Unit 7B: Cognition
Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity and Language
Cognition
 In the previous unit, we learned how we receive, perceive, store and retrieve information.
This unit will talk about how we use all that information with our cognitive system.
 Thinking, or cognition  (the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering,
and communicating) is how we do it.
 A cognitive psychologist would study that logical and sometimes illogical ways in which we create
concepts, solve problems, make decisions and form judgments.
 In order to make sense of our world, we like to mentally group similar objects, events and people.
These are called concepts  a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
 Life without concepts would be very difficult. We would need a different name for every single
object or idea. Ex. We could not ask our friend to ‘throw a ball’ because there would be no concept
of what the ball is, or even throw.
Organizing Concepts
 We tend to organize our concepts into hierarchies. Start with the most broad and work
your way down. For example, cab drivers will organize a city into geographical sectors
(N/E/S/W), then neighborhoods, then streets.
 Can you think of something you organize by using a hierarchy?
Organizing Concepts
 Prototypes  a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick
and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such
as a robin).
 One of the ways that we decide whether or not something belongs in a conceptual category is to match it
to the best example of that concept according to the majority of people. The best example is called a
prototype. The closer the new object, person, or idea is to the prototype; the easier it is to categorize it.
 Category
Prototype
 Tree
Maple
Bonsai
 Bird
Robin
Penguin
 Furniture
Chair
Footstool

Mode of transportation
Car
Not a prototype
Unicycle
Prototype of Birds
Prototype Test!
Write down the first example that comes to mind for
each of the following categories.
1. a bird
2. a color
3. a motor vehicle
4. a hero
5. a board game
6. a philosopher
A bird.
A color.
A. Robin
B. Sparrow
C. Eagle
D. Something else
A. Red
B. Blue
C. Something else
A motor vehicle.
A. Car
B. Truck
C. Something else
A hero.
A. Superman
B. Batman
C. Fireman
D. Someone else
A board game.
A philosopher.
A. Monopoly
B. Clue
C. Trouble
D. Something else
A. Socrates
B. Aristotle
C. Someone else
Face Recognition for Prototypes
 Classify the following faces as either Asian or Caucasian
 If we move away from prototypes, it can
cause category boundaries to blur. Is a
tomato a fruit? Is a 17 year old female a
girl or a woman? Is a whale a fish or a
mammal?
 When concepts fail to fit a prototype, it
takes us longer to classify them. Ex. Whale
is a mammal.
Image
 The other type of thought is an image.
These are the mental pictures that we
create in our minds of the outside world.
Images can be visual (snow falling),
auditory (the sound of the snow plows),
tactile (the feel of soft, fluffy snow),
olfactory (the smell of car exhaust on a
cold day), or gustatory (what the cup of
hot chocolate would taste like).
Remember those senses from Module 2?
Solving Problems
 One attribute to our rationality is our problem solving skills in coping with novel situations.
How am I going to get through this traffic jam? How am I going to get into my house
without keys?
 Think of a novel situation you have been in. How did you react? How did some of the
people around you react?
 For some problems we use trial and error. This is when we try every possible solution. This
method can be very time-consuming and sometimes we may not solve the problem. It is
not a very effective or efficient way to learn.
More Problem Solving Strategies
 Algorithms  a methodical, logical rule or procedure that
guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the
usually speedier – but also more error-prone – use of
heuristics.
 For some problems we use algorithms. This is a logical
rule or procedure that guarantees a solution to the
problem. These rules or procedure often involve
formulas. Examples of algorithms include using the
formula length times width to find the area of a
rectangle; systematically checking every drawer in your
bedroom for your favorite blue sweatshirt; checking
through all the tunes on you MP3 Player until you find the
one you are searching for. Crazy, super smart math
people use algorithms….Like I said.. Crazy.
 Can be laborous and exasperating to figure out.
 For example, how many words can you spell from the
letters SPLOYOCHYG? Using an algorithm you would
have to try each letter in each position…. 907,200
combinations!
