Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)
Chapter 10
Thinking and Language
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers
1
 Cognition
Thinking
 mental activities associated w/ thinking,
knowing, remembering, & communicating
Affects …
 how we learn (Ch 8)…
 how we remember (Ch 9)…
 how we plan…Nurture (Ch 3 & 4)…
 how we dream (Ch 7)…
 how we use and learn language (this Ch)….
 It is affected by neuropsych activity (Ch 2)…
Cognition & cognitive processes will relate
2
to EVERY CHAPTER we do in this book!
 Cognitive Psychologists:
The mental activities they research:
 concept formation:
how we form ideas, schemas,
heuristics,etc.
 problem solving: involves how we look at
info, analyze it, & come up w/ solutions
 decision making
 judgment formation
3
 Concept: mental grouping of similar objects,
events, ideas, or people
 EX’s: cats, dogs, chairs, horses, law
enforcement, etc.)….schemas
 Prototype: Mental image or best EX: of a
category
 matching new items to the prototype
provides a quick, easy way to include items
in a category
 EX: Comparing feathered creatures to a
prototypical bird, such as a robin
(which is MOST ppl’s prototype for “bird”
…not a penguin)
4
 Algorithm
 Step-by-step methodical, logical rule or
procedure that guarantees solving a
particular problem
-efficient, but can be time-consuming
 Heuristic: (mental short-cuts)
 simple thinking strategy that often allows
us to make judgments & solve problems
efficiently
 usually speedier than algorithms
 more error-prone than algorithms
EX: You lose your keys...Which of these do
you use to find them???
5
Thinking
Answer to “lost keys”:
First heuristics (EX’s: looking in the last place you
remember seeing them, the place you usually put
them, along the path you took to come home, etc.)
If these fail, you then fall back on algorithm & look
every single place they could possibly be. (EX’s?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------Unscramble
SPLOYOCHYG
 Algorithm
 all 907,208 possible combinations
 Heuristic
 throw out all YY combinations
 other heuristics?
6
 Insight
 sudden & often novel (?) realization of the solution
to a problem (“Ah-HA!!” “Hey, wait…What
about THIS?”)
 contrasts with strategy-based solutions
 Confirmation Bias: a major obstacle to problem
solving
 tendency to search for information that confirms
one’s preconceptions
 Fixation: stuck in one way of seeing something
 inability to see a problem from a new perspective
 impediment to problem solving
7
The Matchstick
Problem
 How would you
arrange six
matches to form
four equilateral
triangles?
8
The Three-Jugs
Problem
 Using jugs A,
B, and C,
with the
capacities
shown, how
would you
measure out
the volumes
indicated?

9
The Candle-Mounting
Problem
 Using these
materials, how
would you
mount the
candle on a
bulletin board?
10
5 ppl in a hospital: Each 1 has only 1 disease & each
has a different disease. Each 1 occupies a separate
room. Room #’s are 101 -105
1. Person w/ asthma in room 101
2. Ms. Jones has heart disease
3. Ms. Green is in Rm 105
4. Ms. Smith has tuberculosis
5. Woman w. mono is in Room 104
6. Ms. Thomas is in Rm 101
7. Ms. Smith is in 102
8. 1 of the patients, other than Ms. Anderson, has gall
bladder disease.
What disease does Ms. Anderson have & what
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room is she in?
 CREATIVITY & THOUGHT:
COMING UP W/ SOLUTIONS… (Read only…)
 Lipstick

A private school in Washington recently was faced with a
unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning
to use lipstick & would put it on in the bathroom… but after
they put it on, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving
dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man
would remove them & the next day, the girls would put them
back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done.
She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there
with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip
prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had
to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the
mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how
much effort was required. He took out a long-handled
squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.
Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There
12
are teachers….and then there are educators...
