Language and Thought

1. Language and Thought

2. The Cognitive Revolution • 19th Century focus on the mind • Introspection • Behaviorist focus on overt responses • arguments regarding incomplete picture of human functioning • Empirical study of cognition – 1956 conference • Simon and Newell – problem solving • Chomsky – new model of language • Miller – memory (7 + or – 2) • Cognition Today • interdisciplinary field • language, problem solving, decision-making, and reasoning

3. (Spiral) Language NotesCORNELL NOTES: HOW DO PEOPLE MENTALLY STRUCTURE AND DEVELOP LANGUAGE? Use pgs. 384-393 to complete this assignment. Key Points • Properties of language • Structure of language • Chomsky’s innate language acquisition device • Statistical Learning and Critical Periods • Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis • The Brain and Language • Notes Summary:

4. FACTORS IN LEARNING LANGUAGE: The How • You will be given one of 3 numbers. • Guiding Question: How do humans learn language? • Construct a 10 sentence curriculum for your section, and construct three questions that will lead a learner to important highlights in your section. • Teach your section verbally using your curriculum and your questions to your group mates as they take notes. All sections lie between pgs. 384-393 in Myers. • Person 1: Skinner and Chomsky, • Person 2: Statistical Learning and Critical Periods, • Person 3: The Brain and Language

5. Language: Turning Thoughts into Words • What is language? Language is defined as consisting of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages. • Properties of Language • Symbolic: people use spoken sounds and written words to represent objects, actions, events, and ideas • Semantic: overall meaning of words, word parts and sentences.language is meaningful • Generative: a limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite number of ways to generate novel messages. • Structured: there are rules that govern arrangement of words into phrases and sentences.

6. The Hierarchical Structure of Language • Phonemes = smallest speech/sound units • 869 possible, English – about 40 • Morphemes = smallest unit of meaning • 50,000 in English, root words, prefixes, suffixes • Semantics = meaning of words and word combinations • Objects and actions to which words refer • Syntax = a system of rules for arranging words into sentences • Different rules for different languages

7. Animal Language

8. (Spiral) BASICS IN PROBLEM SOLVING (Myers Module 31, Weiten pgs. 314-322, and the Internet) • I. Types of Problems • A. Problems of inducing structure • B. Problems of arrangement • C. Problems of transformation • II. Barriers to Effective Problem Solving • A. Irrelevant Information • B. Functional Fixedness • C. Mental Set • D. Unnecessary Constraints • E. Confirmation Bias • III. Approaches to Problem Solving • A. Prototypes • B. Algorithms and Heuristics (representativeness and availability) • C. Forming Subgoals • D. Working Backward • E. Searching for Analogies • F. Changing the Representation of the Problem • G. Insight • H. Convergent vs Divergent Thinking Instructions: You will be assigned either I./II. OR III. For each term on your list, you will write a description/definition AND a brief example.

9. I. Types of Problems • A. Problems of inducing structure require people to discover the relations among numbers, words, symbols, or ideas. Series completion and analogy problems. EX. “Pineapple is to fruit as cabbage is to ___.” In this analogy problem, the answer, “vegetable,” requires people to figure out the relationship between “pineapple” and “fruit” and apply a similar relationship to “cabbage.” • B. Problems of arrangement require people to arrange the parts of a problem in a way that satisfies some criterion. EX. A puzzle, fixing a broken car, or debugging a computer program, the candle problem • C. Problems of transformation require people to carry out a sequence of transformations (or make changes) in order to reach a specific goals. EX. A man has to take his fox, his chicken, and his tub of grain across a river in a boat. The boat will hold only him and two of his possessions at any one time. He can’t leave the fox and the chicken on the riverbank by themselves because the fox will eat the chicken, and he can’t leave the chicken with the grain because the chicken will eat the grain. He also can’t take the fox and the chicken in the boat together because the fox will eat the chicken when he’s occupied with rowing the boat. The same goes for the chicken and the grain. How will he get all three across? First he takes the fox and the grain across. He leaves the fox on the opposite bank and takes the grain back with him. He then leaves the grain on the bank and takes the chicken across. He leaves the chicken on the opposite bank and takes the fox back with him to retrieve the grain. • EX. See The Simpsons “Gone, Maggie, Gone”