More Problem Solving Strategies
 Heuristics  a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems
efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms.
 For some problems we use heuristics. This is a rule-of-thumb that allows us to reach a
solution more efficiently and quickly. It does not guarantee a right solution though.
 Sometimes we make a judgment based on examples of similar situations that come to
mind. Other times we judge a situation based on how similar it is to the prototype that we
have in our mind.
 Heuristics are short cuts. When they work, they save us time and energy. Lets go back to
our examples. A heuristic would be to check the drawers that have only sweatshirts in
them to find the favorite blue one; and to search on the MP3 player for the name of the
recording artist to find the song that you are looking for.
 For example, how many words can you spell from the letters SPLOYOCHYG? Using
heuristics you could reduce rare letter combinations, such as 2 Ys together. Then with trail
and error, you would probably find the answer.
 Insight  a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with
strategy-based solutions.
 For other problems we use insight. This is when a solution just pops into your head.
 Even though we have all these different ways of solving problems, we also have obstacles
that prevent us from coming up with the best solutions. These obstacles prevent us from
looking at alternatives, in other words they give us tunnel vision.
 It’s the ‘Aha!’ insight.
 Can you figure out what word goes with the following 3 words? – 1) Pine 2)Sauce 3)Crab
 The longer you think about it, the farther you will get from and insight answer.
Example
 You are searching for hot chocolate mix in an unfamiliar grocery store.
 How would you search for it using an algorithm?
 How would you search for it using heuristics?
 How would you search for it using insight?
Problem Solving in Genus Corvus
Solving Problems Using Creativity

Creativity  the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.
Sternberg’s five components
Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills
A venturesome personality
Intrinsic motivation
A creative environment
 Expertise is a well developed base of knowledge, which furnishes the ideas, images, and
phrases we use as mental building blocks.
 Imaginative thinking skills provide the ability to see things in novel ways , to recognize
patterns, and to make connections.
 A venturesome personality seeks new experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and
perseveres in overcoming obstacles.
 Intrinsic motivation is being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenge than by
external pressures.
 A creative environment supports and refines creative ideas.
Problem Solving Obstacles
 Problem solving research identifies some common mistakes or obstacles that people make
while trying to solve problems.
 Confirmation Bias  a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to
ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
 Confirmation bias is our tendency to notice information that supports what we believe and
ignore information that doesn't’t support what we believe. We all want to be right, so we search
for evidence for our ideas more eagerly than for evidence against our ideas. The problem with
this is that we may miss important information in finding the right solution. Fixation is when we
approach a problem the same way every time. This can be time efficient but sometimes it
prevents us from seeing the problem from a new perspective.
 ‘Ordinary people evade facts, become inconsistent, or systematically defend themselves
against the threat of new information, relevant to the issue.’
 The US government launched it’s war on Iraq on the assumption that Saddam Hussein
possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed and immediate threat. When that
assumption turned out to be false, confirmation bias was one of the flaws in the judgement
process as identified by the US Senate Committee. – Administration had ‘a tendency to accept
information that supported their presumptions… more readily than information that
contradicted. ‘
Confirmation Bias – Example – See
instructions – Mrs. Connor!
Imagine that you serve on the jury of an only-child sole custody case
following a relatively messy divorce. The facts of the case are
complicated by ambiguous economic, social, and emotional
considerations, and you decide to base your decision entirely on the
following few observations.
To which parent would you award sole custody of the child?
A.Parent A, who has an average income, average health, average
working hours, a reasonable rapport with the child, and a relatively
stable social life,
or
B. Parent B, who has an above-average income, minor health
problems, lots of work-related travel, a very close relationship with the
child, and an extremely active social
life.
Imagine that you serve on the jury of an only-child sole custody case
following a relatively messy divorce. The facts of the case are
complicated by ambiguous economic, social, and emotional
considerations, and you decide to base your decision entirely on the
following few observations.
To which parent would you deny sole custody of the child?
