Cognition 2: Exam Practice Questions Exam-Style Revision Notes

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and Universalism

• The relationship between language and thought is a major topic in cognitive science and linguistics.

• Two main perspectives:

  • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (SWH)

  • Universalism

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (SWH)

• Also known as linguistic relativity.

• Two versions:

  • Strong Version (Linguistic Determinism):

    • Language entirely determines thought.

    • Individuals can only conceptualise ideas for which they have linguistic labels.

    • Language acts as a "cognitive prison", strictly limiting thoughts.

    • Example: Without a word for an emotion, colour, or concept, one cannot perceive or experience it.

  • Weak Version (Linguistic Relativity):

    • Language influences habitual patterns of thinking but does not entirely determine thought.

    • More empirical support.

    • The presence or absence of terms in a language may shape how easily individuals attend to certain distinctions (e.g., shades of colour).

Universalism

• Associated with Noam Chomsky.

• The underlying cognitive structure of language is universal and biologically endowed.

• Differences between languages are superficial.

• All human languages share a deep structure reflecting a common cognitive architecture.

• Cognition is largely independent of linguistic variation.

Colour Perception

• Provides empirical testing grounds for these theories.

• Berlin and Kay (1969):

  • Identified a universal pattern in how languages develop colour terms.

  • Cultures with fewer colour terms still categorise colours around focal points (black, white, red, yellow).

  • Implies a universal aspect of colour cognition.

• Winawer et al. (2007):

  • Russian speakers distinguish between light blue ("goluboy") and dark blue ("siniy").

  • Russian speakers were faster at discriminating colours across these categories than English speakers.

  • Supports linguistic relativity: distinct colour terms facilitate perceptual discrimination.

• Gilbert et al. (2006):

  • Demonstrated a right visual field advantage in colour categorisation tasks.

  • Stimuli presented to the right visual field are more influenced by linguistic structures because language is processed in the left hemisphere.

  • Illustrates a neurocognitive basis for the SWH.

Space

• Spatial cognition varies across linguistic communities.

• English speakers use egocentric references (e.g., "to my left").

• Speakers of Kuuk Thaayorre (an Aboriginal language) use allocentric references based on cardinal directions (e.g., "to the north of the cup").

• Levinson's research:

  • Speakers of allocentric languages are better at orienting themselves in unfamiliar environments.

  • Habitual linguistic practices influence non-linguistic cognitive abilities.

  • Provides strong evidence for linguistic relativity.

Stroop Effect

• Demonstrates the automaticity of linguistic processing.

• The Stroop task: Participants are slower to name the colour of the ink when it spells out a conflicting colour word (e.g., the word "red" written in blue ink).

• Language processing is automatic.

• Can disrupt cognitive control.

• Aligns with the weak version of the SWH.

Gender

• Language can influence the way we perceive gendered concepts.

• Konishi (1993):

  • Grammatical gender affects perception and description.

  • German speakers (where "bridge" is feminine) described bridges as "elegant" or "graceful."

  • Spanish speakers (where "bridge" is masculine) used terms like "strong" and "sturdy."

  • Highlights the subtle influence of language structure on conceptual thought.

Visual Memory

• Verbal labels can distort visual memory.

• Carmichael, Hogan, and Walter (1932):

  • Participants shown ambiguous images with verbal labels recalled the images in ways consistent with the labels.

• Loftus and Palmer (1974):

  • Verb choice (e.g., "hit" vs. "smashed") in eyewitness testimony influenced participants' recollection of a car crash.

  • Included estimations of speed and false memories of broken glass.

  • Evidence that language can shape the encoding and retrieval of memories.

Face Recognition

• The verbal overshadowing effect: verbalising a visual memory interferes with accurate recall.

• Fallshore and Schooler (1995):

  • Describing a perpetrator's face reduced recognition accuracy, particularly for same-race faces.

  • Due to a shift from configural (holistic) to featural (piecemeal) processing.

• Lloyd-Jones et al. (2008):

  • Language can interfere with visual memory, especially when verbalisation disrupts naturally efficient memory processes.

Decision Making

Utility Theory

• Derived from classical economics.

• Individuals make decisions by calculating and comparing the expected utility of each option.

• Assumes rationality: choices should be consistent and aim to maximise gain or minimise loss.

• People often violate these principles.

• Example: Most people prefer a guaranteed £100 over a 50% chance at £200, even though the expected utility is the same. (bias towards guaranteed outcomes).

Prospect Theory

• Developed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979).

• Challenges rational decision-making assumptions.

• Introduces reference points and loss aversion.

• Individuals evaluate outcomes relative to a reference point rather than in absolute terms.

• Losses have a greater psychological impact than gains of the same magnitude (loss aversion).

• Framing effect: The same outcome can elicit different choices depending on whether it is presented as a gain or a loss.

  • Example: People are more likely to choose a treatment described as "saving 200 lives" than one described as "400 people will die," even though both outcomes are statistically identical.