10. II. Barriers to Effective Problem Solving • A. Irrelevant Information distracts from pertinent information and leads people astray. • B. Functional Fixedness is the tendency to perceive a problem only in terms of its normal solution. • C. Mental Set exists when people persist in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past. • D. Unnecessary Constraints are constraints that people assume yet don’t really exist. • E. Confirmation Bias causes you to ignore evidence that goes against what you already think and pay attention to evidence that supports what you already think

11. III. Approaches to Problem Solving • A. Prototypes are mental images or best examples that incorporate all the features we associate with a category • B. Algorithms is a methodical way of solving a problem that involves exhausting all possibilities and Heuristics are guiding principles or “rules of thumb” used in problem solving and decision making. • C. Forming Subgoalshelps you to organize problem solving into small steps. • D. Working Backward is useful in working on problems that have well-specified end points or goals. We must then work backwards to find the solution process. • E. Searching for Analogies is a heuristic that allows us to use problems that have already been solved to solve the problem at hand. • F. Changing the Representation of the Problem is heuristic used to facilitate the reasoning process by visually organizing the information involved in different schemas. • G. Insight is a sudden realization of what the answer is. Intuition is an effortless, sudden, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning. Often follows incorrect attempts based primarily on trial and error.

12. Convergent Vs Divergent Thinking

13. Culture and Style • A. Some cultures encourage a field-dependent cognitive style, whereas others foster more filed independence. People who are field independent tend to analyze and restructure problems more than those who are filed dependent. • B. Research suggests that Eastern cultures exhibit a more holistic, cognitive style, whereas Western cultures display a more analytic cognitive style.

14. Additional Information on Problem Solving

15. Decision Making:Evaluating Alternatives and Making Choices • Simon (1957) • - theory of bounded rationality: human decision making strategies are simplistic and often yield irrational results. • Making Choices • Additive strategies: add up qualities you like • When to use: • decisions involve relatively few options that need to be evaluated on only a few attributes • Elimination by aspects: subtract qualities you don’t like • When to use: • More options and factors are added to a decision making task

16. Table 8-3, p. 319

17. Decision Making:Evaluating Alternatives and Making Choices • Risky decision making • Expected value: what you stand to gain or lose. • EX. Playing dice. For each roll, I have a 1/6 chance in winning and a 5/6 change in loosing. When people engage in activities that violate expected value: • Subjective utility: represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual • EX. insurance and sense of security. • Subjective probability: involves personal estimates of probabilities…often quite inaccurate. • EX. “I’m going to win the lottery!”

18. Two Major Heuristics: • Read Myers pgs. 374-376. You will learn about two major heuristics, or shortcuts to problem solving. Name each one, describe it, and give an example of it.

19. Heuristics in Judging Probabilities • The availability heuristic: basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant, personal instances come to mind. • EX. Estimate divorce rate by recalling number of divorces among your friends’ parents. • The representativeness heuristic: basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event. • EX. You flip a coin 6 times. Which of the following sequences is more likely? • T TTTTT • H T T H T H • They’re equally likely! (.5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5 x .5)=1/64 • Why do we think that #2 is more likely?

