Thinking About Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior
Module 27: Thinking and Language
Objectives:
1. Explain how concepts are formed.
2. Identify categories of problem-solving strategies and obstacles to solving problems.
3. Define the building blocks of language.
4. Discuss evidence for competing psychological theories of language acquisition.
Vocabulary:
 cognitive abilities
 concept
 prototype
 algorithm
 heuristic
 insight
 mental set
 fixation
 functional fixedness
 confirmation bias
 availability heuristic
 overconfidence
 framing
 language
 phoneme
 morpheme
 grammar
 Daniel Kahneman (1934--)
 Noam Chomsky (1928--)
 B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Cognitive Abilities
•All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing and remembering
A. Thinking
Concept
•Mental grouping based on shared similarity
•Categorizing items in one’s environment
Prototype
•Typical best example incorporating the major features of a concept
•The closer a new object is to our concept prototype the easier it is to categorize it
Concept Hierarchy
•A means to keep mental information organized from basic concepts to specific ones
Algorithms
•Problem-solving strategy that guarantees the solution to the problem
•Not always the most efficient method
Heuristics
•A rule-of-thumb problem solving strategy that makes a solution more likely and efficient but does not guarantee a
solution
•These can be handy shortcuts, or they can get us into trouble
Insight
•Sudden realization of the solution to a problem
•“Aha” experience
Mental Set
•Tendency to approach a problem in a particular way
•The set may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem
Fixation
•Mental set that hinders the solution of a problem
•One needs to think beyond the mental set to solve the new problem
Functional Fixedness
•Tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
Confirmation Bias
•Tendency to focus on information that supports preconceptions
Availability Heuristic
•Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
•Can be correct or incorrect
Overconfidence
•When confidence is greater than accuracy
Framing
•How an issue is worded or presented
•Can influence decisions and judgments
B. Language
•Our spoken, written, or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaningfully
Phoneme
•In the spoken language, the smallest distinctive unit of sound
•English has about 40 phonemes.
•A young baby produces all the phonemes of all the languages of the world.
Morpheme
•In language, the smallest unit that carries meaning
•May be a word or part of a word
•English has about 100,000 morphemes.
Grammar
•System of rules governing how we can combine phonemes, morphemes and words to produce meaningful
communication
Noam Chomsky (1928-
)
•Linguist who argues that children have a predisposition to learn language
•A person’s brain is hard wired to learn vocabulary and the rules of grammar
B.F. Skinner and Language
•Skinner believed language was the result of learning through:
–Association : linking certain sounds with certain people
–Imitation
–Reinforcement or punishments
Language Predisposition
•Play “Language Predisposition” (3:44) Segment #24 from The Mind: Psychology Teaching Modules (2
Language Acquisition Stages
•Three-step process:
–Babbling
–One-Word Stage
–Two-Word Stage
Babbling
•Babies spontaneously babble phonemes.
•Will babble all the phonemes of the world
•Will begin to babble only the phonemes of the child’s native tongue at about 1 year of age
One-Word Stage
•Child uses one word to convey a complete thought or idea
Two-Word Stage
•Two word sentences showing an appreciation of the rules of grammar
Overgeneralization
•Child will generalize grammar rules so they apply the rules too broadly.
•Example: “I dugged in the sandbox” rather than “I dug in the sandbox”
nd
edition).