COGNITION LECT NOTES (7-9)

What is Language?

System of communication using sounds/symbols. Expresses feelings/thoughts/ideas/experiences.

What is the Hierarchical System of Language?

Components that can be combined to form larger units.

What is the Rule Governing of Language?

Specific ways components can be arranged.

What is B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behaviour?

Language learned through reinforcement.

What is Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures?

Human language coded in the genes. Children produce sentences they have never heard and that have never been reinforced.

What is Psycholinguistics?

Discover psychological process by which humans acquire and process language.

What is a Lexicon?

All words a person understands.

- RON QUESTION (LEXICON IS THE ANSWER).

What is Semantics?

The meaning of language. Meanings of words and sentences.

What is Lexical Semantics?

The meaning of words (each word has 1+ meanings).

What is the Word Frequency Effect?

We respond faster to high-frequency words.

What was the Result of the Rayner and Duffy Study?

Look at low-frequency words longer.

What is Variable Word Pronunciation?

Use context to understand words with unfamiliar pronunciations. People can identify 50% of words they speak when presented independently.

What is the Purpose of the Lexical Decision Study?

Testing processing differences between high/low frequency words.

What is the Task of the Lexical Decision Study?

Decide quickly is a string of letter are words/nonwords.

What were the Results of the Lexical Decision Study?

Longer fixations, slower response with low-frequency words.

What is Speech Segmentation?

Perception of individual words even though there are no silences between spoken words.

What Impacts our Ability to Understand Words?

Context, understanding of meaning, frequency a word appears in normal speech, statistical learning (understanding of sound and syntactic rules).

What is Lexical Ambiguity?

Words often have multiple meanings; context is important to identify correct meaning.

- Studies show that people access ambiguous words based on the meaning dominance of each definition of the word.

What is Lexical Priming (Tanenhaus, 1979)?

People briefly access all meanings of a word before relying on context.

What is Meaning Dominance?

Some words are used more frequently than others.

What is Biased Dominance?

When words have 2+ meanings with different dominance.

What is Balanced Dominance?

When words have 2+ meanings with about the same dominance.

- Words with multiple meanings result in slower processing than words with only 1 meaning or context cues.

What is Syntax?

Rules for combining words into sentences.

What is Parsing?

Mentally groups the words into phrases (helps listener create meaning).

What are Garden Path Sentences?

Sentences that begin by appearing to mean one thing, but then end up meaning something else.

What is Temporary Ambiguity?

When the initial words are ambiguous, but the meaning is made clear by the end of the sentence.

What is the Garden Path Model of Parsing?

Listeners use heuristics to group words into phrases. Grammatical structure of sentence determines parsing.

What is Late Closure?

Parser assumes new word is part of the current phrase.

- We may have to go back in the sentence and remove some words from the previous phrase.

What is the Constraint-Based Approach to Parsing?

We make predictions about sentences based on word meaning and context.

What is the Tanenhaus and Trueswell Study?

Eye movements change when information suggests revision of interpretation of sentence is necessary.

- Linguistic/nonlinguistic information used simultaneously.

What is Subject-Relative Construction?

Subject of both clauses.

What is Object-Relative Construction?

Subject of clause 1 & 2.

What is Coherence?

Representation of the text in one's mind that creates clear relations.

What is Inference?

Readers create information during reading not explicitly stated in the text.

What is Anaphoric Inference?

Connecting objects/people.

What is Instrument Inference?

Tools/methods.

What is Causal Inference?

Events in one clause caused by events in previous sentence.

What is the Situation Model?

Mental representation of what a text is about. Represent events as if experiencing the situation (POV of protagonist).

REMEMBER:

Approximately the same areas of the cortex are activated by actual movements and by reading related action words (activation is more extensive for actual movements).

- ERP data shows that 400ms after a word is heard there is a negative response that is stronger if a word is unexpected.

What is the Given-New Contract?

Speaker constructs sentences so they include given/new information.

What is Common Ground?

Mental knowledge and beliefs shared.

- Knowledge gained about the topic discussed and the people involved in the conversation.

What is Entrainment?

Synchronization between conversation partners.

What is Syntactic Coordination?

Using similar grammatical constructions (people use similar sentence formats as others in the conversation).

What is Syntactic Priming?

Production of a specific grammatical construction by one person increases chances other person will use that construction. Reduces computational load in conversation.

What is the Theory of Mind?

Being able to understand what others feel/think/believe.

What is Nonverbal Communication?

Interpret and react to the person's gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice, and other cues to meaning.

What is Prosody?

The pattern of intonation and rhythm in spoken language. Often creates emotion in spoken language.

- Changes in pitch and cadence of their words (speaking softly vs. loudly).

Semantics/Syntax are Associated With Which 2 Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex?

Frontal (Broca's area) and temporal lobe (Hearing).

What Property Does NOT Make Human Language Unique?

Communication

What Is a Problem?

An obstacle between a present state/goal. Not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle. Difficult to solve.

What is The Gestalt Approach?

1) Representing a problem in the mind.

2) Restructuring: Changes the problem's representation.

What is Kohler's Circle Problem?

Shows how we may need to restructure or reorganize the problem in our mind.

What is Insight in Problem Solving?

A sudden realization of a problem's solution (often requires restructuring problem).

