Cognition & Language - Topic 7 PDF

FPSH1014 Understanding Self and Others Topic 7 Cognition & Language Prepared by: Tony Ooi Presented by: Kelvin Wee  Introduction ❑ Cognitive psychology studies how people think & what they know. ❑ Cognition = thinking & using knowledge. ❑ Cogn...

FPSH1014 Understanding Self and Others Topic 7 Cognition & Language Prepared by: Tony Ooi Presented by: Kelvin Wee  Introduction ❑ Cognitive psychology studies how people think & what they know. ❑ Cognition = thinking & using knowledge. ❑ Cognitive psychologists also deal with how people organize their thoughts into language. ❑ At first, cognition begins with attending to something & categorizing what it is. ❑ Since about 1970 – psychologists have developed many ways to infer processes they can’t observe, generally by measuring the speed & accuracy of responses.  Attention ❑ Attention = tendency to respond to & remember some stimuli more than others. ❑ 2 types of attention process: i. Bottom-up process ii. Top-down process Continued…  Attention ❑ Bottom-up process ▪ Perceptual activity in which individual sensory elements combine to produce larger items. ▪ Retrieval of sensory information from our external environment to build perceptions based on current input of sensory information. ▪ Involves a stimulus automatically grabbing our attention. ▪ E.g. magician pulling a rabbit or a dove out of a hat, and the surprised viewers automatically watch the rabbit hop away or the dove fly away. During the brief time that their attention is occupied, the magician sets up the next trick, unnoticed. Continued…  Attention ❑ Top-down process ▪ Applying experience & expectations to interpret perceived items. ▪ The interpretation of incoming information based on prior knowledge, experiences, & expectations. ▪ Demonstration: ✔ Fixate your eyes on the x in the centre. ✔ Without moving your eyes, read the letters in the circle around it clockwise.  Attention ❑ Our attention flows to anything unusual; however, what’s unusual depends on the context. ❑ When anything differs drastically from items around it in size, shape, colour/movement, we find it by a pre-attentive process. Figure 1 ❑ Pre-attentive process = visual information that stands out immediately. ❑ Examples: ▪ Figure 1: it’s relatively easy to spot the odd because the red impostor stands out immediately (pre-attentive process). ▪ Figure 2: it’s harder to spot the impostor out of the crewmates Figure 2 as they are almost identical (attentive process).  Attention ❑ To identify the odd one out, we will need to go through an attentive process. ❑ Attentive process = procedure that requires searching through the items in a series. ❑ “Where’s Waldo” books are an excellent example of a task requiring attentive process.  Categorizing ❑ Cognition enables us to categorize things. ❑ Putting things into categories makes our thinking more efficient ❑ Examples: ▪ Vegetables (spinach, carrot, broccoli etc.); ▪ Fruits (apple, orange, watermelon etc.); ▪ Sports (football, basketball, tennis etc.). ❑ It tells us what to expect from all those we categorized as a category.  Categorizing ❑ However, categorizing sometimes proves a disadvantage. ❑ Examples: ▪ Categorizing some politician as “member of party I oppose,” inclined to oppose every idea that politician advocates. ▪ Categorizing someone as “crazy/schizophrenic” almost anything that person says/does may seem like a symptom of the disorder. ❑ In short, categories are necessary, but heavy reliance on them is sometimes misleading. Ways to Describe a Category ❑ Many concepts are hard to define/categorize. ❑ Example: ▪ What’s the border between being bald & not bald? ▪ Is a man who loses one hair bald? Not likely. ▪ The man loses one more hair, then another, & another. ▪ Eventually, he is bald. ▪ Question: at what point did losing one more hair that we can categorize him as bald? Continued…  Ways to Describe a Category ❑ Hence, many categories are best described by prototypes. ❑ Prototypes = familiar/typical example of a category. ❑ After we identify good prototypes, we compare other items to them. ❑ Depending on how closely something matches, we call it a member of the category, a non-member, or borderline case. Continued…  Ways to Describe a Category ❑ Example: ▪ Prototype: vehicle Member of the Category – cars, vans, trucks. Non-members – rose, pencil. Borderline cases – elevator, water skis. Conceptual Networks & Priming ❑ Spreading Activation = process by which the activation of one concept activates/primes related concepts. ❑ Examples: ▪ If you hear flower, you are primed to think of rose, violet, & other flowers. ▪ If you also hear red, the combination of flower & red primes you to think of rose. ❑ We link each concept to a variety of other related concepts. ❑ Any stimulus that