Week 10 Notes Flashcards
What is cognition?
- Mental processess
- sensation
- perception
- concept formation
- reasoning
- decision making
- problem solving
- language
What is Thinking?
- Mental representation and manipulation of information
- mental images
- words
- Concepts
What is Manipulation of Information?
When we solve problems, make decisions, think creatively
Thought & Language - Lev Vygotsky
- Language guides and stimulates thinking
- Thoughts and language are separate systems to start with
- they merge around 3 years old
- begin to produce verbal thought (inner speech)
Thought & Language - Jean Piaget
- Language follows from the ability to think and reflect
- language depends on thought to develop
- thought comes before language
What is language?
- Communicating thoughts and feelings
- uses a system of socially shared but arbitrary symbols
- Written and verbal signals which have rules of grammer
Definition: Language
- symbols that convey meaning
- rules for combining symbols (grammer)
- Infinite variety of messages
- Symbolic
- sounds and written words represent objects, actions, events and ideas
Language is . . .
- symbolic
- semantic
- meaningful
- generative
- structured
The Structure of Language
- Phonemes
- Morphemes
- Pragmatics
- Syntax
- Semantics
Phonemes
Smallest units of sound in a spoken language
Morphemes
Smallest units of meaning in a language
Pragmatics
Patterns of intonation and social roles associated with a language
Syntax
Specifies the rules for arranging and combining words to form phrases and sentences
Sematics
Meaning derived from morphemes, words and sentences
Surface Structure
The order of words in a sentence
Deep Struture
The underlying meaning of the sentence
Why is understanding Speech Complicated
- Letters sound different depending what follows
- Words are not usually separated by silence
- Sounds and verbal cues detected by bottom up processing
- Sounds and cues understood guided top down processing
First Year of Language
- infant vocalisation initially similar across cultures
- usually involves all phenomes
- by 6 months babbling starts to resemble the infants surrounding language
- by 12 months first words are usually spoken, this is similar across cultures
- Uses non verbal behaviour to communicate
Language 2nd Year
- 12-18 months is the one word stage
- Vocabulary expands dramatically in this time
- Starts to use two word “telegraphic” sentences
- over application of past tense rules and irregular verbs
- Sentence expanded with adjectives
Telegraphic Sentences
A concise sentence typically containing five words or less.
Language 3rd Year
- Begin to use auxiliary words eg: adam is going
- Begin to ask questions using “wh” words
- Begin to join clauses to form complex sentences
- Acquire most grammar rules by age 5
Milestones in Language Development
- Birth: Crying
- 2 months: Cooing
- 6-12 Months Babbling
- 12 Months: One word phrases
- 18-24 months - Two Word Phrases
- 24-36 months - Complex Speech
Anatomy of Speech
- Jaw
- Oral Cavity
- Lips
- Teeth
- Tongue
- Nasal Cavity
- Hard Plate
- Soft Palate (velum)
- Pharynx
- Epiglotis
- Larynx
- Vocal Chords (Glottis)
- Oesophogus
- Trachea
- Lungs
Speech is continuous
- Speech is continuous in every language
- We do not pause between words
- experience teaches us word boundaries
- when we hear non native sentences we recognise there is not break between words
Theories of Language Acquisition
- Behaviourist: Skinner
- Nativist: Chomsky
- Interactionist: cognitive and social communication theories
Language Acquisition Theory - Behaviourist
- BF Skinner focuses on Nurture
- Language is acquired through interacting with the environment
- Environmental factors govern language acquisition
- Vocalisations that are reinforced are repeated
- Vocalisations not reinforced dissapear
Critique:
- Trial and error learning cannot account for:
- fast mapping/speed of language acquisition
- generative aspect of language
- children make mistakes ie “he goed away” This is not imitation
Language Acquisition Thoery - Nativist
- Theorist: Chomsky
- Focuses on Nature
- Humans have an innate capacity to learn language
Language Acquisition Theory - Interactionist
- Cognitive and Social communication theories
- Nature and Nurture play a role in language development
Language Acquisition Theory - Nativist
- Noam Chomsky - Biological
- Language Acquisition Device - Innate prewired mechanism for language development
- built in universal grammar
- Specific language impairment (SLI)
- studies show problems acquiring language run in families : Genetic Correlation
- humans are pre-wired for language as evidenced by Unique physiology of mouth/throaat and language brain areas
Critique:
- Does not explain how language is produced
Eric Lenneberg (1967)
Critical Period Hypothesis
- Due to neuroplasticity, language needs to be acquired prior to puberty
Language Acquisition Theory - Interactionist
- Biological maturation and neural development
- +
- Cognitive Development
- +
- Linguistic Enforcement (instruction, reinforcement)
- =
- Language Development
- Critics of Chomsky: where/what is the LAD?
