Lecture 9 - Thinking, Reasoning, and Language

Any mental activity or processing of information (2 terms)

Thinking / cognition

The following activities are involved in what action?
learning, remembering, perceiving, attention, language, believing, and deciding

Thinking / cognition

Thinking about something in a logical way

Reasoning

Our brains are __ misers.

Instead of thinking everything through carefully and logically, we often take mental shortcuts

cognitive

T or F

We have unlimited capacity to process info

False

Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb used in problem solving or making decisions.

Heuristics

When you see a person with their hood up in a dark alley and you decide to subtly walk past a bit faster, your brain has probably used a __ to evaluate the situation instead of a full thought-out deliberation process.

heuristic

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total.

The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

You are a __ if you said $0.10.

Cognitive Miser

Who conducted the following experiment

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total.

The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

Kahneman

im learning about addition + subtraction on khanacademy

People often substitute difficult problems with simpler ones to __ them

quickly solve

Who asked participants to make snap personality judgments about students based on their dorm rooms

Gosling

I judged Ryan Gosling in Barbie as strange based on his pink room

Who studied the 2 modes of thinking

Kahneman

i THINK there are 2 MODES (light and dark) on KHAN academy, right MAN?

What are the 2 modes/systems of thinking

Intuitive and Analytical

This mode of thinking is fast and takes no effort

intuitive

These are examples of what mode of thinking?

Forming first impressions, stereotypes, getting out of dangerous situations

Intuitive thinking

This mode of thinking is slow and requires effort. Used to override the other mode of thinking.

Analytical

These are examples of what mode of thinking?

reasoning, problem solving.

Analytical thinking

__ Heuristic: Involves judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype or stereotype

Representativeness

Generalized beliefs about a particular category of people

Stereotypes

Stereotypes ignore __ rate

a statistic used to describe the percentage of a population that demonstrates some characteristic

base

We need to consider similarity to the category, but also how __ the category is

prevalent

in the demo below, we need to consider the __ of each type of purple flower

Even though irises might look more distinct or attention-grabbing (they're shaped differently and more colorful), there are way more purple tulips in the bouquet than irises.

So, even if irises stand out, statistically it’s more likely you'll grab a tulip — because there are more of them.

base rate

For the below examples, what are our brains doing to make quick decisions.

Blue shirt = best buy employee?

Suit + carrying a briefcase = lawyer?

categorize things

__ Heuristic: Involves estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds

Availability

Being more afraid of flying vs. being in a car crash is an example of __ heuristic

availability

What are the 2 key factors in Availability Heuristics?

The availability heuristic is also called availability bias because it indirectly affects our decision-making. For example, when shopping for laundry detergents, you may choose Tide over other brands because it comes to mind first and faster than any other brand.

Recency: Did it happen recently?

Vividness: Was it dramatic or emotional?

Which has more calories: a pint of beer or a half-cup of dry-roasted peanuts?

Example of __ Heuristics

Availability

__ — : Our tendency to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it has already occurred

Hindsight Bias

• Example of what?

  

Hindsight Bias

Process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives

Decision making

Does decision making involve system 1 (intuitive) or system 2 (analytical) thinking or both?

both!

system 1 of thinking: __

system 2 of thinking: __

intuitive - ONE-IN

analytical - TWO-AN

Cognitive __ means your brain tries to be efficient, not perfect.

It trades accuracy for speed, which works most of the time, but can lead to biases and mistakes too.

Many daily decisions are made on the basis of this

economy

Who conducted this study

• Students got to choose a poster to take home.

• Half were told to just go with their gut feeling.

• Half were told to carefully analyze the options and write down their reasons.

Wilson

i got to take home a poster of a wilson volleyball

For __, personal choices (like picking art or a favorite snack), your intuition can be more satisfying than overthinking it

low-stakes

When people overthink a problem or situation and can't make a decision.

Analysis Paralysis

The more __ available, the longer it takes to make the decision

options

Individuals' tendency to choose intermediate options

By introducing extreme proposals that are less favourable to the opposing party, negotiators can make a middle option appear more appealing and increase the likelihood of agreement

Compromise effect

The way a question is presented can influence decisions

“5% chance of winning” vs. “95% chance of losing”

Framing

Generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a specific goal.

Problem solving

Step-by-step learned procedure

Algorithms

Algorithms depend on the same __ every time to find a solution

E.g., Fixing a car, filling a cavity, making a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich

basic steps

Problem solving strategy:

breaking a big problem into smaller, manageable goals

subgoals

Problem solving strategy:

Replacing a difficult part of the problem with something simpler or easier to work with.

Substitutions

Problem solving strategy:

Means solving a new problem by using a similar past situation as a guide

Analogical Approaches

Eg. George de Mestral invented Velcro after noticing how burrs stuck to his dog’s fur. He connected nature's solution (burrs hooking to fur) to an idea for clothing fasteners

An obstacle to problem solving where u become stuck in a specific strategy, inhibiting our ability to generate alternatives

It’s like your brain is on autopilot, and you can’t easily think outside the box to try something new

mental sets

The water jug task is an example of what?

Mental sets - past success can actually lead to future mistakes if we don’t adapt our thinking

Difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used for another.

Functional fixedness

This is an example of over coming what problem solving obstacle

Functional fixedness

Who conducted the candle, thumb tack, box experiment?

Duncker

no duct tape was given

What is the solution to overcome functional fixedness?

Try to think outside the box!

What matters in order for the following sentences to make sense

“Jake saw her duck.”

