Thinking

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Chapter 10

• Thinking Language

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Thinking

• I. Cognition refers to all the mental activities
  associated with processing, understanding,
  remembering, and communicating. (in other
  words-thinking)
• a. Schema a mental file folder for storing
  information.
• b. Concept Mental groupings of similar objects,
  events, and people.
• Example Chair concept

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• 1. Prototypes a mental image or best example
  that incorporates all the features we associate
  with a category.
• Ex. Thinking of a mid-sized sedan when someone
  mentions a car.
• c. Problem Solving How we figure things out
• 1. Deductive vs. Inductive reasoning
• Deductive reasoning from general to specific

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Deductive

• If all wasp have wings, this wasp must have wings!

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• Inductive reasoning from specific to general
• Example Turtle

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Inductive

• If this turtle has a shell, all turtles must have
  shells!

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• 2. Algorithm a step-by-step procedure that
  guarantees a solution
• audio clip
• 3. Heuristics thinking strategy that often
  allows us to make judgments and solve problems
  efficiently. (usually faster than algorithms but
  more error prone)
• Unscramble this word aeldmlu

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• Convergent thinking-logically finding the one
  correct answer.
• Divergent thinking-creatively finding multiple
  solutions

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• 4. Obstacles
• a. Confirmation bias search for information that
  confirms our ideas
• b. Fixation Inability to see a problem from a
  fresh perspective.
• FIND THE PATTERN 854176320
• 1. Mental set solving a problem based on what
  has worked in the past.
• 2. Functional fixedness tendency to think of
  only the familiar functions for objects, without
  imagining alternative uses.
• Example screwdriver dime

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• d. Making Decisions
• 1. Representativeness Heuristics judge the
  likelihood of things in terms of how well they
  represent particular prototypes.
• Ex. Believing all hotels are like the Grand
  Floridian
• HOW CAN THIS EXPLAIN PREJUDICE?

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• 2. Availability Heuristic Base judgments on how
  mentally available information is.
• Example plane crash
• 3. Overconfidence tendency to overestimate the
  accuracy of our knowledge

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• 4. Framing how we present an issue or
  information
• Example hamburger-25 fat, 75 lean/1 in 20, 10
  in 200
• 5. Belief Bias tendency for our beliefs to
  distort our logic
• 6. Belief Perseverance our tendency to cling to
  our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.
• Example Capitol punishment study

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II. Language Terms

• a. Phonemes basic sounds
• Example bat we utter b, a, and t.
• Chat ch, a, t (3 phonemes)
• There are 40 phonemes in the English language
• There are 869 phonemes in human speech.
• Consonant phonemes carry more information than
  do vowel phonemes
• The treth ef thes stetement shed be evedent frem
  thes bref demenstretien

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• b. Morphemes smallest unit of language that
  carries meaning
• suffix, plural, root words
• Example Prepare Pre pare (2 morphemes)

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HOW MANY WORDS DO YOU THINK HUMANS KNOW?

• Most native speakers use more than 3,000 words
  regularly, irrespective of their level of
  education, and they have a "passive vocabulary"
  of 15-20,000

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ON AVERAGE HOW MANY WORDS DO YOU THINK WE SPEAK
PER DAY?

• 16,000

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IS IT POSSIBLE TO RECEIVE A BRAIN INJURY THAT
GIVES YOU A FOREIGN ACCENT FROM A LANGUAGE YOU
HAVE NEVER SPOKEN?

• Yes
• FOREIGN ACCENT SYNDROME

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• c. Grammar/ Syntax system of rules to help us
  communicate with others
• Example order of adjectives, nouns, etc in a
  sentence and items like comma, semi-colon, etc.
• d. Semantics set of rules we use to derive
  meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.
• Example adding ed to laugh means it happened in
  the past

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• e. Overregularization/ overgeneralization
  applying rules of grammar incorrectly (not
  knowing exceptions to rules)
• Example saying ranned instead of run, holded
  rather than held
• f. Overextension
• Example Kid saying a dog is a goat because they
  know dog means 4 legs furry

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III. Theories

• a. Whorfian Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity
  Language determines our thoughts. (If we dont
  have the language for it we cant think about it)
• b. Noam Chomsky Inborn Universal Grammar
• 1. Language Acquisition Device humans have
  capacity for developing language is natural and
  quick because we come equipped with a sort of
  switch box

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• 2. Critical period period when learning language
  is most efficient
• 3. Telegraphic speech By 2nd birthday, children
  can make two-word sentences
• Example Want juice

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Do Animals Think???