Thinking

1
Thinking

• representing things mentally and operating on
  those representations

2
Concepts

• -basic building blocks of thought
• -mental representations of objects, ideas, or
  elements that show common properties

3
Categorization

• -grouping objects that are considered equivalent
• -excluding those that are not equivalent

4
how do we categorize?

• -features
• -prototypes
• -hierarchically

5
Categories and Culture

• categories are strongly influenced by culture
• what race are you types of snow types or rice
  types of potatoes
• culturally universal categories have strong
  biological/evolutionary basis (male- female,
  animal species)

6
Problem solving

• --coping with novel situations for which there is
  no well-defined response
• --transforming one situation into another that
  meets a goal

7
Problem solving strategies

• trial and error
• algorithms (e.g., rational decision making)
• heuristics (rules of thumb)
• insight (ah hah)
• externalization
• mental imagery
• art, music, dance, writing

8
Language

• the communication of meaning by?
• Spoken
• Written, or
• Gestured words

9
Elements of Language

• phonemes (basic sounds (40 in english)
• morphemes (small unit of a languange that carries
  meaning)
• grammer (rules that enable us to speak and
  understand)
• semantics rules for deriving meaning from
  morphemes (laugh ed past tense)
• syntax rules for ordering words into sentences
  (white house, casa blanca)

10
Motherese (baby talk)

• prosodic style of communication that adults
  exhibit when speaking to infants

11
Common Prosodic Features

• exaggarated intonation
• slow rate of speech
• high pitch
• Are they the same in all languages?
• (yes)

12
Functions of Motherese

• acoustic highlighting of words (spot is a DOG)
• communication of intention and emotion (mommy
  LOVES you)
• modulation of attention, arousal and affect
  (LOOK at the black DOGGIE)
• unconditioned stimuli to alert,soothe, etc. (most
  lullabies--sound the the same "now its time to
  say good nite, sleep tight )