- Nature and nurture contribute to language
- Biology and social exchanges both important
Bilingualism
- Bilingual and Monolingual language development is similar
- Bilingual children have slower language processing and verbal fluency
- This is dependant on how easily a child can think of words
-
Bilingual children are better at
- attention control
- working memory capacity
- abstract reasoning
- certain type os problem solving
Linguistic Relativity - Benjamin Whorf
- Language deterimines HOW we think:
- Inuit Eskimos have many different words for snow
- Yindiny in Aus have several terms for noise
- Pitjantjatjara have words for 1,2,3 and use “many” to represent larger numbers
- Whorf theorises Yindiny speakers should perceive different noise types
- Pitjantjatjara speakers should have trouble discriminating numbers above 3
Linguistic Relativity - Criticisms
- Whorf was not entirely correct,
- Rosch compared perception of colours by english speakers with many colour words and New Guinean Dani Tribespeople who only have two colour word. Two groups performed similarly on perceptual testing
- Ozgen studied African languages that do have language boundary between blue and green who perceive these two colours less than english speakers
- Language does not determine What we think it determines How we think.
Factors influencing language comprehension
- Hearing Ability
- Language Mileston Acheivement
- Context
- Schema
Schema
A pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.
Heuristics
Simple, efficient rules which people often use to form judgments and make decisions
- Rules of thumb
- Derived from experience
- Used in Problem Solving
- not always a guarantee of accuracy or usefulness
- availability
- representativeness
- recogntion
Elimination by Aspects (Tversky 1972)
- Decision making approach where alternatives evaluated against criteria that have been ranked by importance
- Features are ranked in order of perceived importance
- All of the three options are available at any one time
- The values of features are evaluated simultaneously across options
- Each set of feature values is evaluated sequentially in rank order
- Option 1 → Feature 1
- Option 2 → Feature 1
- Option 3 → Feature 1
Majority of Confirming Decisions - (Gigerenzer & Goldstein 2011)
Alternative options are considered two at a time, by comparing each on sets of features and all features have equal value.
- Two of the three options are available at any one
time - All of the features are available
- Features values are not considered simultaneously
Satisficing (Simon 1997)
- The decision maker has a number of options
- only a maximum of three features of each options can be evaluated
- do not have to look at the same feature across all options
Availabilty Heuristic
- Involves judging probability of an event by how easily examples of the event come to mind
- leads to biased judgement
- probability of mentally available events does not equal actual probability
Represantative Heuristic
- A thinking strategy based on how closely a new object resembles an existing prototype
Recognition Heuristic
A strategy where decision making stops as soon as a factor that moves one toward a decision has been recognised.
Decision Making Moderators
- Framing
- Anchoring
- Intuition
Framing
The way inforation is presented to emphasise a potential gain or a potential loss as the outcome
Anchoring
Overestimating the importance of something by focusing on it to the exlusion of other relevant factors
Intuition
Rapidly formed judgements base on gut feelings or instincts
Define Problem Solving
- defined as thoughts and actions required to acheive a goal that is not easily acheived
Insight Problems
- Have an ‘aha’ moment
- May not be able to monitor progress
Non-insight problems
- methodical solving of problems
- able to monitor progress
- eg: algebra - x:(1/5)x+10=25
Warmth Ratings
- How close you are to solving a problem
- did not change for insight problems until the solution was found
- changed as the participants approached the solution for non-insight problems
Condiitonal Reasoning
A form of logical reasoning based on conditional statements or conditionalpropositions having the form If, Then, Else.
Analogical Problem Solving
- Is this problem similar to a problem I have encountered before
Obstacles to Problem Solving
- Functional Fixedness
- Mental Set
- Confirmation Bias
Functional Fixedness
Failure to use familiar objects in novel ways to solve problems
Mental Set
Tendency to continue to use the same old method even though another approach might be better.
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to pay selective attention to information that confirms pre-existing beliefs and ignore data that contradicts them.
