Cognitive Processes Quiz

Thinking, Reasoning, & Language - Unit 9

• Thinking is any mental activity or processing of information, including learning, remembering, perceiving, communicating, believing, and deciding.
• Cognition encompasses all mental activities.
• Components of cognition include contents (what you know, like concepts, facts, propositions, rules, memories) and processes (how you manipulate those contents, like calculations).
• Cognitive processes can be serial (occurring one after another) or parallel (happening simultaneously or overlapping).
• Perception is a constructive process using sensory information, memories, and expectations. Bottom-up processing begins with raw sensory data interpreted to form a concept. Top-down starts with a concept and uses this to interpret the raw stimuli.

Cognition: Contents

• A concept is a mental grouping of objects, actions, or characteristics with common properties. Concepts simplify and summarize information, allowing for quick, efficient decisions.
• A prototype is a particularly representative example of a concept (like a classic example of a car).
• A schema is a collection of related concepts representing an individual's beliefs and expectations about something (like a schema for "going to the movies").

Reasoning

• Reasoning involves thinking and problem-solving based on facts, observations, or assumptions to achieve a goal or objective.
• Decision-making is the process of choosing among multiple alternatives.
• Problem-solving involves creating a cognitive method for achieving a goal.

Formal Reasoning

• Formal reasoning relies on specific information and usually yields one correct answer or outcome.
• An algorithm is a series of defined steps that always leads to the correct answer, even if the process isn't understood.

Informal Reasoning

• Informal reasoning seeks a reasonable solution for a problem without a single right answer.
• A heuristic is a mental shortcut (rule of thumb) for quick problem-solving but doesn't guarantee the best solution.
• Dialectical reasoning weighs pros and cons to make a well-reasoned decision. It also involves questioning assumptions, evaluating evidence, considering various interpretations, drawing conclusions, and re-evaluating conclusions with new information.

Barriers to Reasoning Rationally

• Exaggerating the improbable (availability heuristic): Judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.
• Hindsight bias: Overestimating one's ability to predict an event after knowing the outcome. ("Hindsight is 20/20")
• Confirmation bias: Favoring information that confirms existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.
• Framing: Decisions can be affected by how a question or information is presented (e.g., framing it as a gain versus a loss).
• Mental sets: Becoming stuck on a specific strategy for problem-solving, hindering the exploration of other options.
• Functional fixedness: The difficulty in seeing an object used for a purpose other than its typical one.

Language

• Language is a system (or set of rules) for combining meaningless symbols (words or gestures) to form structured utterances that convey meaning.
• 4 key elements of language include:
  • Phonemes: Basic sounds (e.g., ~100 in total, ~40-45 in English, ~15-60 in other languages) made by manipulating lips, teeth, tongue, vocal cords, and throat.
  • Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning (e.g., full words like "cat" or prefixes/suffixes like "-ish"). Meaningful by themselves or combined to form words.
  • Syntax: Rules for combining words and morphemes into sentences. Real-world language often doesn't perfectly follow these rules.
  • Extralinguistic Information: Non-verbal cues (like facial expressions, tone of voice, past statements) crucial for understanding language.

Language Dialects

• Language dialects are variations of the same language reflecting geographic regions, social groups, or ethnic backgrounds. They adhere to rules of syntax though can deviate from mainstream speech.

Learning Language

• Language acquisition develops through stages: babbling, one-word stage, two-word phrases.
• Recognition of native language, name, phonemes, and words occurs young.

Critical Period

• Younger individuals learn languages more effectively than older ones.
• There's a sensitive period for language acquisition during childhood.
• Language deprivation cases (like Genie) support the idea of critical periods but are complicated by other factors.
• Second-language proficiency is often impacted by age of exposure, studies support a potential critical period for fluency.

Accounts of Language Acquisition

• Imitation: Learning by mimicking others. While valuable, it doesn't fully explain language's generative nature.
• Nativist: Innate knowledge of language structure (e.g., Chomsky's language acquisition device).
• Social pragmatics: Language learning through context and inferences about others' thoughts.
• General cognitive processing: General cognitive abilities aid in learning language. However, language learning differs from other areas of learning and requires specific brain regions.

Nonhuman Animal Communication

• Animal language capacity varies.
• Animal communication often focuses on mating and aggression, though exceptions exist (like honeybee dance).
• Attempts to teach non-human animals human language have produced mixed results.

Take Home Message

• Thinking, reasoning, and language are complex processes, with humans exhibiting a unique level of sophistication.