Thinking
 Mental Set
 tendency to approach a problem in a
particular way…EX: a pencil? Matches?
 especially a way that has been successful in
the past but may or may not be helpful in
solving a new problem
 Functional Fixedness
 tendency to think of things only in terms of
their usual functions
 impediment to problem solving
Breaking set (or avoiding functional
fixedness): coming up w/ novel ways to use
items…”McGyver effect”
13
The Matchstick Problem
 Solution to the
matchstick
problem
involves
thinking outside
the box…and
not assuming
limits like 2-D
instead of 3-D
 Consider new
ways…not fixed
ways
14
The Three-Jugs
Problem
 Solution:
a) All seven problems
can be solved by the
equation shown in
(a): B - A - 2C =
desired volume.
 b) But simpler
solutions exist for
problems 6 and 7,
such as A - C for
problem 6.
15
The Candle-Mounting
Problem
 Solving this
problem
requires
recognizing that
a box need not
always serve as
a container
16
Writing assignment: Pp. 392-393:
Read “Risks—Do we fear the right
things?”
Summarize and explain the 4
influences on our intuitions about
risks…..Give examples of each.
17
Heuristics: Some possible Causes of
Faulty thinking!
 Representativeness Heuristic
 judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well
they seem to represent, or match, particular
prototypes
 may lead us to ignore other relevant info
 Availability Heuristic: 2 parts:
 1) estimating the likelihood of events based on their
availability in memory…relate to “recency effect”
 2) if instances come readily to mind (perhaps
because of their vividness…how it stands out), we
presume such events are common
EX: airplane crash = phobia…but what about cars?
18
Thinking
 Overconfidence
 tendency to be more confident than correct
 tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s
beliefs & judgments
Planning fallacy: when we are over-confident RE:
time it will take us to do something…
EX: Research paper? Studying?
 Framing: way an issue is posed; way it’s worded
 how an issue is framed can significantly affect
decisions & judgments
 EX: What’s best way to market ground beef--as 25%
fat or 75% lean?
19
Thinking
 Belief Bias: tendency for our pre-existing beliefs
to distort logical reasoning
 sometimes invalid conclusions seem valid…or
valid conclusions seem invalid
(relates to “group-think” also…Ch. 18)
 Belief Perseverance
 clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the
basis on which they were formed has been
discredited
20
 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
 designing & programming computer systems to…
 …do intelligent things
 …simulate human thought processes (parallel)
 intuitive reasoning
 learning
 understanding language
(272 Baron’s)
 Computer Neural Networks
 computer circuits that mimic brain’s
interconnected neural cells & perform tasks much
like humans…
 learning to recognize visual patterns
 learning to recognize smells
21
Language
 Language
 our spoken, written, or gestured works & the way
we combine them to communicate meaning
 Phoneme
 1st bldg. block in a spoken language, the smallest
distinctive sound unit EX: bat = b, a, t or
that = th, a, t
 Morpheme
photo = ph, o, t, o
 2nd building block in a language, the smallest unit
that carries meaning EX’s: I
a bat
or…
-s
= cat
cats
de-
compose
decompose
 may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix
or suffix)
 Grammar: rules in a language that enables us
to communicate w/ & understand others
22
Language
 Semantics
 the set of rules by which we derive meaning from
morphemes, words, & sentences in a given
language
 also, the study of meaning
 Includes connotation…if it has a positive or
negative feel… determined or bull-headed ?
 Syntax
 the rules for combining words into grammatically
sensible sentences in a given language
 apple red…or red apple?
23
Language
 We are all born to recognize speech sounds
from all the world’s languages
 About when do we “switch” to the “home
language”?
Percentage able
to discriminate
Hindi t’s
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Hindispeaking
adults
6-8
months
8-10
months
10-12
months
Infants from English-speaking homes
Englishspeaking
adults
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 Cooing: 1st…2-3 months: “Oooooooo…”
 Babbling Stage: begins about 3 - 4 months
 infant suddenly utters various sounds that are at 1st
unrelated to the household language EX’s?
 Beginning to recognize sounds
 Sounds connected to own culture’s lang. by about 10
mos.
 1-Word Stage: (about age 1  2)
 child speaks mostly in single words EX:’s?
 Inflection can = a sentence EX: “Doggy!”
 2-Word Stg: (about age 2)
 speaks in mostly 2-word statements EX’s?
 kid is “getting” syntax…word order:
EX: Engl. = noun + adj.