“Include your children when baking cookies”

Context

Arbitrary system of communication that combines symbols, (such as words or gestural signs), in rule-based ways to create meaning

Language

words and gestural signs are examples of what?

symbols

certain speech sounds seem to be associated with particular meanings to us

Sound symbolism

Communication of __

▪ What time is the exam?

Information

Social and __ Functions

▪ It’s nice to meet you.

▪ “I thought you were mad at me.”

▪ I really like this music.

Emotional

Who preformed the following study:

• Russian has two separate words for blue:

  • "Goluboy" = lighter blue

  • "Siniy" = darker blue

• English just uses the single word "blue" for both shades.

• Russian vs. English speakers showed an advantage in colour discrimination

Winawer

i was never going to WIN a WAR at colours with aurora and Sveva

View that all thought is represented verbally and language defines our thinking. In other words, if you don’t have a word for something, you can’t really think about it.

Example: Labeling someone as “hysterical” vs. “distressed.”

Linguistic Determinism

Evidence against linguistic —-:

• Children can perform complex cognitive tasks b4 they can talk about them.

• Language areas are not especially active during spatial tests or visual imagery

determinism

The idea that the language you speak can influence how you think.

It doesn’t control your thoughts (like linguistic determinism says), but it can shape:

• what you notice,

• how you describe things,

• how you categorize the world.

Linguistic Relativity

Language is highly practiced and __ cognitive process

automatic

The delay in reaction time between neutral and incongruent stimuli. Naming the color of a word not the word itself

Stroop effect

Shown a picture of a brown STROOPwafel but asked to say blue

what are the 2 conditions of each column of words?

L: Control condition

R: Stroop Interference Condiition

the smallest unit of sound that carries meaning in a particular language

eg. k / a / t = cat

phonemes

phonemes are categories of sounds our vocal __ produces.

apparatus

how many distinct phonemes across all languages and how many in english (range)

100

40-45

All the body parts and structures that work together to let us produce speech sounds.

vocal apparatus

Smallest units of meaning in a language

Morphemes

Are morphemes full words (“dog”) or modifiers (“re-”: recall, rewrite)?

can be either

Set of rules of a language by which we construct sentences (ie the arrangement of words and phrases in a specific order)

I ate pizza for dinner. vs. Pizza ate I for dinner.

Syntax (Yoda lived on the Syntax starship)

if you take the morpheme cookie and add the suffix –s, you create a new word—cookies

the suffix -s is an example of a ___ modifier

morphological

Elements of communication that are not part of the content of language, but are critical to interpreting its meaning

Extralinguistic Information

Give a couple examples of Extralinguistic Information

Facial expressions, tone of voice

eg. “nice job”

Which month of pregnancy when auditory system is developed enough to:

▪ Recognize mothers’ voices.

▪ Melody and rhythm of native language.

▪ Specific songs or stories heard repeatedly

5th

Which study measured how often a two-day old infant sucked on a pacifier in response to hearing their native language vs foreign language.

__ — procedure

High-amplitude sucking procedure

refers to intentional vocalization that lacks meaning

a stage of early language development when baby makes consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant sounds, such as “ma”, “da” or “um”

Babbling

When does babbling and Phoneme recognition emerge in babies

before 1 year old

babbling allows babies to develop control over what part of their bodies?

vocal tracts

Initially all babies share the same basic __ categories

phoneme

Babies must learn which sets of sounds are __

relevant

Comprehension precedes __

production

u need to be able to comprehend words before producing them

Begin to produce words around __ year(s) of age, with a rapid rate of increase.

1 year of age

12-18 months know __ words.

24 months know __ words.

By kindergarten, __ words

20-100

several hundred

several thousand

young children often make vocabulary mistakes when learning:

__ = using a word too broadly

• calling all flying things “bird” (including planes or butterflies)

__ = using a word too narrowly

• thinking “cat” only means their pet, not other cats

Overextension

Underextension

The process by which individuals learn to structure sentences and arrange words meaningfully

Syntax Development

At 1yo, infants are in the __ stage of Syntactic Development and move to —- stage by 2 years old

one-word

two-word

At what age do children begin by saying single words like:

• “doggie” — which could mean:

  • "There's a dog"

  • "I want the dog"

  • "Where's the dog?"

one

At what age do children begin combining words in simple but meaningful ways:

“Read book”

“More juice”

“My shoe”

“Eat cookie”

2 yo

Children can comprehend basic syntax rules before they can __ them.

display

At __ (age) can point to a video displaying their comprehension of the sentence, “The pig is tickling the dog.”

17-months

Sign language exhibits same __ of spoken language

features

sign language activates __ areas + areas involved in —processing.

language

visual/spatial

sign language has the same __ stages

• eg Deaf babies “babble” with their hands.

developmental

Bilinguals usually have 1 dominant language but __ in both

proficient

Bilingual learning passes through the same stages as monolinguals, although __ is slowed.

syntax development

a window of time when the brain is especially ready to learn language, and missing that window can make it much harder later on.

critical period

The earlier immigrants arrived in the U.S, the better their __ in English

grammar

Age matters more for __ and — than for —.

So even older learners can learn new words, but sounding fluent and using correct grammar is harder after childhood.

syntax (grammar)

pronunciation

vocabulary

__ Theory

• Babies learn language by copying what they hear.

• They listen to adults and imitate the sounds, words, and grammar.

• Example: A baby hears “Hi” and learns to say “Hi.”

Imitation