activates 1 of these concepts will also partly activate (or prime) the ones that are linked to it. Continued… Conceptual Networks & Priming ❑ Priming = when someone is exposed to something that influences their behaviour later on (without the person being aware that the 1st thing guided their behaviour). ❑ Priming is important in language. ❑ Reading/hearing 1 word makes it easier to think/recognize a related word. ❑ Example: ▪ When we read a word that we barely know, the overall context helps us understand if the preceding sentences were about closely related concepts. Continued… Conceptual Networks & Priming ❑ Priming occurs in many situations too. ❑ Example: ▪ It will probably be easier for you to recognize your professor if you run into her at school than in a market. ▪ The school, but not the market, is the usual context that you see your professor, therefore a better prime for recognizing your professor’s face. 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ The human thinking is described in terms of 2 systems. i. System 1 (Type 1 Thinking) ii. System 2 (Type 2 Thinking) Continued… 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ System 1 (Type 1 Thinking) ▪ Cognitive processing for quick, automatic processes. ▪ For recognizing familiar faces & routine actions. ▪ For questions we think are easy. ▪ Generally proceeds without much effort. Continued… 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ System 2 (Type 2 Thinking) ▪ For mathematical calculations, evaluating evidence, & anything else that requires attention. ▪ Relies heavily on working memory. ▪ If our working memory is already loaded (due to trying to remember something else), we tend to fall back onto System 1. ▪ Reason: System 1 saves time & energy (we rely on it whenever we can). Example: 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving A portion of rice + a portion of chicken together cost RM9.90. The chicken costs RM9 more than the rice. What does the rice cost? 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ System 1 provides the intuitive answer that the rice costs RM0.90. ❑ But that is wrong; with a little effort, you can calculate that the rice must cost RM 0.45. ❑ But you might jump to a conclusion before realizing that you need your System 2 to do the calculation. Continued… 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ Algorithm = an explicit procedure for calculating an answer/testing every hypothesis. ❑ In many cases, System 2 solves problems by an algorithm. ❑ Example: ▪ A CEO of a startup company wants to visit 10 cities (Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo) to seek funding. ▪ The CEO wants to visit the cities & return home by the shortest route to save on expenses. ▪ Algorithm list all possible routes, measure them & determine which one is shortest. Continued… 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ Heuristics = strategies for simplifying a problem & generating a satisfactory guess. ❑ Heuristics provide quick guidance when we’re willing/forced to accept some possibility of error; work well most of the time. ❑ System 1 relies heavily on heuristics. Continued… 2 Types of Thinking & Problem Solving ❑ Examples: ▪ If you want to guess which child is oldest, choose the tallest. ▪ If one product is more expensive than another, it’s probably of higher quality. ▪ If instructions for a task are difficult to understand, the task itself is probably difficult to do. ❑ Each of these heuristics works most of the time, but not always.  Before making a decision: How many possibilities do you consider? How thoroughly do you investigate them? Maximizing & Satisficing ❑ Maximizing = a strategy that thoroughly considers as many choices as possible to find the best one. ❑ Satisficing = a strategy that involves searching only until you find something satisfactory. ❑ People using maximizing strategy usually make good choices but are often not fully pleased with them. ❑ Maximizing strategy is especially problematic when many choices are available. Continued… Maximizing & Satisficing ❑ Satisficers look for something “good enough” & find it. ❑ Maximizers look for “the best” & continue to wonder whether they were right. ❑ Example: ▪ A satisficer & maximizer go out for a meal at a restaurant. ▪ A maximizer would have more trouble choosing a meal from a 6-page menu, because he/she wants to consider every choice. ▪ Meanwhile, a satisficer might find an acceptable choice quickly.  