Chapters 10 and 11
Thinking, Language, and
Intelligence
Thinking
 Cognition
 mental activities associated with thinking, knowing,
remembering, and communicating
 Cognitive Psychologists
 study these mental activities
 concept formation
 problem solving
 decision making
 judgment formation
Thinking
 Concept
 mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas,
or people
 Prototype
 mental image or 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)
Which one is the prototype?
Thinking
 Algorithm
 Step by step procedures that guarantee a
solution
 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
 simple thinking strategy that often
allows us to make judgments and solve
problems efficiently
 usually speedier than algorithms
 more error-prone than algorithms
Thinking
Unscramble
SPLOYOCHYG
 Algorithm
 all 907,208 combinations
 Heuristic
 throw out all YY combinations
 other heuristics?
Heuristic searching To search for
hot cocoa mix, you could search
every supermarket aisle (an
algorithm), or you could check the
breakfast, beverage, and baking
supplies sections (heuristics). The
heuristics approach is often
speedier, but an algorithmic search
guarantees you will find it
eventually.
Thinking
 Insight
 sudden and often novel
realization of the
solution to a problem
 contrasts with strategybased solutions
 Creativity
 the ability to produce
novel and valuable
ideas
The Aha!
moment A burst
of right temporal
lobe activity
accompanies
insight solutions
to word problems
five components of creativity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills
A venturesome personality
Intrinsic Motivation
A creative environment
What Hinders our 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
The Matchstick Problem
 How would you
arrange six matches
to form four
equilateral triangles?
The Three-Jugs Problem
 Using jugs A,
B, and C, with
the capacities
shown, how
would you
measure out
the volumes
indicated?
The Candle-Mounting Problem
 Using these
materials, how
would you
mount the
candle on a
bulletin board?
Example of Fixation
 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
Example of Fixation
 Functional Fixedness
 tendency to think of things only
in terms of their usual functions
 impediment to problem solving
The Matchstick Problem
 Solution to the
matchstick
problem
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.
The Candle-Mounting Problem
 Solving this
problem requires
recognizing that
a box need not
always serve as a
container
Heuristics (Mental Shortcuts)
 Representativeness Heuristic
 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 judgments
 How can overconfidence lead to
cramming?
Thinking
 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 and Options
• Preferred portion size depends on framing
– SuperSize Me?
• Why choosing to be an organ donor depends
on where you live.
– Automatic?
• How to help employees decide to save for their
retirement.
– Opt-In or Opt-Out
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
Intuition
• Intuition- an effortless, immediate, automatic
feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit,
conscious reasoning
• Faced with complex decisions involving many
factors, the best advice may indeed be to take
our time—to "sleep on it"—and to await the
intuitive result of our unconscious processing.
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
 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
 Language
 our spoken, written, or gestured works and the way
we combine them to communicate meaning
 Phoneme
 in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound
unit
 Bat= phonemes b, a and t
 869 exist, but English only uses about 40
 Changes in phonemes produces changes in meaning
 Ie bat, bet, beet, beat, bit, etc.
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 or suffix)
 Grammar
 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
 also, the study of meaning
 Ie add –ed to a verb and it is past tense
 Syntax
 the rules for combining words into
grammatically sensible sentences in a given
language
 Ie adjectives come before nouns
Language
 We learn about 3500 words per year
 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
How Do We Learn Language?
• Skinner and Operant Learning: Through
association, imitation, and reinforcement once
the vocal musculature becomes able to learn
• Chomsky: Language is an acquisition device
than can be turned on and off; there is a
universal grammar that exists
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 in 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-world, telegraphic speech.
24+
Language develops rapidly into
complete sentences.
Language
 Genes design
the
mechanisms
for a
language, and
experience
activates
them as it
modifies the
brain
Language
Percentage
correct on
grammar
test
100
 New language
learning gets
harder with age
90
80
70
60
50
Native 3-7
8-10 11-15 17-39
Age at school
Young children have a readiness to learn language. Ten years
after coming to the United States, Asian immigrants took a
grammar test. Although there is no sharply defined critical period
for second language learning, those who arrived before age 8
understood American English grammar as well as native
speakers did. Those who arrived later did not
Language Limits
• When a young brain does not learn any language,
its language-learning capacity never fully
develops.
• Childhood seems to represent a critical (or
"sensitive") period for mastering certain aspects
of language
– Deaf children who gain hearing with cochlear implants
by age 2 develop better oral speech than do those
who receive implants after age 4
– Natively deaf children who learn sign language after
age 9 never learn it as well as those who become deaf
at age 9 after learning English.
Language
 The interplay
of thought
and language
Does language influence our
thinking?
Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity
• The idea that
language
determines the way
we think (not vive
versa).
•The Hopi tribe has
no past tense in their
language, so Whorf
says they rarely think
of the past.
Do people that speak more than one
language think differently depending
on their language at that time?
Thinking without Language
• We can think in words.
• But more often we think in mental
pictures.
In 1977, Reggie
Jackson hit 3 HR’s
against the
Dodgers. He has
stated that before
each at bat, he
visualizes crushing
a home run. Do you
think visualization
helps?
Do Animals think?
Kohler’s Chimpanzees
• Kohler
exhibited that
Chimps can
problem solve.
Honeybees seem to communicate
Apes and Signing