Emotional Influences

• Emotions play a pivotal role in decision-making.

• Affective forecasting errors (Read & van Leeuwen, 1998):

  • People's inability to accurately predict their future emotional states and how these will affect decision-making.

• Bower (1981):

  • Mood-congruent behaviour: when happy, individuals tend to make riskier decisions; when sad, they become more conservative.

• Emotionally charged scenarios (e.g., the Trolley Problem) illustrate how emotional engagement affects moral reasoning.

  • When participants are required to push a man off a bridge to save five people, emotional centres in the brain (e.g., the amygdala) are activated, and people are less likely to choose the utilitarian option.

Neuropsychology of Decision Making

• Emotion-based regions in the brain significantly influence decision-making.

• Shiv et al. (2005):

  • Patients with damage to the amygdala made more optimal investment decisions than controls because they lacked the emotional fear response.

• Patients with vmPFC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) damage often make impulsive and maladaptive decisions.

• Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis:

  • Emotional experiences create bodily markers that help guide future choices by attaching emotional significance to potential outcomes.

Consumer Behaviour and Emotion

• Emotional influences extend into consumer contexts.

• Loss aversion is often exploited in marketing.

  • People prefer to avoid losses more than they enjoy equivalent gains, making the phrasing of offers crucial (e.g., “avoid a £20 surcharge” is more effective than “save £20”).

• Sunk cost fallacy: Previous investments (time, money) influence decisions, even when the rational action would be to abandon the investment (Dawes et al., 1988).

• Pepsi Paradox (McClure et al., 2004):

  • Blind taste tests showed no preference, but brand-labelled conditions triggered preferences for Coca-Cola.

  • Linked to PFC activity.

  • Highlights the influence of branding on consumer choice.

• Cognitive dissonance also plays a role: post-purchase rationalisation helps reduce psychological discomfort, often enhancing consumer satisfaction.

• Studies such as Strohmetz et al. (2002) showed that small gestures like offering sweets increased tipping, demonstrating how emotional reciprocity influences financial behaviour.

Problem Solving

Gestalt Approach

• Emphasises the role of representational change and insight.

• Gestalt psychologists (e.g., Köhler (1925)) believed problem-solving involves restructuring how a problem is mentally represented.

• Insight occurs when a previously intractable problem suddenly becomes solvable, often experienced as an "Aha!" moment.

• Barriers include:

  • Functional fixedness: Failing to see alternative uses for objects (e.g., using a matchbox as a candle holder).

  • Mental set: Prior experience leads to inflexible problem-solving strategies (e.g., Luchins’ water jug experiments).

Information Processing Approach

• Newell and Simon (1972):

  • Problem-solving is framed as searching through a problem space.

  • Defined by an initial state, goal state, and the set of rules for transforming one into the other.

• Strategies include:

  • Means-end analysis: Identify the difference between current and goal states and take steps to reduce that difference.

  • Hill climbing: Make decisions that appear to move closer to the goal. Though intuitive, it may lead to suboptimal paths.

  • Progress monitoring: Track progress toward the goal and switch strategies if no progress is made (MacGregor et al., 2001).

• Tasks like the Tower of Hanoi illustrate these strategies.

• Planning-based strategies are associated with increased activity in the prefrontal cortex.

• Individuals with PFC damage perform worse on such tasks, especially when optimal moves involve temporarily stepping away from the goal.

Analogical Reasoning

• Analogies help solve new problems by applying solutions from structurally similar prior problems.

• Gick and Holyoak: Participants were more likely to solve Duncker’s radiation problem if first exposed to a structurally similar scenario (e.g., a military fortress problem).

• Analogical reasoning improves with expertise, as experts have more elaborate schemas to draw upon.

Supporting Evidence and Neuroscience

• Brain imaging studies provide support for cognitive theories of problem-solving.

• Goel & Grafman (1995): Individuals with PFC damage performed poorly on complex tasks like the Tower of Hanoi.

• Kleibeuker et al. (2013): Adults exhibited greater activation in the lateral PFC compared to adolescents during problem-solving, indicating a developmental trajectory in planning ability.

• Kounios et al. (2006): Used EEG and fMRI to show that neural activity before a problem was presented could predict whether it would be solved insightfully.

Experts vs. Novices

• Experts and novices differ in their approach to problem-solving.

• Experts rely on deep, structural knowledge of a domain and are more likely to categorise problems based on underlying principles.

• Experts also use more efficient strategies, such as forward planning and chunking information.

• Novices are more influenced by surface features and often resort to trial-and-error methods.

Brain Regions

• The lateral prefrontal cortex is crucial for planning and cognitive control.

• The posterior middle temporal gyrus and anterior cingulate cortex are implicated in insight and strategy switching.

• These regions support higher-level executive functions essential for flexible problem-solving.

• Neuroimaging evidence suggests that successful problem-solving is associated with activity across a distributed network, particularly in the frontal and temporal lobes.