But SP? FR?
25
 Telegraphic Speech: Early speech stage in which
the child speaks like a telegram-–“go car”--using
mostly nouns & verbs & omitting “auxiliary” words
 Remember assimilation & accommodation? (Ch. 4)
-------------------------
3 theories RE: way kids devel. Lang.:
Are based on the Heredity vs. Environment
question:
1) Behaviorism/Skinner (learn w/ rewards/punish.)
2) Genetics/Chomsky (it is “hard-wired” in humans)
3) Cognitive/neuroscience (connections, etc…it’s BOTH)
Lev Vygotsky: Kids learn to use words & solve
problems by internalizing their culture’s lang., &
relying on inner speech
26
Language (t-406)
Summary of Language Development
Month
Stage
(approximate)
4
Babbles many speech sounds
10
Babbling reveals households
language.
12
One-word stage.
24
Two-word, telegraphic speech.
24+
Language develops rapidly into
complete sentences.
27
Lang. Development Theories: Nature or nurture?
1) Skinner: It’s Behaviorism! We learn language from
association, imitation, & operant conditioning’s
reinforcement…learn from our environ./experiences!
--little response = slower development
2) Noam Chomsky: It’s genetic! linguist; says there is
some learning, but there is also innate mechanism for
language (“hard-wiring”)
-2 main ideas: wired for “universal grammar” & wired
for grammatical rules
--kids create their own sentences too fast for it to be
just learning…and their own patterns…
EX: Over-generalizing: adding –ed for past tense28
Noam Chomsky’s “hard-wire”
 Said genes
language theories
design the
mechanisms
for a language
(heredity) , &
experience
(environment)
activates
them as it
modifies the
brain
 Are we “hardwired” for
language? Is
it innate? 29
3) Cognitive neuroscientists: Statistical learning: It’s
BOTH! Shoots down Chomsky’s universal grammar, but
supports tendency to follow & form grammatical rules:
See infant’s learning (406)
-those w/o access to language don’t develop left
hemisphere can be limited
Whorf”s hypothesis: Language determines the way we
think…The interplay of thought & language 
EX: Hopi have no past tenses…so thinking in the past is
limited
(p. 409)
 Engl. vs. Japan.? = individualistic vs. collectivist soc.?
 Most now say language shapes or influences how we
think… not determines…
 Lev Vygotsky fits here!! Kids learn to use words &
solve problems by internalizing their culture’s lang., &
relying on inner speech
30
Linguistic
Determinism
(409)
Whorf”s
hypothesis:
Language
affects
thinking
which
affects lang.
which
affects….
31
 New
language
learning gets
harder w/
age
 Teach kids
languages
early for best
results
Language
Percentage
correct on
grammar
test
100
90
80
70
60
50
Native
3-7
8-10 11-15
Age at school
 Best age for
17-39
2nd
language:
3 - 7 yrs.
32
Kids & language… How kids translate it into
what they understand… (Read only)
A Sunday school teacher asked her class, "What was
Jesus' mother's name?“ Tammy answered, "Mary."
The teacher then asked, "Who knows what Jesus'
father's name was.
Anthony said, "Verge."
Confused, the teacher asked, "Where did you get
that?"
Anthony replied, "Well, you know, they are always
talking about Verge n‘ Mary.''
3-year-old Reese: "Our Father, Who does art in
heaven, Harold is His name. Amen."
One particular four-year-old prayed, "And forgive us
our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in
our baskets.“
33
Amen…. 
 Benefits of bi- & multilingual education: some doubt
this, but studies have been done that do show mental
advancement in those who speak more than one
language early on w/o economic influences being a part
(p. 410)
Umpire signals in
baseball came from
the 1st deaf baseball
player in 1892.
It worked so well
it spread to
other sports…
34
Thinking w/o language:
Mental practice (411): athletes, musicians, students
show improvement using mental rehearsal…
Walk yourself mentally thru the steps involved…
…but not just “seeing” themselves get an “A”…
35
Interesting quick video! How to
interpret body language...
