Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY

(8th Ed)

Chapter 10

Thinking v. Intuition and Language

“ A bat and ball cost$1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”

“A man bought a horse for $60 and sold it for $70. Then he bought the same horse back for $80 and again sold it for $90.

How much money did he make in the horse business?”

10, 4, 3, 11, 15, …?

100204180

YYURYYUBICURYY4ME

Thinking

Cognition mental activity associated with processing,

understanding, and communicating information

Cognitive Psychology the study of these mental activities

concept formationproblem solvingdecision makingjudgement formation

study of both logical and illogical thinking

ThinkingConcept

mental grouping of similar objects, events, or peopleaddress

• country, city, street, house• zip codes

Prototype the best example of a category

matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin.)

Thinking

Algorithm methodical, logical rule or

procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone use of heuristics

Thinking

Heuristic rule-of-thumb strategy that often

allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently

usually speedier than algorithms more error-prone than algorithms sometimes we’re unaware of using

heuristics

Thinking

Unscramble

S P L O Y O C H Y GAlgorithm

all 907,208 combinationsHeuristic

throw out all YY combinations other heuristics?

Thinking

Insight sudden and often novel realization of the

solution to a problem contrasts with strategy-based solutions

Confirmation Bias tendency to search for information that

confirms one’s preconceptionsFixation

inability to see a problem from a new perspective

impediment to problem solving

Thinking- Insight

Wolfgang Kohler’s experiment on insight by a chimpanzee

The Matchstick Problem

How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?

The Three-Jugs Problem Using jugs A, B, and C with the capacities

shown, how would you measure out the volumes indicated?

The Three-Jugs Problem

Problem A B C

Given jugs of these sizes: Measure out this much water:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

21 127 3

14 46 5

18 43 10

7 42 6

20 57 4

23 49 3

15 39 3

100

22

5

23

29

20

18

The Candle-Mounting Problem

Using these materials, how would you mount the candle on a bulletin board?

Thinking

Mental Set tendency to approach a problem in a particular way

especially a way that has been successful in the past but may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem

Thinking

Functional Fixedness tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

impediment to problem solving

The Matchstick Problem

Solution to the matchstick problem

The Three-Jugs Problem

Solution: a) All seven problems can be solved by the equation shown in (a): B-A-2C= desired volume.

b) But simpler solutions exist for problems 6 and 7, such as A-C for problem 6.

The Candle-Mounting Problem

Solving this problem requires recognizing that a box need not always serve as a container

Heuristics

Representativeness Heuristic rule of thumb for judging the

likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

may lead one to ignore other relevant information

Heuristics

Availability Heuristic estimating the likelihood of

events based on their availability in memory

if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Example: airplane crash

Thinking

Overconfidence tendency to be more confident

than correct tendency to overestimate the

accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgements

Thinking

Framing the way an issue is posed how an issue is framed can

significantly affect decisions and judgements

Example: What is the best way to market ground beef- As 25% fat or 75% lean?

Thinking

Belief Bias the tendency for one’s preexisting

beliefs to distort logical reasoning sometimes by making invalid

conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid

Belief Perseverance clinging to one’s initial conceptions after

the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence designing and programming

computer systemsto do intelligent things to simulate human thought

processes

• intuitive reasoning• learning• understanding language

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence includes practical applications

chess playingindustrial robotsexpert systems

efforts to model human thinking inspired by our current understanding of how the brain works

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Neural Networks computer circuits that mimic the

brain’s interconnected neural cells

performing taskslearning to recognize visual

patternslearning to recognize smells

Language

Language our spoken, written, or gestured

works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme in a spoken language, the

smallest distinctive sound unit

Language

Morpheme in a language, the smallest unit that

carries meaning may be a word or a part of a word

(such as a prefix)Grammar

a system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Language

Semantics the set of rules by which we derive

meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language

also, the study of meaningSyntax

the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Language We are all born to recognize speech sounds from all

the world’s languages

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Percentage ableto discriminateHindi t’s

Hindi-speaking

adults

6-8 months

8-10months

10-12months

English-speaking

adultsInfants from English-speaking homes

LanguageBabbling Stage

beginning at 3 to 4 months the stage of speech development in

which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One-Word Stage from about age 1 to 2 the stage in speech development

during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Language

Two-Word Stage beginning about age 2 the stage in speech development

during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements

Telegraphic Speech early speech stage in which the child

speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words

LanguageSummary of Language Development

Month(approximate)

Stage

4

10

12

24

24+

Babbles many speech sounds.

Babbling reveals households language.

One-word stage.

Two-word, telegraphic speech.

Language develops rapidly intoComplete sentences.

Language

Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience fills them as it modifies the brain

Language

Genes

Environmentspoken language

heard

BrainMechanisms for

understanding andproducing language

BehaviorMastery of

native language

provides input to

design

Language

New language learning gets harder with age

100

90

80

70

60

50Native 3-7 8-10 11-15 17-39

Percentage correct ongrammar test

Age at school

Language

Linguistic Relativity Whorf”s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Language

The straight-line part of the dance points in the direction of a nectar source, relative to the sun

Direction ofnectar source

AP Psychology Chapter 10: Thinking and Language Learning Objectives Review

•Describe the nature of concepts and the role of prototypes in concept formation.

•Discuss how we use trial and error, algorithms, heuristics, and insight to solve problems.

•Describe how the confirmation bias and fixation can interfere with effective problem solving.

•Explain how the representative and availability heuristics influence our judgments.

•Describe the effects that overconfidence and framing can have on our judgments and decisions.

•Discuss how our beliefs distort logical reasoning, and describe the belief perseverance phenomenon.

•Describe artificial intelligence, and contrast the human mind and the computer as information processors.

•Describe the structure of language in terms of sound in terms of sounds, meanings, and grammar.

•Trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling stage through the two-word stage.

•Explain how the nature-nurture debate is illustrated in theories of language development.

•Discuss Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis and the relationship between thought and language.

•Describe the research on animal cognition and communication, and discuss the controversy over whether animals can use language.