What is the Study of Metcalfe and Wiebe (1987)?

Insight problems solved suddenly (non-insight problems solved gradually).

What are Insight Problems?

Triangle problem, chain problem.

What are Non-Insight Problems?

Algebra.

What is Functional Fixedness?

Restricting use of an object to its familiar functions.

What is the Candle Problem?

Seeing boxes as containers inhibited using them as supports.

What is the Two-String Problem?

Function of pliers gets in the way of seeing them as a weight.

What is a Mental Set?

A preconceived notion about how to approach a problem (based on a person's past experiences with the problem/similar problems).

What is the Water Jug Problem?

Given mental set inhibited participants from using simpler solution.

What is the Process of Newell/Simon (Problem Space)'s Study?

(Initial State, Intermediate State(s), Goal State)

1) Initial State: Conditions at the beginning of the problem

2) Intermediate state(s)

3) Goal State: The solution to the problem

What are Operators (Tower of Hanoi Problem)?

Rules that specify which moves are allowed and which are not.

What is the Means-End Analysis?

Reduce differences between initial and goal states.

What are Subgoals?

Create intermediate states closer to goal.

What is the Mutilated Checkerboard Problem?

(& When Were Participants Best at Solving It?)

Conditions differed in how much information provided about the squares.

- Participants were the best at solving the problem when they saw a checkerboard with spaces that said "bread" and "butter."

What is the Think-Aloud Protocol?

Say aloud what one is thinking (shift in how one perceives elements of a problem).

What is Analogical Problem Solving?

Using a solution to a similar problem guides solution to new problem.

What is Analogical Transfer?

The transfer from one problem to another (source problem to target problem).

What is the Gick and Holyoak Study?

(Analogical Transfer Steps)

Noticing relationship between source & target problem.

1) Mapping correspondence between source & target problem.

2) Applying mapping to target problem.

What is the Duncker's Radiation Problem?

Analogies aid problem solving (often hints must be given to notice connection).

- Surface features get in the way. Structural features must be used.

What is Analogical Encoding?

Process by which two problems are compared and similarities between them are determined.

- Studies looking at analogical encoding include using negotiation strategies.

What is the Trade-Off Strategy?

"I'll give you A if you give me B."

What is Contingency Strategy?

Person gets what they want if something else happens.

What is Analogical Paradox?

It can be difficult to apply analogies in the laboratory, but people routinely use analogies in real-world settings.

What is Vivo Problem-Solving Research?

People are observed to determine how they solve problems in the real world.

What is/are the Advantage(s) to Problem-Solving Research?

Naturalistic setting.

What is/are the Disadvantage(s) to Problem-Solving Research?

Time-consuming, cannot isolate and control variables.

What is an Expert?

A person who has become acknowledged as being extremely knowledgeable or skilled in that field.

- Experts solve problems in their field more quickly and with a higher success rate than beginners.

- Experts possess more knowledge about their fields.

- Compared to novices, expert chess players can remember where pieces on a board are better when the pieces are arranged realistically.

How do Experts Solve Problems?

Experts spend more time analyzing problems (may start slower but are trying to understand the problem).

What is Creative Problem Solving?

Innovative thinking, novel ideas, new connections between existing ideas.

What does a Novice Use?

Surface features.

What does an Expert Use?

Structural features.

What are Qualifiers?

Experts are no better than novices when given problems outside of their field.

- Experts less likely to be open to new ways of looking at problems.

What is Divergent Thinking?

Open-ended; large number of potential solutions.

What is Group Brainstorming?

Not as good as people think.

What is Creative Cognition?

Technique to train people to think creatively.

What are Preinventive Forms?

Ideas that precede creation of finished creative product.

What is Creative Insight Linked to?

Increased activation in the left anterior temporal lobe and decreased activity in the frontal lobe.

What is the Study of Chi and Snyder?

Deactivated left anterior temporal lobe causing people to think "outside the box" in nine-dot problem.

What is the Study of Kounios & Coworkers?

Used EEG on compound remote-associate problems.

- Frontal lobe activity increased before insight solutions.

- Occipital lobe activity increased before noninsight solutions.

What is Incubation?

Getting ideas after taking "time out" from working on a problem.

What is the Study of Mayseless & Coworkers?

Participants suggest alternate uses for an object.

- Higher originality ratings associated with higher activity of structures in default mode network.

What is the Study of Ellamil et. Al?

Subjects read a description of a book and then had to generate ideas for a book cover, then after a break had to evaluate the potential book covers.

- Regions of default mode network (DMN) and executive control network (ECN) more strongly activated during idea evaluation than idea generation (normally DMN and ECN work in opposition).

- Highly creative people have more functional connectivity between DMN and ECN

What is Volitional Daydreaming?

Purposeful mind wandering.

What is Solitude?

Avoiding distractions; giving the mind space and time to make new connections and find meaning.

What is Focused Attention Meditation?

Focus on one thing, such as the breath, and return to it when distracted.

What is Open Monitoring Meditation?

Pay attention to whatever comes up and follow it until the next thing.

What is Inductive Reasoning?

Primary mechanisms involved in making judgments. Drawing general conclusions based on specific observation(s). Conclusions are probably true, but not definitely true.

What are Factors Contributing to Argument Strength?

Representativeness of observations, number of observations, quality of observations.