A.Parent A, who has an average income, average health, average
working hours, a reasonable rapport with the child, and a relatively
stable social life,
or
B. Parent B, who has an above-average income, minor health
problems, lots of work-related travel, a very close relationship with the
child, and an extremely active social
life.
 Fixation  the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental
set.
 Seeing a problem with ‘a fresh set of eyes’.
 The two types of fixation are:
 1) Mental Set  a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has
been successful in the past.
 What has worked for us previously?
 Ex. What are the next 3 letters? O-T-T-F-F- ___ - ___ -___
 Ex. What are the next 3 letters? J-F-M-A-M ___-___-___.
 Which is easier to solve, the first or second?
Using the 6 matches, make an equilateral
triangle.
 2) Functional Fixedness  the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an
impediment to problem solving.
 We have a hard time imagining alternative uses beyond the functional.
 Tear apart your house looking for a screwdriver, when a coin may have worked just as easily.
Using the materials, mount the candle to
a bulletin board.
Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
Using and Misusing Heuristics
 Two Types:
 1) Representative Heuristics  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 information.
 The representative heuristic is a form of stereotyping. We judge people according to the
likelihood that they fit our representation of groups to which we feel they should belong.
 Ex. A stranger tells you about a person who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry. They then ask
you to guess whether this person is more likely to be a professor of classics at an Ivy League
school or a truck driver. Which would be the better guess?
 You representative heuristics would allow you to make a snap judgment But it also can allow
you to ignore other relevant information.
 To judge the likelihood of something, we intuitively compare it with our mental representation of
that category – of say, what truck drivers are like. If the two match, the fact usually overrides
other considerations of statistics or logic.
 2) Availability Heuristics  estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in
memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such
events are common.
 Anything that allows information to pop into mind quickly and with little effort – how recent it is, it’s
vividness, or distinctiveness – can increase it’s perceived availability, making it seem
commonplace.
 Casinos entice us to gamble by signaling even small wins with lights and bells ,while keeping any
sort of loss silent.
Availability Heuristic
Death, Population, and Crime Estimates
Which is a more common cause of death
in the U.S.?
1.
2.
3.
4.
A. all accidents or B. strokes?
A. suicide or B. blood poisoning?
A. homicide or B. diabetes?
A. motor vehicle (car, truck, bus)
accident or B. colorectal cancer?
5. A. drowning or B. leukemia?
How certain are you of your answer?
A. 50% = totally a 50/50 guess
B. 51% - 65%
C. 66% - 85%
D. 86% - 99%
E. 100 % = absolutely certain
Which country has the largest
population?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
A. Saudia Arabia or B. Morocco?
A. Australia or B. Myanmar?
A. South Africa or B. Vietnam?
A. Libya or B. Sri Lanka?
A. Iraq or B. Tanzania?
How certain are you of your answer?
A. 50% = totally a 50/50 guess
B. 51% - 65%
C. 66% - 85%
D. 86% - 99%
E. 100 % = absolutely certain
Which city has the highest crime rate?
1. A. Chicago, IL or B. Kansas City,
MO?
2. A. Las Vegas, NV or B. Stockton,
CA?
3. A. Miami, FL or B. Phoenix, AZ?
4. A. Honolulu, HI or B. Raleigh, NC?
5. A. New York, NY or B. Aurora, CA?
How certain are you of your answer?
A. 50% = totally a 50/50 guess
B. 51% - 65%
C. 66% - 85%
D. 86% - 99%
E. 100 % = absolutely certain
Answers
Which is a more common cause of death in the U.S.?
