PSY211 Exam 5 SDSU

Swinney’s experiment

showed that after hearing an ambiguous word, listeners activated all of the possible meanings of the word. Milliseconds later, the context of the sentence helps to choose the correct meaning

results of Swinney’s experiment

shows that lexical access is initially automatic, but context influences the meaning that is selected for comprehension

hierarchical structure of language

states that smaller units of language combine to form larger, more meaningful ones

levels of the hierarchical structure of language

phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, semantics (meaning), and pragmatics (use of language in context)

speech errors and examples

• Phoneme - when sounds get swapped, anticipated, or repeated

• Morpheme - “trunked two packs” instead of “packed two trunks”

• Word-level - occurs when the wrong word is used in a sentence

• Phrase/sentence level - swapping words around in a sentence

• Semantic-level - meaning-level confusions (cat instead of dog)

• Pragmatic errors - occurs when intended social meaning misfires (wrong pronouns, too formal/informal)

three types of ambiguity in language

lexical (bat), syntactic (the chicken is ready to eat), semantic (every student read a book)

Dell’s spreading activation

proposes that language production occurs in a network of semantic, lexical, and phonological nodes. Activation spreads through these nodes in both directions.

how the spreading activation model words

When a speech error occurs, the system is more likely to produce outcomes resulting in real words because real-word candidates receive additional activation from their lexical nodes.

lexical

words and their properties stored in the mind

lexicon

your mental dictionary containing all the words you know

semantic

how words, phrases, and sentences convey ideas

syntactic

structure and grammar rules that organize words into sentences

Chomsky’s arguments

language is a creative and generative process that cannot be explained by behaviorism alone

lexical decision task

 an experimental method used to study word recognition and mental lexicon access.

how the LDT works

Participants are shown a word and, as quickly as they can, they have to press a button corresponding to whether it is a real word or a non-word

top-down control over perception of speech

Using our prior knowledge, we can fill in the blanks when it comes to familiar language, but with unfamiliar language, speech perception relies on acoustic cues, making perception slower and less accurate.

basic steps in solving a problem

Understanding the problem, generating possible solutions, evaluating and selecting the best solution, executing the chosen solution while monitoring progress

problem solving analogies

occurs when you use the solution to one problem to help solve a different but similar problem.

successful use of analogies

when people can recognize the similarities between the two comparisons and when given multiple examples.

unsuccessful use of analogies

They are not used successfully when the features differ too much or when people do not understand the deeper meaning behind the analogy.

Luchin’s water jar problem

participants had 3 jars full of water of different capacities, and they had to figure out how to combine the jars using addition or subtraction to result in a specific quantity.

results of water jar problem

when people found a solution that may be complex, they would continue to use that solution even though there were simpler solutions for some of the problems. prior experience can affect problem solving

insight

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution

Metcalfe and Wiebe

Participants were given insight (puzzles) and non-insight problems (math, grammar, etc) and had to describe how warm or cold they were every 15 seconds.

results of Metcalfe and Wiebe

insight problems produce sudden jumps in warmth, while non-insight problems show gradual warmth increase. This shows that both of these types of problems rely on different cognitive processes.

functional fixedness

a cognitive bias where people become stuck on the typical function of an object and fail to see that it can be used in another way

gambler’s fallacy

people wrongly believe that if something has happened repeatedly, then the opposite outcome is “due”, even when each event is statistically independent (ex. coin toss)

two theories of reasoning

Normative theories - describe how people should reason using logic and probability

Descriptive theories - describe how people actually reason using heuristics and biases

two types of reasoning

Deductive reasoning - general rules -> specific conclusions

Inductive reasoning - specific observations -> general conclusions

lawyers/engineers experiment

participants were given base rates (70/30 or 30/70) and personality questions and were asked to judge if a person was a lawyer or an engineer. Participants only used the base rates when no description was given. This demonstrated that people rely more on a description (the representativeness heuristic) rather than statistical reasoning.

base rates

tell you how common something is (overall frequencies or probabilities of an event or category)

current evidence

the information at hand that seems relevant to the judgment (new, case-specific information about the current situation or individual)

heuristics

mental shortcuts that help people make judgments and decisions quickly and efficiently, without needing to analyze all the available information

repetitiveness heuristic

judging the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype or stereotype, rather than on actual statistical informationav

availability heuristic

judging the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind