Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(8th Ed)
Chapter 10
Thinking v. Intuition
and Language
“ A bat and ball cost$1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?”
“A man bought a horse for $60 and sold it for $70. Then he
bought the same horse back for $80 and again sold it for $90.
How much money did he make in the horse business?”
10, 4, 3, 11, 15, …?
100204180
YYURYYUBICURYY4ME
Question:
“All members of the cabinet
are thieves.” No composer
is a member of the cabinet.
What logical conclusion
can you draw?
Answer
Some thieves are not
composers or said another
way, there are thieves who
are not composers…
Tower of Hanoi
In only 7 moves, move the tower from
the left peg to the right peg, moving only
1 disk at a time and never putting a larger
disk on a smaller one… Good Luck!
Thinking
Cognition
mental activity associated with processing,
understanding, and communicating information
Cognitive Psychology
the study of these mental activities
concept formation
problem solving
decision making
judgement formation
study of both logical and illogical thinking
Thinking
Concept
mental grouping of similar objects, events, or
people
Hierarchies example- the address
• country, state, city, zip code, street, house or apt. #
Prototype
the best example of a category
matching new items to the prototype provides a
quick and easy method for including items in a
category (as when comparing feathered creatures
to a prototypical bird, such as a robin.)
Thinking
Algorithm
methodical, logical rule or procedure
that guarantees solving a particular
problem
contrasts with the usually speedier –
but also more error-prone use of
heuristics
Thinking
Heuristic
rule-of-thumb strategy that often
allows us to make judgements and
solve problems efficiently
usually speedier than algorithms
more error-prone than algorithms
sometimes we’re unaware of using
heuristics
Thinking
Unscramble
SPLOYOCHYG
Algorithm
all 907,208 combinations
Heuristic
throw out all YY combinations
other heuristics?
Thinking
Your brother has suffered from
chronic depression for several years.
Unfortunately, you have been
incorrectly informed by your parents
that there is a 40% chance you will
also suffer from depression. How can
your thinking lead you to believe
they’re right? Remember, TDA!
Thinking
Insight
sudden and often novel realization of the solution to
a problem
contrasts with strategy-based solutions
OBSTACLES TO PROBLEM SOLVING:
Confirmation Bias
tendency to search for information that confirms
one’s preconceptions
Fixation
inability to see a problem from a new perspective
impediment to problem solving
Thinking- Insight
Wolfgang Kohler’s experiment on insight by a
chimpanzee
The Matchstick
Problem
How would you
arrange six
matches to form
four equilateral
triangles?
The Matchstick
Problem
Solution to the
matchstick
problem
The Three-Jugs Problem
Using jugs A, B, and C with the capacities shown,
how would you measure out the volumes
indicated?
The Three-Jugs Problem
Given jugs of these sizes:
Problem
C
Measure out
this much water:
A
B
1
21
127
3
100
2
14
46
5
22
3
18
43
10
5
4
7
42
6
23
5
20
57
4
29
6
23
49
3
20
7
15
39
3
18
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.
Thinking
Mental Set
tendency to approach a problem
in a particular way
especially a way that has been
successful in the past but may or
may not be helpful in solving a new
problem
Thinking
Functional Fixedness
tendency to think of things
only in terms of their usual
functions
impediment to problem
solving
The Candle-Mounting
Problem
Using these
materials, how
would you
mount the
candle on a
bulletin board?
The Candle-Mounting
Problem
Solving this
problem
requires
recognizing that
a box need not
always serve as
a container
Heuristics
Representativeness Heuristic
rule of thumb for judging the
likelihood of things in terms of how
well they seem to represent, or
match, particular prototypes
may lead one to ignore other
relevant information
Heuristics
Availability Heuristic
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
Example: airplane crash
Thinking
Overconfidence
tendency to be more confident than
correct
tendency to overestimate the
accuracy of one’s beliefs and
judgements
Thinking
Framing
the way an issue is posed
how an issue is framed can
significantly affect decisions and
judgements
Example: What is the best way to
market ground beef- As 25% fat
or 75% lean?
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
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
designing and programming
computer systems
to do intelligent things
to simulate human thought processes
• intuitive reasoning
• learning
• understanding language
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
includes practical applications
chess playing
industrial robots
expert systems
efforts to model human thinking
inspired by our current understanding
of how the brain works
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Neural Networks
computer circuits that mimic the
brain’s interconnected neural cells
performing tasks
learning to recognize visual patterns
learning to recognize smells
Language, “The jewel in the
crown of cognition.”
Language
our spoken, written, or gestured
works and the way we combine them
to communicate meaning
Phoneme- Building block 1
in a spoken language, the smallest
distinctive sound unit, bat- b,a,t
Language
Morpheme- Building block 2
in a language, the smallest unit that carries
meaning
may be a word or a part of a word (such
as a prefix)
Grammar- Building block 3
a system of rules in a language that
enables us to communicate with and
understand others
Language
Semantics
the set of rules by which we derive meaning
from morphemes, words, and sentences in a
given language, ed= past
also, the study of meaning
Syntax
the rules for combining words into
grammatically sensible sentences in a given
language, adjective before noun- white house
Language
 We are all born to recognize speech sounds from all the
world’s languages
Percentage able 100
to discriminate
90
Hindi t’s
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
Language
Babbling Stage
beginning at 3 to 4 months
the stage of speech development in which
the infant spontaneously utters various
sounds at first unrelated to the household
language
One-Word Stage
from about age 1 to 2
the stage in speech development during
which a child speaks mostly in single words
Language
Two-Word Stage
beginning about age 2
the stage in speech development during
which a child speaks mostly two-word
statements
Telegraphic Speech
early speech stage in which the child
speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using
mostly nouns and verbs and omitting
“auxiliary” words
Language
Summary of Language Development
Month
(approximate)
Stage
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.
Language
Genes design the mechanisms for
a language, and experience fills
them as it modifies the brain
Language
Environment
spoken language
heard
provides
input to
Genes
Brain
design
Mechanisms for
understanding and
producing language
Behavior
Mastery of
native
language
Language
Percentage
correct on
grammar
test
New language
learning gets
harder with
age
100
90
80
70
60
50
Native 3-7
8-10 11-15 17-39
Age at school
Language
Linguistic
Determinism/ Relativity
Whorf”s hypothesis that
language determines the way
we think
Language
Direction of
nectar source
The straight-line
part of the dance
points in the
direction of a
nectar source,
relative to the
sun
•Describe the nature of concepts and the role of prototypes in
concept formation.
•Discuss how we use trial and error, algorithms, heuristics, and
insight to solve problems.
•Describe how the confirmation bias and fixation can interfere
with effective problem solving.
•Explain how the representative and availability heuristics
influence our judgments.
•Describe the effects that overconfidence and framing can have
on our judgments and decisions.
•Discuss how our beliefs distort logical reasoning, and describe
the belief perseverance phenomenon.
•Describe artificial intelligence, and contrast the human mind
and the computer as information processors.
•Describe the effects that overconfidence and framing can
have on our judgments and decisions.
•Discuss how our beliefs distort logical reasoning, and describe
the belief perseverance phenomenon.
•Describe artificial intelligence, and contrast the human mind
and the computer as information processors.
•Describe the structure of language in terms of sound in
terms of sounds, meanings, and grammar.
•Trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling
stage through the two-word stage.
•Explain how the nature-nurture debate is illustrated in
theories of language development.
•Discuss Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis and the
relationship between thought and language.
•Describe the research on animal cognition and
communication, and discuss the controversy over whether
animals can use language.