Chapter 10

Cognition and Language

What is Cognition? Cognition – all mental activities that are

associated with processing, knowing, remembering,

understanding, communicating

Metacognition – thinking about one’s thinking

CONCEPTS Concepts – mental groupings of similar

objects, events, ideas, people Ex. – “Shoe” (Shoe String, Tennis Shoe, Shoe

Store, Horseshoe, Shoe polish) Concepts give us much information without a

lot cognitive effort Concepts are organized into more broad

hierarchies Concepts allow us to avoid relearning

Forming Concepts Ways to form concepts:

By Prototypes – a mental image or best example of a category

Ex. A Rose is a prototype flower Ex. A Robin is a prototype bird Ex. A lab is a prototype dog

Prototypes give mental pictures of average features that make it easier and quicker to determine if another object fits into that category.

PROBLEM SOLVING Algorithm – a step-by-step procedure or logical

rule that guarantees solving a particular problem Algorithms oftentimes consume large amounts of time Ex. Unscrambling the word SPLOYOCHYG you place each letter in every possible position. Ex. Solving 10 x 2 can be determined by adding 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 Ex. Computer chess may use algorithms to determine its

next move How could you use an algorithm to find toothpicks at

Harris Teeter?

PROBLEM SOLVING Heuristic – a simple thinking strategy (rule of

thumb, shortcut) that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. Heuristics are speedier but also more error prone than algorithms Ex. Unscramble the word SPLOYOCHYG but eliminating

various possibilities like placing the two Ys Together

Ex. Work backwards – hypothesize an answer and see what you find How could you use a heuristic to find toothpicks at Harris

Teeter?

PROBLEM SOLVING During problem

solving we often experience insight…

Insight – a sudden realization of the solutions to a problem (Aha..) Insight contrasts with

strategy based solutions. – The answer just comes to us!

Obstacles to Problem Solving sometimes we are mislead as we search

for solutions to problems Confirmation Bias – tendency to search

for information that confirms our preconceptions Peter Wason’s Confirmation Bias

experiment Pg. 399 – Can you guess the rule? 2 – 4 – 6 Give more examples that confirm your hypothesis The actual rule…. Any three ascending numbers

Confirmation Bias in American Life

Ex. Watching MSNBC OR FOX News strengthens this obstacle to problem (truth seeking) solving. Media watchdog groups find misinformation or disinformation all the time

Obstacles to Problem Solving Fixation – the inability to see a problem

from a new perspective Using a box of matches, thumbtacks, and a

candle – think of how to mount the candle on a bulletin board. The candle must be able to be lit in a certain way without falling over

Obstacles to Problem Solving Mental Set – continuing to use problem

solving strategies that have worked in the past rather than trying new ones. O-T-T-F…. what are the next 3 letters? F (Five),

S(Six), S(Seven) Try this one… J-F-M-A. what are the next 3

letters? (M, J, J)

Obstacles to Problem Solving Functional Fixedness – the tendency to

think of things only in terms of their usual functions. (Knife and pillow examples) Use a paper towel when you ran out of coffee

filters Not recognizing that the box of matches could

be used in assembling a candleholder.

Using/Misusing Heuristics Heuristics could cause us to make quick /

poor decisions. Representative heuristic – judging the

likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match particular prototypes. A person is short, slim and likes poetry? Would

you guess that this person is an ivy league professor or a truck driver? (pg. 401)

Using/Misusing Heuristics Availability heuristic – we base our

judgments on the availability of information in our memories. We assume information and experiences that are readily available in our minds are common. Do more words in the English language begin

with k or have k as their third letter? (page 402) Availability heuristics can affect our social

judgments 9/11, Virginia Tech/Columbine, Insurance

agents, Politicians (Daisy commercial), 2004 election Osama Bin Laden.

We have the tendency to be overconfident… – our tendency to overestimate the

accuracy of our knowledge and judgments One of the causes of Stock Markets

crashes of 1929 and 2008. People that speculate on the Stock Market are more likely to be arrogant and overconfident.

Overconfident people are looked up to in society but should be viewed with skepticism as they are more wrong than they think

Framing Framing – the way an issue is posed

Framing can greatly affect our decisions and judgments.

Ex. Which ground beef would you most likely buy – 75% lean or 25% fat?

Q Are you in favor of death panels that decide whether or not grandma lives or dies.

Politicians frame issues in a way that manipulates voters minds all the time.

Belief Bias Belief Bias – the tendency for our beliefs to

distort logical reasoning – sometimes this affects our conclusions. Valid conclusions seem invalid and invalid conclusions seem valid. Example:

Some Professors wear ties. Some men wear ties. Some professors are men. (true statement but this flow of thinking is not always

correct) Some Prof. wear ties. Some scarecrows wear ties. Some

prof. are scarecrows. Belief bias is related to Confirmation Bias – seek to

confirm our beliefs.

