Chapter 9. Thinking Language 231c_a476fa931f07c9835b2d290e69012dc5.pptx

THINKING & language Chapter Overview  Thinking  Language and Thought Thinking  Cognition: All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.  Concept: A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people.  Prototype: A mental image or...

THINKING & language Chapter Overview  Thinking  Language and Thought Thinking  Cognition: All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.  Concept: A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people.  Prototype: A mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories.  Category boundaries begin to blur as movement from prototypes occurs. Problem Solving: Strategies  An algorithm is a methodical, logical rule, or procedure that guarantees a solution to a problem.  A heuristic is a simpler strategy that is usually speedier than an algorithm but is also more error prone.  Insight is not a strategy-based solution, but rather a sudden flash of inspiration that solves a problem. Problem Solving: Obstacles  Confirmation bias predisposes us to verify rather than challenge our hypotheses.  Fixation, such as mental set, may prevent us from taking the fresh perspective that would lead to a solution. Forming Good and Bad Decisions and Judgments (part 1)  Intuition: An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.  Representativeness heuristic: Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; it may lead us to ignore other relevant information.  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. Forming Good and Bad Decisions and Judgments (part 2)  Belief perseverance occurs when we cling to beliefs and ignore evidence that proves these beliefs are wrong.  Framing sways decisions and judgments by influencing the way an issue is posed. It can also influence beneficial decisions. Can you think of any such decisions? And so… Smart, critical thinking listens to the unseen mind, and then evaluates evidence, tests conclusions, and plans for the future. Thinking Creatively (part 1)  Creativity is the ability to produce new and valuable ideas.  It is supported by  Aptitude or the ability to learn  Intelligence  Working memory Thinking Creatively (part 2)  Divergent thinking  Expands the number of possible problem solutions  Creative thinking that diverges in different directions  Convergent thinking  Narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution Thinking Creatively (part 3)  Robert Sternberg and colleagues propose five ingredients of creativity:  Expertise  Imaginative thinking skills  Venturesome personality  Intrinsic motivation  Creative environment Comparing Cognitive Processes and Strategies Process or Strategy Description Powers Perils Algorithm Methodical rule or procedure Guarantees solution Requires time and effort Heuristic Simple thinking shortcut, such as Lets us act quickly and the a ­ vailability heuristic (which efficiently estimates l­ikelihood based on how easily events come to mind) Puts us at risk for errors Insight Sudden Aha! reaction Provides instant realization of solution May not happen Confirmation bias Tendency to search for support for our own views and ignore contradictory evidence Lets us quickly recognize ­ supporting evidence Hinders recognition of ­ contradictory evidence Fixation Inability to view problems from a new angle Focuses thinking Hinders creative problem solving Intuition Fast, automatic feelings and thoughts Is based on our experience; huge and adaptive Can lead us to overfeel and underthink Overconfidence Overestimating the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments Allows us to be happy and to make decisions easily Puts us at risk for errors Belief perseverance Ignoring evidence that proves our beliefs are wrong Supports our enduring beliefs Closes our mind to new ideas Framing Wording a question or statement so that it evokes a desired response Can influence others’ decisions Can produce a misleading result Creativity Ability to innovate valuable ideas Produces new insights and products May distract from structured, routine work Language and Thought  Language  Involves our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning  Is used to transmit civilization’s knowledge from one generation to the next  Connects humans Productive Language  Babbling stage  Beginning at about 4 months, an infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.  One-word stage  From about age 1 to 2, a child speaks mostly in single words.  Two-word stage  Beginning at about age 2, a child speaks mostly in two-word statements.  Telegraphic speech  Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram, using mostly nouns and verbs. When Do We Learn Language?  Receptive language: Infants’ ability to understand what is said to them begins around 4 months.  Production language: Infants’ ability to produce words begins around 10 months. TABLE 9.2: Summary of Language Development Month (approximate) Stage 4 Babbles many speech sounds (“ah-goo”) 10 Babbling resembles household language (“mama”) 12 One-word speech (“Kitty!”) 24 Two-word speech (“Get ball.”) 24+ Rapid development into complete sentences The Brain and Language (part 1)  Damage to any one of several areas of the brain’s cortex can impair language.  Today’s neuroscience has confirmed brain activity in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas during language processing.  In processing language, the brain operates by dividing its mental functions into smaller tasks. The Brain and Language (part 2) • Aphasia: Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding) • Broca’s area: Controls language expression—an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech. • Wernicke’s area: Controls language reception—a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe. Brain Activity When Hearing and Speaking Words Language and Thought  Expanding language expands the ability to think.  Bilingual speakers use executive control over language (bilingual advantage) to inhibit attention to irrelevant information.  Language connects the past and the future.