Psychology- Unit 7 Thinking and Language

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people (ex. birds)

Prototype

A mental image, or best example of a concept (ex.cardinal)

Hierarchies

People like to organize information. We often organize concepts into hierarchies.

Algorithm

Problem solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome correctly applied. (ex.look in every room for Mrs.Clegg)

Heuristics

Simple, basic rules that serve as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks. (No guarantee of success). (ex.go to deans office to find Mrs.Clegg)

Insight

Insight involves a sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem. Humans and some animals have this ability

Scarcity heuristics

• People perceive objects as more valuable when their availability is limited

• Heavily used in marketing to create a sense of urgency through tactics like “limited time offers” or “low stock” alerts, which can encourage impulse buying.

Availability heuristics

• Decisions are often based on most available information

• This can lead to errors if you're available information is skewed

Ex.

• Less people swim during shark week

• Less people fly directly after a plane crash

Anchoring heuristics

• People rely heavily on the first piece of information offered (“anchor”) when making decisions

Ex: a product priced at $9.99 is perceived as significantly cheaper than one priced at $10 because the $9 anchors the perception of value, even though it is nearly the same price

Mental sets

• The tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for previous problems

Ex: nine dot problem

• People become stuck on a particular way of thinking about a problem. It shows how people impose unnecessary constraints, such as a mental box around the dots, which makes it difficult to find the solution.

Functional fixedness

• The inability to perceive a new use for an object associated with a different purpose

Ex: the candle problem

Over confidence

• People tend to overestimate the chances of being correct or our own accuracy/performance

Ex:

• What time can I get to school?

• How much can I get done after school?

Framing

• The way information is presented can impact judgment

Ex:

• Politics: “protecting national security” frames of policy positively, while “increasing surveillance” frames it negatively

• Health: “85 out of 100 patients recovered” is more reassuring than “15, out of 100 patients died”

• Food choices: “95% fat-free” is more appealing than “5% fat”

Confirmation bias

• The tendency to seek out and interpret information that confirms pre-existing beliefs, while ignoring or downplaying contradictory evidence

Language

Our spoken written, or jester words, and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

• The smallest distinctive sound unit

• Not just letters: th and ch are also phoneme

Morpheme

• The smallest unit that carries meaning

• May be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix)

• -ed/d= past tense, -s= plural

Grammar

A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others (includes rules for speech, tenses, and punctuation)

Syntax

Grammar rules specifically about combining words into phrases and sentences

BF Skinner

People learn language like we learn everything else: rewards from correct imitation

Noam Chomsky

Human brains are “wired” to understand language. (Birds just “know” how to fly)

Current thought

Combo of both ideas- We are wired for speech but need to imitate what we hear at home

Stages of speech

1. Babble (4-12 months)

2. 1-Word (12-24 months)

3. 2-Word (2 years)

Over-generalization

Applying a grammar rule to far

Ex: child uses regular past tense verb ending -ed of forms like I walked to produce forms like “I goed”

Critical period

Difficult to learn language after the age of 10. Most expert suggest the second language education should occur in middle school, not high school.

Ex: Genie- rare case when a child raised for 14 years in isolation was unable to correctly learn English.

Babble

(4-12 months): within a few months, babies able to start to reproduce phonemes. By 10 months, specifics of home language becomes apparent

1-Word

(12-24 months): starts with one syllable words, but by 18 months kids learn a word a day

2-Word

2-Word (2 years): start to build two word sentences. Grammar rules start to show also