Chapter 9
Thinking & Language
Thinking Thinking, or cognition, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding. remembering, and communicating
1) Concepts 2) Problem solving 3) Decision making 4) Judgement formation
Concepts
>The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people > Example: There are a variety of chairs, but their common features define the concept of a chair
Development of Concepts
We form some concepts with definitions. For example, a triangle has three sides. Mostly we form concepts with mental images or typical examples (prototypes). For example, a robin is a prototype of a bird, but a penguin is not. Problem Solving Problem solving strategies include:
1) Algorithms 2) Heuristics 3) Insight
Algorithms
Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities, before arriving at a solution. Computers use algorithms.
Heuristics
Heuristics are simple, thinking strategies that allow us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently Heuristics are less time consuming, but more error-prone than algorithms
Using Heuristics to Make Decisions
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match a particular prototype
I.E.
Sarah loves to listen to New Age music and faithfully read her horoscope each day. In her spare time, she enjoys aromatherapy and attending spirituality group
a local
Is Sarah more likely to be a school teacher or a holistic healer?
Availability Heuristic
Whatever increases the ease of retrieving information increases its perceived availability (i.e. judging the probability of an even occurring by how easy come up with examples of the event)
it is to
I.E.
Are you more likely to die in a place crash or car accident?
Insight
Involves a sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem. Humans and animals have insight.
The Effects of Framing Decisions and judgements may be significantly affected depending upon how an issue is framed
I.E.
* Marketing ground beef -- as 25% fat or 75% lean
* Surgery where 10% of people die, or where 90% of people survive
Language > Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others > Language transmits culture > Is unique to humans > Evolved due to its utility in coping with the outside world (e.g. problem solving), but it often backfires when applied to private experiences Enables planning, reasoning, self-knowledge, but it also allows comparison to an ideal, worry about the future, negative self-evaluation, meaninglessness ... > Allows us to bring past and future events to our present reality
Language Development
> Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2 > We learn, on average (after age 1), 3,500 words a year, amassing 60,000 words by time we graduate from high school
When do we learn language?
Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like "ah-goo, na-na, ta-ta, da-da" Babbling is not imitation of adult speech One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to sp