(Deaths are reported per 100,000.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
All accidents (37.7) vs. strokes (51.1)
Suicide (10.9) vs. blood poisoning (11.2)
Homicide (5.9) vs. diabetes (24.5)
Motor vehicle accidents (15.3) vs. colorectal cancer (17.8)
Drowning (1.3) vs. leukemia (7.1)
Which country has the largest population?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Saudi Arabia (28 million) vs. Morocco (34 million)
Australia (21 million) vs. Myanmar (47 million)
South Africa (48 million) vs. Vietnam (86 million)
Libya (6 million) vs. Sri Lanka (20 million)
Iraq (28 million) vs. Tanzania (38 million)
Which city has the highest crime rate?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Chicago (15.6) vs. Kansas City (26.1)
Las Vegas (11.3) vs. Stockton (14.6)
Miami (13.9) vs. Phoenix (15.0)
Honolulu (1.7) vs. Raleigh (6.0)
New York (6.6) vs. Aurora (9.5)
Availability Heuristic
How many firearms deaths were there in the U.S. in 2006?
(Write down your estimate.)
Population of the U.S. in 2006: Approximately 300 million
What percentage were:
Homicides
______ %
Suicides
______ %
Accidents
______ %
TOTAL
100 %
In the U.S., between 1997 and 2002, “2335 children… died in alcohol-related
[automobile] crashes.”
What percentage were riding in the same vehicle with the drinking/drunk
driver?
(“Child” is defined as ≤14 years of age; “alcohol-related” is defined as blood alcohol content of >0.01
g/dL.)
With the charge of felony, in what percentage of the cases is
the plea of insanity entered?
The Answers
How many firearms deaths were there in the U.S. in 2006?
What percentage were:
Homicides
Suicides
______
4
%
1
______
55 %
C. 60,001 - 80,000
Accidents
4 %
______
D. 40,001 - 60,000
TOTAL
A. > 100,000
B. 80,001 - 100,000
E. < 40,000
30,896
What percentage
were homicides?
What percentage
were suicides?
What percentage
were accidents?
A. > 79%
A. > 79%
A. > 79%
B. 60% - 79%
B. 60% - 79%
B. 60% - 79%
C. 40% - 59%
C. 40% - 59%
C. 40% - 59%
D. 20% - 39%
D. 20% - 39%
D. 20% - 39%
E. < 20%
E. < 20%
E. < 20%
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf
100 %
In the U.S., between 1997 and 2002, “2335 children… died in alcohol-related
[automobile] crashes.”
What percentage were riding in the same vehicle with the drinking/drunk
driver?
(“Child” is defined as ≤14 years of age; “alcohol-related” is defined as blood alcohol content of >0.01
g/dL.)
How many were riding in
the same vehicle as the
drunk driver?
The majority were unrestrained.
A. > 79%
The median BAC was .13 g/dL.
B. 60% - 79%68% -- 1,588
C. 40% - 59%
D. 20% - 39%
E. < 20%
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5304a2.htm
With the charge of felony, in what percentage of the cases is
the plea of insanity entered?
25% of the pleas are
successful.
How often?
A. > 79%
B. 60% - 79%
C. 40% - 59%
D. 20% - 39%
E. < 20%
In less than 1% of the
cases.
Source: Raulin, M.L. (2003). Abnormal Psychology
15% of these are
released, with most
being for “minor
offenses that would
not have resulted in
prison time anyway.”
Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
Overconfidence
 Overconfidence  the tendency to be more confident
that correct – to over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs
and judgments.
 We overestimate what our performance was, is, or will
be.
 Have you ever been overconfident that a paper or
assignment will take you less time than you think? On
average, it takes twice the amount of time to do
something than you originally think.
 We always believe we will have more free time next
weekend, next month, etc.
 Overconfidence does have adaptive value – people
who are overconfident tend to be more positive, live
more happily, find it easier to make tough decisions,
than people with less confidence.
Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon
 Belief Perspective  clinging to one’s
initial conceptions after the basis on which
they are formed has been discredited.
 Consider the opposite.
Thinking

Belief Bias
 the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical
reasoning
 sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid or valid
conclusions seem invalid

Belief Perseverance
 clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they
were formed has been discredited
 Belief perseverance is our tendency to stick with our initial idea
even when we get evidence that proves us wrong. This is why
first impressions are so important. Once they are established they
are likely to continue for a long period of time.
Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
The Perils and Powers of Intuition
 Intuition  an effortless, immediate, automatic
feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit,
conscious reasoning.
 Unconscious intuition – Ex. Chess players can
‘read a board’.
 Pretty much anything you are good at, you can
use intuition to assess a situation in an eye
blink.
 Chick sexing – when acquired expertise
becomes an automatic habit, as it is for
experienced chick sexers, it feels like
intuition. At a glance, they just know. They
rely on procedural memory to perform their
jobs. Procedural memory is often implicit,
meaning people have a difficult time
explaining how they perform a skill.
Making Decisions and Forming Judgments
The Effects of Framing
 Framing  the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions
and judgments.
 Example: What is the best way to market ground beef--as 25% fat or 75% lean?
 Framing experiments:
 Preferred portion size in restaurants – 2 scenarios – 1) A restaurant offers a regular and an
alternative ‘small’ sized option, people will pick the regular option more often. 2) If the
restaurant makes the small size the default option and labels the larger option as
‘supersized’, more people will choose the smaller option.
 Organ donors – In most countries, when renewing your drivers license, the default option is
yes for organ donation. Very few opt out. In NA, the default option is no and only 1 in 4 opt
in.
 Retirement savings – People are enrolled automatically into retirement options when they
get a job, and have to opt out. Most just stay in the program, even though it is a lesser
take home pay.
Language
 Language  our spoken, written, or signed
words and the ways we combine them to
communicate meaning.
 Our language is what sets humans apart
from other species.
 Language allows us not only to
communicate but to transmit a whole
civilizations accumulated knowledge
across generations.
 Phonemes  in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
 English about 40 phonemes
 Learning another language’s phonemes
 Building Blocks of Language
 To build a house you need materials and the knowledge of the rules of what to do with
those materials. The same thing applies to language. There are the materials and then
the rules of how to put it all together.
 The materials of the building blocks are the phonemes and the morphemes.
 Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that are used in a language. In English there are
about 44 phonemes. Examples of phonemes are “b”, “m”, “a”, and “th”.
 Sounds alone do not make a language.
 Morpheme  in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a
word (such as a prefix).
 Includes prefixes and suffixes.
 40 or so phonemes can combine to form over 100,000 morphemes to form over 616, 500
words.
 Grammar  in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and
understand others
 Syntax  the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given
language. Ex. Adjectives before nouns – White house not house white.
 Semantics  the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and
sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning. Ex. Adding ‘ed’ to the end of a word
implies it happened in the past – laugh to laughed.
Language Development
When Do We Learn Language? Or Language
Learning Milestones
 Receptive Language is the ability to comprehend speech.
 Develops from simplicity to complexity.
 Infants start without language (infantis means not speaking).
 Slowly learn mouth movements associated with different sounds.
 From 0-4 months.
Productive Language
 Move into the Productive Language stage after 4 months.
 This is the ability to pronounce words.
 Follows in 3 stages:
 1) Babbling Stage  beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the
infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.
 Babbling sounds the same in any language.
 Simply constant and vowel pairs.
 By 10 months, babbling sounds like the language of the household.
 Japanese language example on pg. 315-316
 2) One-Word Stage  the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child
speaks mostly in single words.
 Around 12 months can now associate a word with a picture.
 Use one syllable words to communicate meaning. (Ma or Da)
 Ex. Doggy! = Look at the dog over there!
 3) Two-Word Stage  beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child
speaks mostly two-word statements.
 Go from learning a word a week to a word a day.
 Use Telegraphic Speech  early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” –
using mostly nouns and verbs. Ex. Want Juice
 Syntax is now in play and order of words is evident. Ex. Big Doggy, not Doggy Big.
Language Development in Infants and
Toddlers
Language Development
When Do We Learn Language?
Language Acquisition
 The learning of language is called language acquisition. Two psychologists have different
theories on how language is acquired or learned. They are B.F. Skinner and Noam
Chomsky.