Up to 80% of human communication is
thru NON-verbal communication!
http://www.howcast.com/videos/106
08-How-To-Interpret-Body-Language
36
Inspired
problemsolving:
How a Swiss
company
solved the
problem of
“male
spillage” in
apublic
urinals:
Increased
accuracy by
85%!!
37
Clever—even if totally wrong & given no points... 
38
Animal Thinking & Language
(communication)
 Bees tell other
bees where to
Direction of
find nectar
nectar source
sources using a
dance…
 The straight-line
part of the dance
points in the
direction of a
nectar source,
relative to the
sun
39
Animal Thinking & Language
Gestured Communication: Our lang. probably
came from gestures, which apes still use.
Body lang. & other non-verbal messages are a
large part of communication (60-80%?!)
40
Animal Thinking & Language
 Is this
really
language?
 Animals
can use
language &
even a bit
of syntax…
 But NOT to
the extent
humans
can
41
H-O 10,2: Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI):
Are you analytical/rational or intuitive/experiential?
Reverse #’s for 1, 2, & 5 (1=5, 2=4, 3=3, 4=2, 5=1)
then add all (keep actual score for 3 & 4)
Rational Scale: Higher scores=more rational (5 – 25)
Experiential scale: Add actual #’s for 6-10
(5 – 25, higher = more intuitive/experiential)
42
Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not.
What am I?
He has married many women, but has never been
married. Who is he?
How are a jeweler and a jailer alike?
How many bricks does it take to complete a
building made of brick?
How many of each animal did Moses take on the
ark?
How many times can you subtract the
number 5 from 25?
Once. After the first calculation, you will
be subtracting 5 from 20, then 5 from
15, and so on.
How much dirt is in a hole 4 feet deep
and 2 feet wide?
There is no dirt in a hole.
I am used to bat with, yet I never get a
hit. I am near a ball, yet it is never
thrown. What am I?
Eyelashes.
A farmer had seventeen sheep, all but
nine died, how many did he have left?
Nine.
A father's child, a mother's child, yet no
one's son.
A girl or daughter.
A man builds a house with all 4 sides
facing south. A bear walks past the
house. What color is the bear?
White: the house is built directly on the
North Pole.
A man drove all the way from New York
to San Francisco only to discover at the
end of the trip that he had a flat tire from
the very start. Yet his car was completely
unaffected by it?
How is this possible?
Even if they are starving, natives living
in the Arctic will never eat a
penguin's egg. Why not?
Penguins are native to Antarctica.
I have a head like a cat. I have feet like
at cat. But I am not a cat. What am I?
A kitten.
I know a word of letters three,
Add two and fewer there will be.
Few.
If a rooster laid a brown egg and a white
egg, what kind of chicks would hatch?
None. Roosters don't lay eggs!
If an egg came floating down the Green
River, where did it come from?
A chicken.
If there are fifteen crows on a fence and
the farmer shoots a third of them, how
many crows are left?
None. The rest of the crows flew away
43
1. A woman had two sons who were born on the
same hour of the same day of the same year. But
they were not twins. How could this be so?
2. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was
the highest mountain on Earth?
3. Before the days of motor cars, a man rode into
town on his horse. He arrived on Friday, spent
three days in town and left on Friday. How is that
possible?
4. Big as a biscuit, deep as a cup, even a river can't
fill it up. What is it?
5. Can a man legally marry his widow's sister in the
state of California?
6. (Answers next slide, 2nd column)
44
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
A ton
A priest.
The jeweler sells watches and the
jailer watches cells
Only one - the "last" one.
Hint: Who?
Once. After the first calculation, you
will be subtracting 5 from 20, then 5
from 15, and so on.
There is no dirt in a hole.
Eyelashes.
Nine.
A girl or daughter.
It was his spare tire.
White, b/c at North Pole.
Penguins are native to Antarctica.
Few.
None. Roosters don't lay eggs!
A chicken
None. The rest of the crows flew
away when they heard the gunshot.
Nine.
1. They were two of a
set of triplets.
2. Mount Everest.
3. Hint: Can you guess
the horse's name?
4. A kitchen strainer.
5. No, because he's
dead.
45
46
 Confirmation Bias: tendency to search for
information that confirms one’s
preconceptions
47