20. Heuristics in Judging Probabilities:Representativeness • The tendency to ignore base rates • EX. Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariabley helpful, but with little interest in people or the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure and a passion for detail. Do you think Steve is a salesperson or a librarian? • Most people guess that Steve is a librarian because he looks like a librarian, even though you know that salespeople greatly outnumber librarians in the population. We ignored base rates! • The conjunction fallacy: occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone. Related to the representativeness heuristic. • EX. You’re going to meet a man who is an articulate, ambitious, power-hungry wheeler-dealer. Is the man a college professor or a college professor who is also a politician? • Most people guess that the college professor is also a politician, because the description fits the prototype of politicians. But think! College Professor + Politician: Narrower Category College Professor: Broader Category

21. Figure 8.18 The conjunction fallacy

22. (Spiral) Heuristics and Pitfalls Activity: • Using Myers pgs. 376-382, read about the overconfidence effect, the belief perseverance phenomenon, and framing and make basic notes. You may break this up in your group as you wish. A member of your group will find a real-life story for each of these heuristics/pitfalls, and rehearse it in narrative manner. You will be assigned another group. Members of your group will then present to the other group. After each story, they will have to identify the proper heuristic/pitfall.

23. “The human mind suppresses uncertainty. We’re not only convinced that we know more about our politics, our businesses, and our spouses than we really do, but also that what we don’t know must be unimportant.” -Daniel Kahnman Here’s some more info on decision making pitfalls . . .

24. The gambler’s fallacy Laura is in a casino watching people play roulette. The 38 slots in the roulette wheel include 18 black numbers, 18 red numbers, and 2 green numbers. Hence, on any one spin, the probability of red or black is slightly less than 50-50 (.474 to be exact). Although Laura hasn’t been betting, she has been following the pattern of results in the game very carefully. The ball has landed in red seven times in a row. Black hasn’t won for awhile. Which color might Laura bet on if she joins the game? The Law of Small Numbers Envision a small urn filled with a mixture of red and green beads. You know that two-thirds of the beads are one color and one-third are the other color However, you don’t know whether red or green predominates. A blindfolded person reaches into the urn and comes up with 3 red bead and 1 green bead. These beads are put back in the urn and a second person scoops up 14 red beads and 10 green beads. Both samplings suggest that red beads outnumber green beads in the urn. But which sample provides better evidence?

25. Overestimating the improbable Various causes of death are paired up below. In each pairing, which is the more likely cause of death? - Asthma or tornadoes? - Accidental falls or gun accidents? - Tuberculosis or floods? - Suicide or murder? Confirmation bias and belief perseverance Imagine a young physician examining a sick patient. The patient is complaining of a high fever and a sore throat. The physician must decide on a diagnosis from among a myriad possible diseases. The physician thinks that it may be the flu. She asks the patient if he feels “achey all over.” The answer is “yes.” The physician concludes that the patient has the flu. What is wrong with the doctor’s questioning?

26. The overconfidence effect Make high and low estimates of the total U.S. Defense Department budget in the year 2000. Choose estimates far enough apart to be 98% confident that the actual figure lies between them. In other words, you should feel that there is only a 2% chance that the correct figure is lower than your low estimate or higher than your high estimate. Write your estimates in the spaces provided, before reading further. High estimate: ______________________ Low estimate: ______________________ Overconfidence Effect - inappropriately high confidence in one’s own answers, opinions or beliefs. These overestimations could be driven by a strong desire to succeed or could just be a consequence of the general optimism produced by cognitive bias. Examples of overconfidence bias include a famous 1983 study in which 93% of drivers reported that they believed they were among the upper 50% of driving skill. (Pohl, 2006)

27. Framing Imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of a dangerous disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Which would you choose between A and B? -Program A: 200 people will be saved. -Program B: There is a one-third probability that all 600 people will be saved and a two-thirds probability that no people will be saved. Which would you choose between C and D? - Program C: 400 people will die. - Program D: There is a one-third probability that nobody will die and a two –thirds probability that all 600 people will die.

