Tripken
Cognition and Language
Name:
MIND-READING MONKEYS
Brain Regions
1. Describe the premotor cortex of the brain, including its location and function.
Mirror Neurons
2. Define mirror neurons and their function.
3. What purpose or purposes could mirror neurons serve in human behavior and language development?
4. What is the theorized role of mirror neurons in relation to empathy?
DUELING BRAINS
Understanding the Right Visual Field Advantage
5. Briefly explain what happens when a word is presented to the right visual field……….and then explain
what happens when it is presented to the left.
6. Describe several "personal" heuristics you have used when deciding whether or not to (a) study for a test
and (b) accept (or ask someone for) a date. Provide an example in each case where your heuristic did not
lead to the best or correct decision
7. Describe how the confirmation bias and fixation (or mental set) can interfere with effective problem
solving. Provide an example in each case.
8. After returning from a shopping trip with his mother, little Tommy said to his dad, "I goed to the store and
eated candy". Why might a behaviorist like B. F. Skinner have some difficulty explaining Tommy’s
incorrect grammatical construction? What do Tommy's errors suggest about the process of language
acquisition?
9. Describe Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis with respect to the relationship between thought and
language. Give an example based on your experiences with foreign language classes at school.
TERMS
14.Confirmation bias.
27.Morpheme
1. Mirror Neurons
15.Fixation
28.Grammar
2. Cognition
16.Mental set
29.Semantics
3. Cognitive Psychologists
17.Functional Fixedness
30.Syntax
4. Concepts
18.Representativeness
31.Noam Chomsky
5. Categories
6. Hierarchies
7. Definitions
Heuristic
19.Representativeness
Heuristic
32.Language Development:
stages
33.Skinner & Operant
8. prototypes
20.Availability Heuristic
9. Artificial Intelligence
21.Overconfidence
34.Benjamin Whorf
22.Framing
35.Linguistic Relativity
(AI)
Conditioning
10.Algorithms
23.Belief Bias
Hypothesis/ Linguistic
11.Heuristics
24.Belief Perseverance
Determination
12.cognitive biases
25.Language
13.insight
26.Phoneme
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
Name:
First day Notes Chapter 10
TRUE or FALSE
1. We notice evidence that contradicts our beliefs more readily than
evidence that is consistent with them.
2. The letter “k” appears more often as the third letter of an English word
than as the first letter.
3. In general, people underestimate how much they really know.
4. It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to
create them in the first place.
5. The babbling of an infant at 3 months of age makes it clear whether the
infant is French, Korean, or Ethiopian.
6. If not exposed to a language, a group of children will make up their own.
7. People who lack our words for shapes and colors also seem to perceive
these features very differently.
8. Only human beings seem capable of insight (the sudden realization of a
problem’s solution).
9. Honeybees do a dance to communicate the direction and distance of a new
food source to other bees.
10. Apes are capable of communicating meaning by using symbols.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
F (p. 399)
T (p. 402)
F (p. 403)
F (p. 407)
F (p. 412)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
T (p. 414)
T (p. 419)
F (p. 423)
T (p. 425)
T (p. 426)
http://www.flixster.com/movie/nell-videos
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
COGNITION and LANGUAGE
Name:
Define cognition.
Cognition refers to the mental activities associated with:
Thinking
Knowing
Remembering
and communicating.
Cognitive psychologists study these activities including the logical and
illogical ways we solve problems and make decisions.
Thinking
Thinking or cognition refers to a process that
involves knowing, understanding,
remembering and communicating.
6
Describe the nature of concepts and the role of prototypes in concept
formation
Cognitive psychologists study cognition –
which is the mental activity associated with processing,
understanding, and communicating knowledge.
Cognitive Psychologists
Thinking involve a number of mental activities
listed below, and cognitive psychologists study
them with great detail.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Concepts
Problem solving
Decision making
Judgment formation
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3
Tripken
Cognition and Language
COGNITION(THINKING) =
Name:
CONCEPTS+PROBLEM SOLVING+
DECISION MAKING+JUDGMENT FORMATION
Concepts: To think about the countless events, objects, and people in our
world, we organize them into mental groupings called concepts.
