UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY 10TH EDITION
By Robert Feldman
Powerpoint slides by Kimberly Foreman
Revised for 10th Ed by Cathleen Hunt
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CHAPTER EIGHT:
COGNITION AND LANGUAGE
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MODULE 23:
Thinking and Reasoning
What is thinking?
What processes underlie reasoning and
decision making?
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MODULE 23:
Thinking and Reasoning
Cognitive Psychology
› Branch of psychology that focuses on the study of
higher mental processes, including thinking,
language, memory, problem solving, knowing,
reasoning, judging, and decision making
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MODULE 23:
Thinking and Reasoning
Thinking
› Manipulation of mental representations
of information
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Mental Images:
Examining the Mind’s Eye
Representations in the
mind of an object or
event
› Not just visual
representations but
every modality
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Concepts: Categorizing the World
Concepts
› Mental groupings of
similar objects, events, or
people
Prototypes
Highly representative
examples of a concept
Example:
Vehicle, Chair, right-
angled triangle
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Concepts: Categorizing the World
Measures of electrical activity in the brain differed according to the level
of categorization on which participants had been trained
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Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind
Syllogistic Reasoning: The Formal Rules of
Logic
› Kind of formal reasoning in which a person draws
a conclusion from a set of assumptions
› Example
Premise 1: All dogs are animals.
Premise 2: All animals have four legs.
Conclusion: Therefore, all dogs have four legs
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Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind
Algorithm
› Rule that, if applied appropriately, guarantees a
solution to a problem
a² + b² = c²
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Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind
Heuristic
› Thinking strategy that may lead to a solution
Representativeness heuristic
Rule one applies when he judges people by the degree
to which they represent a certain category or group of
people.
e.g.(even though, statistically, it is unlikely that any given
teenager will rob the store)
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Reasoning: Making Up Your Mind
Heuristic
› Thinking strategy that may lead to a solution
Availability heuristic
Judging the probability of an event on the basis of how
easily the event can be recalled from memory
e.g. although 10 times as many people die from falling
out of bed than from lightning strikes, we’re more afraid
of being hit by lightning.
The reason is that plane crashes and lightning strikes
receive far more publicity, and they are therefore more
easily remembered12
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Computers and Problem Solving:
Searching for Artificial Intelligence
Field that examines how to use technology to
imitate the outcome of human thinking,
problem solving, and creative activities
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e.g. A computer using artificial intelligence software was able to mimic
compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach so successfully it fooled expert
musicologists.
MODULE 24: Problem Solving
How do people approach and solve
problems?
What are the major obstacles to problem
solving?
What is creativity?
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Preparation: Understanding and
Diagnosing Problems
Well-Defined Problem
› Both the nature of the problem itself and the
information needed to solve it are available and
clear
Ill-Defined Problem
› Not only the specific nature of the problem is
unclear, but the information required to solve the
problem is less obvious 15
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Preparation: Understanding and
Diagnosing Problems
Kinds of Problems
› Arrangement problems
› Problems of inducing
structure
› Transformation problems
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Preparation: Understanding and
Diagnosing Problems
Kinds of Problems
› Arrangement problems
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Preparation: Understanding and
Diagnosing Problems
Kinds of Problems
› Problems of inducing
structure
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Preparation: Understanding and
Diagnosing Problems
Kinds of Problems
› Arrangement problems
› Problems of inducing
structure
› Transformation problems
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Preparation: Understanding and
Diagnosing Problems
Representing and Organizing the Problem
› Depends on the way a problem is phrased, or framed
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Production: Generating Solutions
Trial and Error
Means-end Analysis
› Involves repeated tests for differences between
the desired outcome and what currently exists
› Most frequently applied heuristic in problem
solving
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Production: Generating Solutions
Forming Subgoals: Dividing Problems into
Their Parts
Insight: Sudden Awareness
› Wolfgang Köhler› Insight : A sudden awareness of the relationships among various elements that
had previously appeared to be independent of one another.
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Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem Solving Such a Problem?
› Functional Fixedness Tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use
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Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem Solving Such a Problem?
› Functional Fixedness Tendency to think of an object only in terms of its typical use
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Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem Solving Such a Problem?
› Mental Set Tendency for old patterns of problem solving to persist
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Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem Solving Such a Problem?
› Mental Set
› It can prevent you from seeing beyond the apparent constraints of a problem.
› For example, try to draw four straight lines so that they pass through all nine dots in the grid below—without lifting your pencil from the page.
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Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions
Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem Solving Such a Problem?
› Mental Set
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Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions
Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem
Solving Such a Problem?
› Inaccurate evaluation of solutions
Confirmation bias
Problem solvers favor initial hypotheses and ignore
contradictory information that supports alternative
hypotheses or solutions
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Creativity and Problem Solving
Creativity
› Ability to generate original ideas or solve
problems in novel ways
Divergent thinking
Ability to generate unusual, yet appropriate, responses to
problems or questions
Convergent thinking
Produces responses that are based primarily on
knowledge and logic
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MODULE 25: Language
How do people use language?
How does language develop?
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MODULE 25: Language
Communication of information through
symbols arranged according to systematic
rules
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Grammar: Language’s Language
Grammar
› System of rules that determines how our thoughts
can be expressed
Phonology
Smallest basic units of speech
Phonemes
e.g. a morpheme like “Speech” contains 4 phonemes
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Grammar: Language’s Language
Grammar› System of rules that determines how our thoughts can be
expressed
Syntax
Rules that indicate how words and phrases can be combined to form sentences
e.g. English speakers have no difficulty recognizing that “TV down the turn” is not a meaningful sequence.
e.g. Changes in meaning caused by the different word orders in the following three utterances:
“John kidnapped the boy,”
“John, the kidnapped boy,”
and “The boy kidnapped John”33
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Grammar: Language’s Language
Grammar
› System of rules that determines how our thoughts
can be expressed
Semantics
Meanings of words and sentences
e.g. We are able to make the distinction between:
“The truck hit Laura” (which we might say if we had just
seen a truck crashing into Laura)
versus
“Laura was hit by a truck” (which we might say to explain
why Laura didn’t show up for a party) 34
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Language Development:
Developing a Way with Words
Babbling (babble)
› Speechlike but meaningless sounds
› “Critical periods” for language
Production of Language
› Telegraphic speech: 2 words
e.g. “I am drawing a dog” may become “Drawing dog.”
› Overgeneralization: apply rules inflexibly
e.g. “he walked” … “he runned”35
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Language Development:
Developing a Way with Words
Approaches
› Learning theory approach: Language acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and
conditioning.
› Nativist approach: genetically determined, innate mechanism directs language development.
Universal grammar
Language-acquisition device
Neural system in the human brain
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Language Development:
Developing a Way with Words
Approaches› Interactionist approach
Language development is produced through a combination of genetically determined predispositions and environmental circumstances that help teach language.
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The Influence of Language
on Thinking:
Do Eskimos Have More Words for Snow
Than Texans Do?
Linguistic-relativity hypothesis
› Notion that language shapes and, in fact, may
determine the way people in a specific culture
perceive and understand the world
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Do Animals Use Language?
Chimpanzees and sign language
› Chimps are able to communicate at surprisingly
high levels
Example: Washoe could sign 132 words and
combine simple sentences
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Do Animals Use Language?
Chimpanzees and sign language
› Critics contend that language such animals use
lacks grammar and complex and novel
constructions of human language
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Teaching with Linguistic Variety:
Bilingual Education
Bilingual Education
Immersion Programs
› Students are immediately plunged into foreign
language instruction in all subjects
Alternation Model
› Biculturalism 41
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