Language Development
Explaining Language Development
Skinner: Operant Learning
Learning principles
Association
Imitation
Reinforcement
Skinner’s theory
According to Skinner language is learned like everything
else; through association (by linking certain sounds with
certain people and objects), imitation (by doing what we
see others doing) and reinforcement (by getting or not
getting hugs, praise and so on). Remember those
concepts from the lesson on operant conditioning and
learning by observation. Skinner’s theory helps to explain
why we speak the language that we learn at home.
Gleason’s Wug Test
Language Development
Explaining Language Development
Chomsky: Inborn Universal
Grammar
Language acquisition device
Universal grammar
Chomsky’s theory
According to Chomsky we are prewired
with the capability to learn language. He
believes that the brain is like a language
acquisition device and that there is a
critical period or an optimal time for
language to be developed. Chomsky
theory helps to explain why children can
master the complexity of learning a
language, or many languages at an early
age.
Chomsky’s Language Development
Language Development
Explaining Language Development
Statistical Learning and Critical Periods
Statistical learning – ability to understand the break
in syllables and where different words end.
Critical (sensitive) period – can only be mastered
easily in the infant stage. Learning a language later
on in life is much more difficult.
Language Influences Thinking
 Thinking and Language Together
 If language influences the way that we
think, does it influence what we are able to
think about? The psychologist Benjamin
Whorf believes that the language that we
use controls, and in some ways limits our
thinking. His theory is called the linguistic
relativity hypothesis.
 Linguistic Determinism  Whorf’s hypothesis
that language determines the way we think.
 Gestures – the out sign – baseball sign
language
 Bilingual advantage - bilingual children
have increased word power. Those who
learn to inhibit one language while using the
other are also better able to inhibit their
attention to irrelevant information.
Thinking in Images
 Sometimes we think without using language. We make a mental image instead. Using
mental images has been shown to increase performance. How it works is that after you
learn a skill, you practice the skill by imagining yourself doing the skill. The research
suggests that this will increase performance. It can be applied to piano playing, playing
golf, studying; the list is endless.
 Imagining a physical activity triggers action in the same brain areas that are triggered
when actually performing that activity. FMRI’s show a person imagining the experience of
pain, which activates some of the same areas in the brain as the actual experience of
pain.
 Ex. Mentally rehearsing a physically taxing activity – ex. Distance running, weight lifting.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTFnEoVDIQY 45 min mark
Hope Theory
 Goals are important for having hope, but a goal alone is not enough. One must have
pathways for reaching those goals and beliefs about your capabilities in achieving those
goals.
Animal thinking and language
 It appears that animals display remarkable capacities
for thinking.
 For example:
 Apes and monkeys can learn concepts. Once the
concept has been learned, using MRIs, neuron activity
can be measured when the animal encounters similar
concepts.
 Chimpanzees use insight when solving the problem of
how to get to some bananas that are suspended with
only a stick available to use to get them.
 Pigeons can sort objects into similar items.
Animals and language
 It appears that animals can also use and
understand language.
 For example:
 Monkeys use different alarm cries depending on
the type of predator.
 Dogs can be asked to retrieve certain items by
name.
 Chimpanzees can make signs or push button in
sequence to get a reward.
 Pigeons can peck a sequence of keys to get food.
Animal Thinking and
Language
Direction of
nectar source

The straight-line part of the
dance points in the
direction of a nectar source,
relative to the sun
Animal Thinking and
Language
 Gestured Communication
Animal Thinking and
Language

Is this really language?
 But are these examples of thinking and language?
 This controversy has divided the scientific community.
Many scientists have made serious attempts at rearing
apes in language-rich environments, but the results
have not overwhelmingly demonstrated that apes
can use language as human beings use it.
 What are the criteria that are used to determine a true
capacity for language?
 Is the language symbolic: Can it be used to represent
absent objects?
 Does the language have syntax, or word order?
 Can the language be used in a creative or productive
manner?
 What do you think?
Teaching Language to Chimps
Can Chimpanzees Plan Ahead