Confirmation Bias ❑ Confirmation bias = tendency to accept a hypothesis & then look for evidence to support it instead of considering other possibilities. ❑ People listen mostly to others who agree with them on matters of science, politics/religion; then they accuse their opponents of being biased. ❑ Once we have made a decision, we look for reasons to stick with it. Continued…  Confirmation Bias ❑ Research study [Park, Konana, Gu, Kumar & Raghunathan, 2010]: ▪ How confirmation bias influence investors’ performance in South Korean stock market. ▪ Investors with strong prior opinion on a stock are more likely to seek information that agrees with their opinion & trade more frequently but result in less optimal return. ▪ Result shows how confirmation bias can impact real life economic outcomes. ❑ You have been appointed head of the Public Health Service. ❑ You need to choose a plan to deal with a disease that endangers the lives of 600 people: ▪ Plan A will save the lives of 200 people. ▪ Plan B has a 33% chance to save all 600 and a 67% chance to save no one. Continued… ❑ Now another disease breaks out, and again, you must choose between 2 plans: ▪ Plan C – 400 people will die. ▪ Plan D – there’s a 33% chance that no one will die and a 67% chance that 600 will die. Continued…  Framing Questions ❑ Studies showed that most people chose: ▪ Plan A over B ▪ Plan D over C ❑ Logically, a person should give the same answer no matter how a question is worded. ❑ Plan A over B: Most people avoid taking a risk to gain something (e.g. saving lives), as we know that even a small gain will feel good. ❑ Plan D over C: We willingly take a risk to avoid loss (e.g., not letting people die), because any loss will feel bad. Continued…  Framing Questions ❑ Most people change their answers depending on the wording of the questions. ❑ Framing effect = tendency to answer a question differently when it’s worded differently. ❑ Example: ▪ A company that provides health insurance will charge higher rates to overweight people. ▪ If they describe it as “a discount for lower weight”, people like it better than if they call it “a penalty for higher weight,” even though the effect is the same. You bought an expensive ticket for a concert, but the weather is bad. Do you go to the concert? The Sunk Cost Effect ❑ Most would attend the concert anyway as they don’t want to waste it. ❑ Sunk cost effect = willingness to do something because of money/effort already spent. ❑ Sunk cost effect may arise in many situations. ❑ Examples: ▪ A company continues investing money in an unsuccessful project as it doesn’t want to admit that the money already spent was wasted. ▪ A person stays in an unsatisfactory relationship as she has already invested so much time in it & doesn’t want to think of the years being wasted in the relationship.  Expertise ❑ Although we make mistakes in our reasoning, some people develop expertise within a given field that enables them to solve problems quickly with a minimum of error. ❑ These experts are able to: ▪ Apply the appropriate algorithms quickly. ▪ Recognize which heuristics do/don’t work in a particular situation. ❑ Becoming an expert requires years of practice & effort. Expert Pattern Recognition ❑ What exactly do experts do that sets them apart from others? ❑ Primarily, they can look at a pattern & recognize its important features quickly. ❑ Example: ▪ Professional basketball players recognize whether or not the ball will go into the basket before the ball leaves the shooter’s hands; the rest of us need longer.  Near Transfer & Far Transfer ❑ If you develop expertise in one area, will it help you with anything else? ❑ Psychologists distinguish between: ▪ Near transfer ▪ Far transfer ❑ Near transfer = benefit to a new skill based on practice of a similar skill. ▪ E.g. a student who learns an arithmetic rule with problems on a worksheet applies the same rule in the same way on the same day to solve similar problems. ❑ Far transfer = benefit from practicing something not similar to it. ▪ E.g. a student uses the knowledge of Spanish to facilitates his learning of French. Topic 7 Cognition and Language Part 2  Language ❑ Every species of animal has ways of communicating, but only human language has the property of productivity. ❑ Productivity = ability to combine words into new sentences that express an unlimited variety of ideas. ❑ Due to the vast number of possible ways to rearrange words, we constantly invent new sentences that no one has ever said before. ❑ We don’t memorize all the sentences we use… ❑ Instead, we learn rules for making & understanding sentences. Continued…  Language Deep ❑ Whenever we speak, we transform the deep structure of the language Structure Surface into a surface structure. Structure ❑ Transformational grammar = system for converting a deep structure into a surface structure. ❑ Deep structure = underlying logic/meaning of a sentence. ❑ Surface structure = sequence of words as they are actually spoken/written. Continued…  Language ❑ 2 surface structures can: ▪ Represent the same deep structure (same meaning) without resembling each other (different construct of