Cognition and Language

Chapter 7

Building Blocks of Thought

• Language – A flexible system of symbols that enables us to

communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings

– Nonhumans communicate primarily though

signs

– Human language is

semantic , or meaningful

– It is also characterized by

displacement that it is not limited to the here-and-now in

Structure of Language

• Phonemes – Basic sounds (ph, t) • Morphemes – smallest meaning unit (words, prefixes) • Surface structure – Phrases of sentence • Deep structure – Underlying meaning of a sentence • Grammar – Rules of how sounds combine

Building Blocks of Thought

• Images – Nonverval mental representations of sensory

experiences

• Concepts – Mental categories for classifying people,

objects, or experiences

– Prototype • Mental model containing the most typical

features of a concept

Language, Thought and Culture

Language and Cognition

• Linguistic determinism – Idea that patterns of thinking are determined

by the specific language one speaks

– Research only mildly supports the idea

Culture and Cognition

• All known cultures use categories to form

concepts

• Culture has an effect on – What information is included in a category – How categories are shaped by experience

Nonhuman Thought and Language

• Animal cognition – Animals can form concepts – Apes have demonstrated sophisticated

problem-solving skills

– Chimpanzees and orangutans show signs of

self-awareness

Nonhuman Thought and Language

• The question of language – Chimpanzees have been taught to use

American Sign Language

– Chimpanzees have been observed using

telegraphic speech (two-word combinations)

– Some chimps have learned to use keyboard

symbols to communicate even without formal training

Problem Solving Steps

• Problem representation – Interpreting or defining the problem • Deciding the category a problem belongs to • Selecting a solution strategy • Evaluating progress toward goal

Possible Solution Strategies

• Trial and error – Works best with limited number of choices • Information retrieval – Retrieve from memory information about how such a

problem has been solved in the past

• Algorithms – Step-by-step methods that guarantees a solution – Math problems are an example of the type best

solved using an algorithm

• Heuristics – Rules of thumb that may help simplify a problem,

but do not guarantee a solution

Heuristic Methods

• Hill climbing • Means-end analysis – Move progressively

closer to goal without moving backward

• Subgoals – Aims to reduce the

discrepancy between the current situation and the desired goal at a number of intermediate points

– Break large problem

into smaller, more manageable ones, each of which is easier to solve than the whole problem

• Working backward – Work backward from

the desired goal to the existing condition

Obstacles to Solving Problems

• Motivation – Desire to solve a problem • Mental sets – Tendency to perceive and approach problems

in certain ways

• Functional fixedness – Tendency to see only a limited number of uses

for an object

Creative Problem Solving

• Brainstorming – Produces many ideas – Very popular in business – Ideas are not judged when generated • The creative process – People often become more creative when exposed to

creative peers

Becoming a More Skillful Problem Solver

• Eliminate poor choices • Visualize a solution • Develop expertise • Think flexibly

Decision Making

• Decision making is a special case of problem

solving in which possible solutions or choices are already known

• Logical decision making – Compensatory model • Rational decision-making model in which choices

are systematically evaluated on various criteria

• Example: buying a car – Good when issues are well-defined

Decision-Making Heuristics

• Heuristic processes are used when decisions

involve a high degree of ambiguity

• Representativeness heuristic – New information is compared to our model of the

typical member of a category (prototype)

• Availability heuristic – Decision is based on information that is most easily

retrieved from memory, even if incomplete

• Confirmation bias – Tendency to notice evidence that supports our beliefs

and to ignore evidence that contradicts them

Framing

• How information is presented (or framed) can

have an effect on the outcome of decision making

• Research has demonstrated that framing can

have very dramatic effects on decision-making

Decisions Under Pressure

• When decisions are required quickly, experience

plays a key role

• With increased pressure in an emergency

situation, decision making often deteriorates and can end in panic

Explaining Our Decisions

• •

Hindsight bias

– Tendency to view the outcomes of decisions as

inevitable and predictable after we know the outcome Counterfactual thinking

– Thinking about alternative realities and things that

never happened

– Often takes the form of “If only…” constructions

dealing with causes and consequences