100_8.1_Thinking and language.pdf

Lecture 8.1: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

1. Thinking and Language

• Involves concepts, problem solving strategies, decision making, and judgments.

2. Understanding Thinking

• Definition: Cognition encompasses knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating.

• Cognitive Psychology Focus:

  • Concepts

  • Problem Solving

  • Decision Making

3. Building Blocks of Mental Activity

3.1 Concepts

• Defined as mental groupings of similar objects, events, or people.

  • Examples:

    • Fruit

    • Birthday Party

    • Mother

3.2 Prototypes

• The best examples representing features of a category.

3.3 Hierarchies

• Organization of concepts into a ranked structure.

  • Example: Animals, divided into domesticated and wild.

    • Dog, Cat, Cow, etc.

4. Problem Solving Strategies

• Includes:

  1. Trial and Error

  2. Algorithms

  3. Heuristics

  4. Insight

5. Detailed Problem Solving Strategies

5.1 Trial and Error

• Involves trying different strategies until success is achieved.

  • Example: Learning to parallel park.

5.2 Algorithms

• Comprehensive methods that explore all possibilities before finding a solution, can be time-consuming.

  • Example: Unscrambling the letters S P L O Y O C H Y G entails 907,200 possible combinations.

5.3 Heuristics

• Simplified, efficient problem-solving strategies that are quicker and often more error-prone than algorithms.

  • Example: Identifying words by trial and making connections.

6. Types of Heuristics

6.1 Representativeness Heuristic

• Categorizing based on similarity to prototypical examples.

6.2 Availability Heuristic

• Making judgments based on immediate examples that come to mind.

7. Insight

• Involves sudden realization of a solution, described as the "ah-ha" moment.

  • Example: Using boxes to access food.

8. Obstacles in Problem Solving

8.1 Confirmation Bias

• Tendency to seek information that supports personal beliefs and biases.

  • Example: Views on police shootings.

8.2 Fixation

• Inability to see a problem from new perspectives, impeding resolution.

  • Example: Dividing a cake into eight pieces with only three cuts.

8.3 Framing Effects

• Presenting the same problem in different but logically equivalent ways impacting perception.

9. Language

• Essential for communication; involves spoken, written, or gestured forms.

• Components:

  • Language Structure

  • Language Development

10. Structure of Language

10.1 Phonemes

• Smallest distinctive sound units in a language.

  • Examples:

    • Bat: b, a, t

    • Chat: ch, a, t

10.2 Morphemes

• Smallest units that carry meaning, can be whole words or parts of words.

  • Examples:

    • Milk: milk

    • Unkind: un, kind

11. Grammar

• System of rules that enable communication and understanding.

  • Two Key Areas:

    • Semantics: Deriving meaning from words and sentences.

      • Example: Adding –ed signals past tense.

    • Syntax: Rules for constructing sentences.

      • Example: In English, adjectives precede nouns.

12. Brain and Language

• Aphasia: Language impairment while other mental abilities remain intact.

  • Broca’s Area: Involved in speech production.

  • Wernicke’s Area: Involved in understanding and meaningful sentence formation.

13. Language Development in Children

• Rapid acquisition of language capabilities compared to mathematical skills.

  • Annual Vocabulary Growth: 3,500 words after age one, totaling approximately 60,000 by high school graduation.

14. Stages of Language Development

14.1 Babbling Stage

• Begins at 4 months; infants produce various sounds spontaneously.

14.2 One-Word Stage

• Around first birthday, children communicate using single words.

14.3 Two-Word Stage

• Before age two, children start forming two-word sentences, termed telegraphic speech.

14.4 Longer Phrases

• Children eventually develop longer, coherent phrases and humor in speech.

15. Critical Period of Language Learning

• Difficulty in learning new languages increases with age.

  • Findings: Older age at immigration correlates with poorer mastery of a second language.

16. Language and Thinking

• Thinking and language influence each other.

• Linguistic Determinism: Concept that language shapes thought patterns and perception.

17. Examples of Language Influence on Thinking

• Languages with limited color categories can impair color perception.

• Numerical limitations in language impact quantity differentiation skills.

18. Conclusions

• Dynamic relationship between language and thought; language affects the way we think and vice versa.