sentences); e.g. ✔ The sentence “John is easy to please” OR “Pleasing John is easy” may be constructed differently, but shares the same meaning/idea (it’s easy to please the person named John). ▪ Resemble each other (same construct of sentences) without representing the same deep structure (different meaning); e.g. ✔ The sentence “Never threaten someone with a chain saw” could have different meanings: (1) you’re holding a chain saw and don’t threaten to use it to attack someone OR (2) don’t threaten someone who’s holding a chain saw in his hands. Did we evolve language as an accidental by-product of evolving big brains? Language & General Intelligence ❑ Dolphins & whales – larger brains > humans; but don’t develop a flexible communication system like human language. ❑ Some people with brain damage have less total brain mass; but can continue to speak & understand language. ❑ It’s possible to have: ▪ Intelligence without language OR ▪ Language without other aspects of intelligence. ❑ Hence, many psychologists regard language as a specialized capacity, not just a by-product of overall intelligence. Continued… Language & General Intelligence ❑ Williams Syndrome = genetic condition characterized by mental retardation in most regards but surprisingly good use of language relative to other abilities. ❑ Research finding: ▪ A child was asked to name as many animals; he started with “ibex, whale, bull, yak, zebra, puppy, kitten, tiger, koala, dragon …” ▪ Another child could sing more than 1,000 songs in 22 languages. ▪ However, these children prefer 50 pennies to 5 dollars. ▪ Often show problems in attention & planning. ❑ Evidently, language ability isn’t the same as overall intelligence. Language Learning as a Specialized Capacity ❑ Children between ages of 1.5 & 6 learn an average of 9 new words daily. ❑ But how do they infer the meanings of all those words? ❑ It’s suggested that people are born with a language acquisition device. ❑ Language acquisition device = built-in mechanism for acquiring language. ❑ Evidence for this theory: ▪ Deaf children who aren’t taught sign language invent one of their own try to teach it to parents/other deaf children. Language & the Human Brain ❑ There are 2 brain areas as particularly important for language. ❑ People with damage in the frontal cortex, including Broca’s area develop Broca’s Aphasia. ❑ Broca’s Aphasia = condition characterized by difficulties in language production. ❑ Someone with Broca’s Aphasia: ▪ Speaks slowly & inarticulately (unable to express ideas/feelings clearly); ▪ Is especially impaired with using & understanding grammatical devices. Continued…  Broca’s Aphasia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWC-cVQmEmY Language & the Human Brain ❑ People with damage in temporal cortex, including Wernicke’s area develop Wernicke’s Aphasia. ❑ Wernicke’s Aphasia = condition marked by impaired recall of nouns & impaired language comprehension. ❑ Difficulty with nouns & impaired comprehension fit together: ▪ If we can’t remember what something is called, we’ll have trouble processing a sentence based on that word. ▪ As people with Wernicke’s Aphasia omit/misuse most nouns, their speech is hard to understand. Continued…  Wernicke’s Aphasia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oef68YabD0 Language & the Human Brain ❑ Language depends on far more than just Broca’s & Wernicke’s area. ❑ If we hear a story about sights & sounds activity increases in the brain areas responsible for vision & hearing. ❑ If we hear a story with much movement activity increases in the areas responsible for body sensations & muscle control. ❑ If we hear a highly emotional story activity increases in brain areas important for emotion. ❑ Hence, understanding language means relating it to everything else our brain does.  Language in Early Childhood ❑ Table below lists the average ages at which children reach various stages of language ability: Age Typical Language Abilities (Individual May Vary) 3 Months Random vocalizations. 6 Months More distinct (clear) babbling. Babbling that resembles typical sounds of the family’s language; probably 1 or more words 1 Year including “mama”; language comprehension much better than production. Have a vocabulary of about 50 words, but seldom link words together; communicate 1.5 Years extensively by gestures (e.g. pointing). Start producing telegraphic phrases of 2 or more words; e.g. “all-gone sticky” (my hands 2 Years are now clean) Continued…  Language in Early Childhood ❑ Table below lists the average ages at which children reach various stages of language ability: Age Typical Language Abilities (Individual May Vary) Longer phrases & short sentences with some errors & unusual constructions; can 2.5 Years understand much more. 3 Years Vocabulary near 1,000 words; longer sentences with fewer errors. 4 Years Close to adult speech competence. Children Exposed to No Language/2 Languages ❑ Many children grow up in a bilingual environment. ❑ They sometimes have trouble keeping the 2 languages separate but possibly gain increased ability to control attention. ❑ Those who are bilingual from early infancy devote more brain areas to language + develop wider connections in the brain, ❑ Myth: ▪ A bilingual person represents languages in different brain areas. ❑ Research findings: ▪ Both languages activate the same areas of the brain. Continued… Children Exposed to No Language/2 Languages ❑ Disadvantages of bilingualism: i. Children take longer to master 2 languages than one; their vocabulary lags behind those who speaks only 1 language. ii. Bilingual people often take longer than average to think of a word. ❑ Primary advantages of bilingualism: i. People who know another language can communicate with more people. ii. Bilingual people learn to control their attention more effectively. Understanding Language ❑ The English language has many words with ambiguous meanings. ❑ Examples: ▪ Rose = (1) a flower OR (2) past tense of the verb to rise. ▪ Desert = (2) dry stretch of land OR (2) to abandon someone. ❑ In context, however, listeners are usually able to understand the meaning. Understanding Sentences ❑ Making sense of language requires knowledge about the world. ❑ Understanding a sentence depends on: ▪ Our knowledge of the world. ▪ All the assumptions that we share with the speaker/writer of the sentence. Continued… Sentence 1: “I’m going to buy a pet hamster at the store, if it’s open.” Sentence 2: “I’m going to buy a pet hamster at the store, if it’s healthy.” What does ‘it’ means in the above sentences?  Sentence 1: “I’m going to buy a pet hamster at the store, if it’s open.” Sentence 2: “I’m going to buy a pet hamster at the store, if it’s healthy.” ❑ The sentence structure doesn’t tell us that ‘it’ refers to: ✔ The store in the 1st sentence. ✔ A hamster in the 2nd sentence. ❑ But we understood because we know that stores can be open (not hamsters), whereas hamsters can be healthy (not stores). Understanding Sentences ❑ Sometimes, we even have to remember where we are because the meaning of a word differs from one place to another. Continued… What do you understand from the above sign? In England = a football coach is a bus full of soccer fans. In U.S. = it’s the person who directs a team of American football players.  Reading ❑ Students of language distinguish between ▪ Phonemes = linguistic unit of sound; e.g. ‘f’ or ‘sh’ ▪ Morphemes = linguistic unit of meaning. ❑ Morphemes help us break an unfamiliar word into meaningful parts. ❑ Examples: ✔ The noun ‘thrills’ has 2 morphemes (thrill + s); the final ‘s’ is a unit of meaning because it indicates that the noun is plural; ✔ ‘Harp’ has 1 morpheme; ✔ ‘Harping’ has 2 morpheme; ✔ ‘Harpoon’ has just 1 morpheme, as it’s not derived from harp. Continued… ❑ The word ‘shamelessness’ has: ▪ 9 phonemes (units of sound) ▪ 3 morphemes (units of meaning)  Word Recognition ❑ Expertise develops from many years of practice, enabling someone to recognize complex patterns at a glance. ❑ As we have been reading for hours a day, almost every day since childhood, we developed expertise at reading. ❑ We may not think of ourselves as an expert (because we usually reserve this term for someone who’s far more skillful). ❑ Nevertheless, we’re able to recognize words instantaneously, like an expert who recognizes chess patterns at a glance. Reading & Eye Movements ❑ Reading requires eye movements. ❑ Psychologists discovered that readers’ eyes move in a jerky fashion. ❑ We move our eyes steadily to follow a moving object (e.g. moving car). ❑ But when we scan a stationary object (e.g. reading a book), we alternate between: ▪ Fixations (when our eyes are stationary); ▪ Saccades (quick eye movements from one fixation point to another). ❑ We read during fixations, not during saccades. Continued… Reading & Eye Movements ❑ Fixations are: ▪ Briefer on familiar words (e.g. the word ‘legal’) ▪ Longer on harder words (e.g. the word ‘phenomenological’); words with more than 1 meaning (e.g. lead). ❑ Reading is a strategic process of pausing longer on difficult/ambiguous words + sometimes looking back to previous words. ❑ Of all eye movements while reading, about 10 to 15% are backward movements. Continued… While the woman ate the spaghetti on the table grew cold. What is the meaning of this sentence? While the woman ate the spaghetti on the table grew cold. ▪ When we first read that sentence, we thought the woman ate the spaghetti. ▪ The rest of the sentence told us that we misunderstood, so we had to look back & re-read. ▪ Moving our eyes backward in a sentence is often important for understanding.