Belief Perseverance Belief perseverance – clinging to one’s

initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. Belief perseverance may fuel social conflict. Ex. Belief about yourself – you may stick to it

even though others have tried to discredit your belief

Ex. Belief that you should invest in a stock or that a child is academically gifted

Ethnocentrism The belief that one’s nation and/or culture

is superior to all others View Human Experience- Video # 32? Ethnocentrism can distort our

judgments of world events. Americans rank high in the ethnocentrism scale.

 

Causes of Americans high degree of Ethnocentrism

Media (TV, movies and news) bias Q: Explain how this might take place?

Glorification of our history in textbooks. (views of negative historical events like the invasions of Vietnam or Panama or the internment of Japanese-Americans).

 

American Ethnocentrism Normative Social Influence (desire for

social approval). Not being ethnocentric is interpreted by some people as being anti-American or anti-patriotic. Example includes those opposed to the Iraq war.

Lack of Proximity to other cultures/nations increase ignorance which is correlated with ethnocentrism. Example rural Americans higher levels of ethnocentrism, ignorance, prej.

Language Language – our spoken, written, or

signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Components of Language Phonemes – the smallest distinctive

sound unit in spoken language English language has about 40 See phoneme handout Changes in phonemes = changes in meaning

Ex. Wall, Well, Will But in and of themselves, phonemes do not mean

anything

English PhonemesA/a/b/k/d/E/e/f/g/h/I/i/j/l/m/n/O/o/p/kw/r//s/t/

U/u/v/w/ks/gz/y/z/OO/oo/oi/ou/aw/ ar/sh/hw/ch/th/ng/zh/ 

Components of Language Morpheme – the smallest unit in

language that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word In English, there are only a few phonemes that

are also morphemes Ex. “A” or “I”

A morpheme could be a complete word or part of a word (Prefix/Suffix)

Ex. “hat” or “pre”

Grammar – rules that enable communication

Semantics – set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences

Add –ed for the past tense Limb – arm? Or a tree branch?

Context can affect meaning

Syntax – the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Ex. Adjectives before nouns Ex. I am happy instead of Happy am I

Language Development Children’s language development moves

from simple to complex By age 4 months –

Babbling stage – infants spontaneously utter sounds at age 3-4 months

At first, these sounds are unlike household language Cannot distinguish between Chinese babies babbling

and English babies babbling Nature vs. Nurture

Nature allows us to create consonant-vowel pairs (ma, da, goo, ba)

Nurture eventually molds our language Eventually, babbling begins to resemble the household

language

Some words Charlie knows at 24 mo. Mama/Dada – Mother/father Nana/TA – Deanna/TJ me yummy – food Hello - phone Doe doe – sleep Meenu – cat (Cajun) Poowoo – I pooped Bobo - dog Ball Juice Noonee – pacifier Meimei – Maddie made a mess Bye bye – let’s go Eye Nose Bo – elbow Back Knees Hello – yellow Blue Red Toke – Coke Iiiik – something yucky Sucker – ice cream Buden buden – 4 wheeler Bath – bath Boops - boots

Language Development 10 months – phoneme sounds outside the

infant’s household language begin to disappear One year old – child enters the one-word

stage “juice” – I am thirsty

Two years old – child enters the two-word stage (combination of a verb and noun)

“want sleep” – I am ready to go to bed Telegraphic speech – two word sentences that

contain the most necessary words Older than two years old – begin to form

complete sentences

Explaining language development BF Skinner – operant learning

Children learn to speak through imitation, association, and reinforcement

Imitation – saying words as mom and dad say them Association – associating sound with pictures Reinforcement – hugs, smiles, high fives

Explaining language development Noam Chomsky – language is almost

entirely inborn, children are “prewired” to learn language Children acquire untaught words and grammar

rules quickly Video – Scientific American Frontier – “Born to

Talk” Ex. – incorrectly adding –ed (Cindy hitted me)

Overgeneralization – the misapplication of grammar rules

Children have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that allows them to extract the basic rules of grammar. (aka language acquisition or the nativist theory)

Language and Thinking Linguistic determinism hypothesis

(aka linguistic relativity hypothesis)– Benjamin Whorf theorized that language can control or limit our thinking Hopi Indians have no past tense verbs. This

affects their ability to a Hopi’s ability the think in the past tense.

English is a language of many self-focus emotions whereas Japanese has many words for interpersonal emotions (sympathy)

Bilinguals report having a different sense of self when speaking two different languages