CHAPTER 9: COGNITION AND LANGUAGE  LECTURE NOTES- Cognitiono _Thinking, gaining knowledge, and dealing with knowledge- Cognitive Psychologyo Studies how they get knowledge, how they imagine, and how they solve problems Language _acquisition__ and organization It is not as easy as asking someone what they are thinking.- Sometime people make mistakes with what they think or experience_____________________________________- Sometimes people don’t know what they think or experience____________- Mental Imageryo Shepard and Metzler Studies how _people solve problems_ They hypothesized _that the time it takes people to rotate mental images is the same as if they were rotating a real image The further it has to be rotated, the longer it would take to do- Categorizationo The easiest way we categorize is by using yes/no___o Some argue that categories are best defined by familiar or typical examples Prototypes: typical example- Some things do not have prototypes: - Conceptual Networks and Primingo We naturally organize information into hierarchies. Animal – Bird –Sparrow  Measured by the delay in responding to certain_____- Spreading Activation: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________- Cross-cultural studies of concepts- Words do not translate exactly _____________- Arranged pictures of objects into groups of similar items: similar categories, but different names- People speaking different languages do not think very differently- Attention Limitso Change blindness The frequent failure to detect changes in parts of a scene_- If changes occur suddenly, we ____________________________, but if the change is slow or when you are not watching, then ______________________________________________________ Change deafness- the frequent failure to detect changes in speaking The point is that we remember the gist of things, but not many details- Attentional Blinko During a brief time after perceiving one stimulus, it is difficult to _attend to something else- Expertise- Practice makes nearly perfect: 10 years of concentrated practice= expertise_- Experts are made, not born - Extremely impressive only in their area of specialization________Problem Solving Understand problem_________ Generate one or more hypotheses Test the hypotheses___ Check resultsAlgorithms test out every possible hypothesisHeuristics Strategies for simplifying a problem or for guiding an investigation__- Errors in Human Cognitiono Overconfidence: believe one’s opinion or predictions are highly correct wheni n fact they are noto Confirmation Bias We accept something _and THEN look for evidence to support it, rather than looking for another explanation_o Functional Fixedness Tendency to adhere to a single approach or a single way of using an item- Languageo Many species have language, yet none have ______________________________ The ability to _express new ideas The ability to generate sentences that no one else has ever said before- Transformational Grammaro A system for converting a deep structure into a surface structureo Deep Structure ___________________________________________________________o Surface structure ___________________________________________________________- Non-Human Precursors to Languageo Vocal chords _o Chimps are trained to use language using symbols- These are mostly used to _________________________________,and are not strung together in sentences- Language in Non-Humanso Chimpanzees Vocal cords are poorly adapted to making voice sounds___ Learned sign language Washoe, 100_ wordso Bonobos Specie of chimps that has been very good at learning language Can use symbols to _name objects, no request. Describe past events. Creative request. 2-2.5 year old child _______________ Their abilities are approximately at the level of a 2-2.5 year old child- Interestingly, learning by observing humans is the fastest way for chimps to learn language- Language in Humanso Language is not synonymous with overall intelligence, you do not need one for the other- Language Acquisition Deviceo _A built in mechanism for acquiring language  It is still unclear if we are born with concepts and primitive grammar, or if we are just born with the ability to learn them- Language and the Braino 2 brain areas are responsible for language Broca’s area- Broca’s aphasiao Inarticulate speech and difficulty with both using and understanding grammatical devices Wernicke’s area- Wernicke’s aphasiao Difficulty recalling the names of objetc and impaired comprehensiono Speech is often nonsensical- Language Developmento By age 3 months, most infants can use random voaclizations_ One of the first is “muh”o By 1.5 years, most infants know about_50_ words but can’t link words togethero By 2, most children can make short phrases that are grammatically inaccurate “allgone outside”o By 3, children can generate full sentences Not very good yet at forming negative sentenceso By 4, speech is competence- Exposure to no language or multiple oneso Deaf children exposed to no language at all will invent their own sign language As they grow older, the system becomes more complex If no one responds to the language, they eventually abandon it and becomelanguage-lesso Critical time to learn is before 12- Bilingualismo Able to use two language about equally well Brain activity is identical to that of people who know 1 language Gains include increased cognitive flexibilityIntelligence: Internal capacity that accounts for individual differences in mental test