Ψ Concept = a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or
people.
To simplify things further, we organize concepts into hierarchies.
We then take the concepts and organize them into …
mental hierarchies of groupings by clustering them into categories based on their
similarities, and then subdividing those categories into increasingly smaller and more
detailed units.
** Let’s use CANDY as an example
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
Name:
Although we form some concepts by definition—for example, a triangle has
three sides—more often we form a concept by developing a prototype, a mental
image or best example of a particular category.
Which is the prototype for dessert?????
For VACATION ?>?
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
Name:
Prototype: a mental image or BEST example of a category (e.g.,
a prototypical "bird" may be a robin, color / red, car / Mustang).
The more closely objects match our prototype of a
Ψ
concept, the more readily we recognize them as examples of a
concept.
Move away from our prototypes and we get FUZZY:
Is a mule a horse?
A boar a pig
Truck a car?
Is gum candy?
So, to review,
COGNITION(THINKING) =
CONCEPTS+PROBLEM SOLVING+
DECISION MAKING+JUDGMENT FORMATION
And cognition is organized into hirerarchies and prototypes…….
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
Are computers smart?
Name:
Artificial Intelligence (AI): the science of designing and programming computer
systems to do intelligent things and to simulate human thought processes, such
as intuitive reasoning, learning, and understanding language.
Problem Solving: 4 methods
1.Trial and Error
2.Algorithm
3.Heuristics
4.Insight
We approach some problems through trial and error, attempting various
solutions until stumbling upon one that works.
Ψ
Thomas Edison did this with finding the right filament.
For other problems we may follow a methodical rule or step-by-step
procedure called an algorithm
OR
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
Heuristics which we discuss momentarily.
Name:
There are TWO ways to solve a problem:
1. Algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular
problem.
Ψ
IE: In mathematics and computing, an algorithm is a procedure (a finite set of
well-defined instructions) for accomplishing some task which, given an initial state, will
terminate in a defined end-state.
Ψ
THINK OF A RECIPE.
Ψ
Many algorithms are much
more complex; algorithms often
have steps that repeat or
require decisions….like directions to put together a grill,
a bike or reconstruct an engine motor!!!
Ψ
Because algorithms can be laborious, we often rely instead on simple
strategies called heuristics.
Speedier than algorithms, heuristics are also more error-prone.
Ψ Heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments
and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than
algorithms.
Ψ A heuristic is a strategy that can be applied to a variety of problems and that
usually – but not always – yields a correct solution. People often use heuristics
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Tripken
Cognition and Language
Name:
(or shortcuts) that reduce complex problem solving to more simple judgmental
operations.
A heuristic is a particular technique of directing one's attention in learning,
discovery, or problem-solving.
In psychology, heuristics are:
Ψ Simple
Ψ efficient rules of thumb hard-coded by evolutionary processes which have
been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments and
solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete
information.
……and sometimes the answer just comes to us and this is called insight!!!!!!!!!!!
Insight
Sometimes, however, we are unaware of using any problem-solving strategy; the
answer just comes to us—as an insight.
Insight: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it
contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
Ψ
AHA Moment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Tripken
Ψ
Ψ
Cognition and Language
Solution pops into brain
Name:
Psychologists have mapped the AHA Moment in the brain, MRI or
EEG, and found neural; activity in the right temporal lobe,
just above the ear
Insight is the Power of:
Ψ
acute observation
Ψ
deduction
Ψ
penetration
Ψ
discernment
Ψ
perception;
Ψ
introspection
Jokes require insight:
William James:
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A
sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
In 5 minutes……..
SUMMARY - Compare algorithms and heuristics as problem-solving strategies,
and explain how insight differs from both of them.
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