytical decision making: occurs when individuals use their conscious awareness to access and employ symbolically encoded rules in a systematic manner.

Intuitive decision making: occurs when people make judgements about a problem using their ‘gut’, in a rapid, non-conscious way. Quicker than analytical decision making. Relies on non-conscious thought and emotion.

Question 21

What is connectionism aka?

Answer 21

parallel distributed processing (PDP)

Question 22

What does connectionism refer to?

Answer 22

The assertion that most cognitive processes occur simultaneously through the action of multiple, activated networks.

Question 23

Define constraint satisfaction

Answer 23

the tendency to settle on a cognitive solution that satisfies as many constraints as possible in order to achieve the best fit to the data.

Question 24

Define language.

Answer 24

the system of symbols, sounds, meanings and rules for their combination that constitutes the primary mode of communication among humans.

Question 25

What theory proposes that language shapes thought?

Answer 25

Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity

Question 26

What is the difference between phonemes and morphemes?

Answer 26

Phonemes: the smallest units of sound that constitute speech.

Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning in language.

Question 27

Define syntax.

Answer 27

the rules that govern the placement of words and phrases in a sentence.

Question 28

Define semantics.

Answer 28

the rules that govern the meanings (rather than the order) of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences.

Question 29

What is prosody?

Answer 29

the rhythm, stress and beat of how we speak.

Question 30

What is the critical period of language learning?

Answer 30

First 3 years of life

Question 31

What is telegraphic speech?

Answer 31

sentences used by young children that leave out all but the essential words

Question 32

Who are the key players on either side of the nature v nurture debate in language development?

Answer 32

B. F Skinner - Nurture (Behaviourism & conditioning)

Chomsky - Nature

Question 33

What is universal grammar?

Answer 33

Chomskys proposal.

an innate, shared set of linguistic principles that underlie the grammatical forms found in all cultures.

Question 34

What is a language acquisition device?

Answer 34

According to Chomsky all humans are born with a LAD = an innate set of neural structures for acquiring language

Question 35

What part of the brain is specialised for processing grammar?

Answer 35

left frontal lobe

Question 36

What part of the brain is specialised for processing word meaning?

Answer 36

Left temporal lobe