Final Exam: Units 9-12

heuristic mode of thought

more automatic, relies on previous beliefs and experiences, and uses mental shortcuts --> efficient but error-prone

how is language rule-based?

has meaningful structure and rules for combining sounds and words

phonology

the study of speech sounds in language (note: there can be differences across language)

levels of organization of language

phonology --> semantics --> morphology --> syntax --> pragmatics

phonemic restoration effect

we fill in missing speech sounds based on the context of the sentence (e.g., the axle was missing a __eel --> wheel)

properties of language

communicative, arbitrarily symbolic, regularly structured, generative, dynamic, socially transmitted, and universally acquired

fixation in eye tracking

brief pauses during which the eye takes ininformation

regressive saccade

the eyes move backwards in the text, "re-reading" a previous word or phrase --> occurs when encountering ambiguity or needing to re-process information

what is a typical perceptual span when reading english?

approximately three characters to the left and 15 characters to the right of the fixation point

direct access view v. indirect access view

readers can identify the meaning of words simply by recognizing them v. readers sound a word out before retrieving its meaning from their mental lexicon (orthography --> meaning v. orthography --> phonology --> meaning)

how are phonemes and graphemes related?

a grapheme is usually a letter or fixed combination of letters corresponding to a phoneme in that language

reasoning

evaluation of a conclusion based solely on given information

syllogistic reasoning

a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion -- all of which are true

representativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of group/category membership based on similarity to stereotypes; risk of base rate fallacy (ignoring general info in favor or specifics) and conjunction fallacy (likelihood of compound event higher than likelihood of each event)

recognition heuristic

between two options, inferring that the one you recognize is greater/larger/more etc.

illusory correlations

perception of a relationship based on coincidence when that relationship does not actually exist

routine v. non-routine problem

can be solved by applying well-practiced procedures, each component is familiar v. components are harder to identify/unfamiliar

pros and cons of verbal reports in problem-solving research

they allow researchers to hear the problem solver's process out loud, but have limitations including: not everyone has the verbal ability to explain, not all processes can be verbally described, no way to access its accuracy, verbalizing may interfere with the thought process

creativity

the ability to come up with novel and appropriate solutions

examples of a problem-solving heuristic

using analogies (comparing it to a similar problem's solution) or means-end analysis (breaking it into subgoals or working backwards)

language

set of symbols, and principles for the combination of those symbols, that allow for communication and comprehension

how is language symbolic?

sounds/signs/symbols stand for something out in the world that is arbitrarily linked to meaning

how is language generative?

can combine units to create an infinite number of meanings

mental lexicon

all the words a person knows

semantics

how words and sentences express meaning

syntax

rules for putting words together (i.e., grammar)

discourse

language beyond the sentence-level; higher level thinking about language and forming of complex paragraphs, arguments, and storylines

pragmatics

language in context

phonemes

the smallest units of speech sound that are recognized as different in a particular language and change the meaning of a spoken signal (e.g., /p/ or /b/)

morphemes

the smallest meaningful units of language

free v. bound morphemes

can stand alone v. must accompany a free morpheme (e.g., walk v. -ed)

what makes speech perception challenging?

style, accent/dialect, intonation, environment, frequency/pitch, segmentation problem

"coarticulation" of phonemes

the pronunciation of a phoneme is influenced by its surrounding sounds since phonemes overlap when speaking

how do we perceive phonemes?

invariant and in distinct categories

how are phonemes produced?

on a continuum

by what age do infants begin tuning their phoneme detection?

though they initially detect more phonemes than adults, they begin fine tuning by six months

"motherese"

the melodic and exaggerated manner in which adults often speak to infants --> provides info about phonemes and boundaries, aids in development of speech perception

why is it difficult to detect word boundaries in a foreign language?

knowledge of words in a language enhances our ability to extract them when listening to speech (top-down processing)

ambiguous messages

can be syntactic (e.g., distinguishing between direct and indirect objects) or semantic (e.g., some words can have multiple meanings)

how do you pick an interpretation of an ambiguous message?

consider the context

what is the linearization problem?

how to use speech and put information in a linear order despite things happening simultaneously

prescriptive v. descriptive approach to studying language

how language should be used (e.g., rules and syntax) v. how language is actually used and what is accepted by its community of users

example of animal communication -- does it qualify as language?

honey bees use the waggle dance to locate the direction, distance, and quality of a food source -- structured and learned from older bees BUT not symbolic or generative

saccade in eye tracking

discrete movements/jumps that our eyes make from one point to another when reading

perceptual span

the number of letters and spaces that we perceive during a fixation

what percentage of words are skipped when reading?