28. Heuristics in Judging Probabilities: Framing • The alternative outcomes effect: occurs when peoples’ belief about whether an outcome will occur changes, depending on how alternative outcomes are distributed, even though the summed probability of the alternative outcomes is held constant. • EX. Read “Even Objective Probabilities Are Subjective” on pgs. 327-328. Constant=probability of a focal outcome. EX. Probability of drawing the cookie you want from a jar. Perceived change=distribution of probabilities for alternative outcomes. EX. 1 out of 4 chances for drawing out the cookie you want vs. 2 out of 8 chances for drawing out the cookie you want. Result: The distribution of alternative outcomes influences the perceived likelihood of the focal outcome

29. (Spiral) Famous Studies for Cognition • Study 15: “Maps in Your Mind” by Tolman • Directions: After reading the above study, identify and write down each of the following for the two experiments • Hypothesis • Dependent and Independent Variables • Experimental Design • Results • Implications

30. Exp. #1: “Once . . . They knew they were to get food, they demonstrated that during the preceding non-reward trials, they had learned where many of the blinds were. They had been building up a ‘map’ and could utilize [it] as soon as they were motivated to do so.” • Exp. #2: “The rats had, it would seem, acquired not merely a strip-map to the effect that the original specifically trained-on path led to food, but rather a wider, comprehensive map to the effect that food was located in such and such a direction in the room.”

31. #1 • Hypothesis: Rats will show no sign of having learned the maze (cognitive process), but objective measurements will show that they are learning it nonetheless. • Dependent and Independent Variables: time taken to learn maze; reward • Experimental Design: • N: No reward • D: Delayed reward • C: Food reward • Results • N: Learned maze in 3 days (once reward was given) • D: Learned maze in 3 days (once reward was given) • C: Learned in 2 weeks • So, even though rats in N and D seemed to just be wandering through maze, the fact that motivation caused them to learn the maze so quickly proves that they had been making non-measurable mental maps all along. • Implications • We learn and make cognitive connections even without knowing it. When properly motivated, this cognitive learning becomes measurable. • #2 • Hypothesis: Rats trained in the maze actually know the location in space of the food reward relative to their starting position even if the elements of the maze are radically changed/removed. • Dependent and Independent Variables: # of trials, maze patterns and blocks • Experimental Design: • Have rats learn a maze to perfection, change the maze and blocks, and see which path they choose the most often. • Results: • Path closest to food, despite that paths and blocks had all changed since initial learning, was chosen the most by rats. This shows that the rats had formed a wider, comprehensive view of where the food was instead of just a step-by-step, procedural view. • Implications: People can figure out where they are through the maps in their mind of a beginning and an endpoint, even if the path to get from point to point changes. We are capable of mentally imaging where we are in space.

32. Additive vs Elimination: • Using pgs. 323-325 and your notes, create one situation in which you would use the additive method and one in which you would use the elimination method of decision making. Be sure to include what kinds of things you would weigh before making the decision, and which decision you end up making. You will write two paragraphs total. • PARTIAL EXAMPLE: I go to a used car lot. I’m excited! I’m going to buy my first car! There are so many options! I walk past row after row of cars and scan prices as I go. . . .

33. Evolutionary Analyses: Flaws in Decision Making and Fast and Frugal Heuristics • Cosmides and Tooby (1996) • Unrealistic standard of rationality: traditional decision research has imposed an unrealistic standard in that questions are asked in ways that have nothing to do with the adaptive problems that humans have evolved to solve. • Decision making evolved to handle real-world adaptive problems: finding food, shelter, and mates and dealing with allies and enemies. • Problem solving research based on contrived, artificial problems

34. Evolutionary Analyses: Flaws in Decision Making and Fast and Frugal Heuristics • Gigerenzer (2000) • Humans Conserve Resources:Humans do not have the time, resources, or capacities to gather all information, consider all alternatives, calculate all probabilities and risks, and then make the statistically optimal decision. • Quick and dirty heuristics:Less than perfect but adaptive. We use the fast and frugal route, making quick, one-reason decisions which yield inferences that are often just as accurate as much more elaborate and time-consuming strategies. Example: The Recognition Heuristic: If one of two alternatives is recognized and the other is not, infer that the recognized alternative has the higher value. - Which city has more inhabitants? - San Diego or San Antonio? - Munich or Berlin?