CH9- THINKING AND LANGUAGECognition- mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, communicatingConcepts- mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or peoplePrototype- mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories- Comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird like a robin- Our prototype for cats is a furry animal but with a hairless cat we hesitate to believe that it’s a cat because it doesn’t fit our prototype.Algorithms- step-by-step, methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error prone – use of heuristics- Ex: finding a word using the 10 letters in SPLOYOCHYG by trying each letter in each of the 10 positions – 907,200 permutations.Heuristics- mental shortcuts that enable snap judgments. simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently: usually speedier but also more error-prone.- Reducing the number of options in the SPLOYOCHYG by grouping letters that often appear together (CH and GY) excluding rare letter combos (like two Y’s together)Insight- sudden realization of a problem’s solution, contrasts with strategy-based solutions.Confirmation bias- tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore/distort contradictory evidenceMental set- tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.- Predisposes how we thinkIntuition- effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted withexplicit conscious reasoning.Availability heuristic- estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of theirvividness), we presume such events are common. - Ex: casino’s displaying how much people ‘win’ by using bells and lightsfor even small wins, but keeping the losing draws silent with no publicdisplay of lights. Makes us believe that there is a great chance of winning because the lights and signs are ‘common’- Ex: fearing extremely RARE events because of the thoughts that come to mind. Fear letting our children walk to school because we play in our heads tapes of abducted and brutalized children. We fear swimming in ocean waters because we replay Jaws.- *the vividness of a recent local cold day makes us reduce concern about long-term global warming because there is a lack of comparablyavailable images of global warming.Overconfidence- tendency to be more confident than correct – to over estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.->can have an adaptive value. People who err on the side of overconfidence live more happily. They make tough decisions more easily, and seem more credible than others. The wisdom to know when we know a thing and when we don’t comes with experience. Belief Perseverance- clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited. Fuels social conflict. The more we come to appreciate why our beliefs might be true, the more TIGHTLY we CLING to them. We tend to ignore evidence UNDERMINING our belief.Framing- the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.- “10% of people die during this surgery” vs “90% will survive this surgery”. Same information, different effect. Risk seems greater when patients hear that 10% will die.- *those who understand the power of framing can use it to influence our decisions. o How to help save the planet: “carbon tax” may be the most effectiveway to curb greenhouse gases but many people oppose new taxes. BUT people are more supportive of “funding energy development” or carbon capture with “carbon offset fee”The perils and powers of intuition-Perils of intuition- when we overfeel and underthink (as we do when judging risks), intuition can be dangerous. feeds fears and prejudices, persist even when people are offered extra pay for thinking smart, even when they’re asked to justify their answers, even when they are expert physicians or cliniciansPowers:- Intuition is huge: by taking time to sleep on it, we let our unconscious mental machinery work on, and await, the intuitive result of our unconscious processing- Intuition is usually adaptive- our instant, intuitive reactions enable us to react quickly. Our learned associations surface as gut feelings, the intuitions of our two-track mind.o If a stranger looks like someone who previously harmed/threatened us, we may – without consciously recalling the earlier experience – react warily. Automatic, unconscious associations can predict their future decisions before they consciously make up their minds.ex: political positions- Intuition is recognition born of experience- what we’ve learned but can’t fully explain – like riding a bike. ‘we just know’.o Ex: “blitz chess” every move is made after barely more than a glance. They can look at a board and intuitively know the right move: developed a special skill (nurses, art critics, car mechanics, etc)Do other species share our cognitive skills?- Using concepts and numbers- even pigeons can sort objects (pictures of cars, cats, chairs, flowers) into categories or concepts. Apes also form concepts such as “cat” and “dog”: after monkeys learn these concepts, certain frontal lobe neurons in their brains fire in response to new “catlike” images, others to new “doglike” images- Displaying insight- Psychologist Wolfgang Kohler: we are not the only creatures to display insight.o Placed a piece of fruit and long stick outside the cage of a chimp (Sultan) beyond his reach. Inside the cage, there was a short stick which Sultan grabbed and tried to reach the fruit. After failed attempts, he dropped the stick and surveyed the situation -> insight: jumped and took the short stick and pulled the longer stick to him, and used the long stick to get the fruit. Apes will exhibit foresight by storing a tool they can use to retrieve food the next day- Using tools and Transmitting culture- many other specifies invent behaviors and transmit cultural patterns.o Chimps- select different tools for different purposes – heavy stick for making holes, light stick for fishing for termites, etc.o Some chimps slurp termites directly from a stick, another group