30%

what words are more likely to be skipped when reading?

short or unimportant words, common words, highly constrained words

orthography

physical or written structure of words

evidence that word meanings can be accessed indirectly via phonology

(van orden, 1987) category verification task results found that response times were slower and there were more errors for homophones v. visual controls (e.g., which is a flower? rose v. rows had more errors than rose v. robs)

dual route view

two pathways to reading: lexical route directly accesses a word's stored representation in the brain based on visual recognition & non-lexical route sounds out words to allow for reading unfamiliar words

phonemes v. morphemes v. graphemes

smallest unit of speech sound v. smallest unit of meaningful language v. minimal meaningful units in the writing system of a particular language

whole-word approach to teaching reading

rote learning of words; training to recognize words as a whole

whole-language approach to teaching reading

extension of whole-word approach; engaging, immersive materials to encourage readers to guess based on context

phonics approach to teaching reading

learning correspondence between component letters and their sounds --> ability to sound out new words; the gold standard

judgement

using some sort of reasoning to arrive at a conclusion, an inference, an estimate, or a prediction

decision-making

using reasoning & judgment to make a choice
among several alternatives (involves some risk or uncertainty about what the best choice is)

normative v. descriptive approach

how people should think in a given situation (i.e., rational) v. how people actually think (focus on the errors people make)

analytic mode of thought

thought is more slow, deliberate, and controlled --> higher cognitive demand

inductive v. deductive reasoning

moves from specific instances to a generalized conclusion v. moves from generalized principles that are known to be true to a true and specific conclusion

conditional reasoning

a form of deductive reasoning that involves evaluating information based on the relationship between two things and the premise that if one event occurs, then another event will occur (AKA "if-then" reasoning)

validity v. truth

internal consistency of an argument (conclusion follows premises) v. complete accuracy of a statement

heuristic

rule-of-thumb that can help judgements

heuristics pros and cons

very useful BUT can hinder our judgements sometimes

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; risk of biases (in encoding and retrieval) and illusory correlations

anchoring and adjustment heuristic

a natural tendency for people to be influenced by an initial anchor point such that they do not sufficiently move away from that point as new information is provided

hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

expected utility theory

a normative approach; decisions based on expected value (benefits and costs) of outcomes and their respective probability --> BUT people aren't always rational

prospect theory

a descriptive approach that tries to explain the violations of expected utility theory; decisions are affected by the gain and loss specific to each person (loss-aversion and losses are felt differently)

framing effect in prospect theory

gain frame = risk avoidant whereas loss frame = risk prone --> preference for sure wins over the chance of avoiding a loss

sunk cost effect

tendency to continue investing in something (or continue following through with something) even in the face of loss, because of how much time, effort, or money we've already invested (e.g., gambling more to make up for lost bets)

four components of a problem

initial state: at beginning of problem, current state ≠ desired state
goal state: solution to the problem --> desired state
rules and constraints: what you can and cannot do
obstacles: what you need to overcome to solve the problem

well-defined v. ill-defined problem

clear, structured, well-understood components, and clear solution v. fuzzy, abstract, components are not well-understood, and it is harder to tell when you've reached a solution

practice in problem-solving

can make a non-routine problem a routine one

challenges to researching problem-solving

many different types of problems (e.g., complex v. simple), problems can be time-consuming to solve, it's hard to measure or observe problem-solving and know what processes are involved

transformation problems

must find the appropriate steps or strategies to move from an initial state to a goal state (e.g., tower of hanoi)

arrangement problems

all problem elements are presented and you must figure out how to arrange them (e.g., anagrams)

induction problems

given a series of exemplars or instances and must figure out what the pattern or rule is

deduction problems

premises or conditions are given, and the solver must determine whether a solution/conclusion fits (if fish all live in water and nemo is a fish, then nemo lives in water)

divergent problems

must generate as many solutions as possible (e.g., describe every possible use for a shovel)

convergent thinking

inside the box

divergent thinking

outside the box

gestalt approach to studying problem-solving

focus on higher order processing and restructuring of the problem elements --> insight (sudden realization of solution); problem-solving is insightful and deliberate

behaviorist approach to studying problem-solving

problem-solving is associative learning where stimuli elicits responses that are either reinforced or not; initial state is aversive --> series of trial and error responses --> achievement of goal state is reinforced (responses refine and become less random over time)

information processing approach to studying problem-solving

computers as inspiration; subgoal analysis breaks down the problem, problem space represents initial state, goal state, and subgoals, problem-solving is traveling through problem space in a series of steps

importance of forming an accurate representation of a problem

correct solution is dependent on the representation of the problem --> failure to represent means no solution

mental set

tendency to rely on habits and procedures used in the past -- can interfere with your ability to solve a problem when a different solution is better

functional fixedness

tendency to view objects in a narrow and fixed way, based on their typical function -- can interfere with problem representation (e.g., duncker's candle problem requires you to see the thumbtack box as serving multiple purposes)

how might someone use an algorithm to solve a problem?

by using a set of rules that can be applied systematically to solve certain types of problems --> guarantees a correct solution, but can be time-consuming and not applicable to every kind of problem

how might someone use a heuristic to solve a problem?

by using general strategies, or "rules of thumb," that can be applied to some types of problems --> efficient but does not guarantee a correct answer

insight in problem-solving

solution is sudden due to removal of mistaken assumption (e.g., issue with problem representation, mental set, functional fixedness)

insight v. non-insight problems

non-routine v. routine (e.g., algebraic equations or story problems)

two-stage model of insight

guiding stage is when association areas are activated in the brain and integrative stage is when the buildup of this activation reaches conscious awareness

incubation in problem-solving

productive inactivity --> clears your mind of interfering info and change in context can help you get away from conditions/cues that produce failure, finding new conditions/cues that help

expertise

exceptional knowledge and/or performance in some specific domain --> achieved through repeated practice and experience; expertise in one domain does not mean expertise in others