Chapter 9 psychology text book Thinking and Language Thinking o Concepts Cognition the mental activites associated with thinking knowing remembering and communicating Concepts a mental grouping of similar objects events ideas or people Ex the concept chair includes many iteams high chair recliner chair desk chair concepts simplify our thinking With out them we would need a different name for everything Prototype a mental image or best example of a category Matching new iteams to a prototype provides a quick and esay method for sorting iteams into catagories Ex people more quickly agree that a robin is a bird before agreeing a penguin is a bird because a robin more clearly resembles our bird prototype Categorizing faces influence recollection shown a face that was 70 cacasusion people tend to classify the face as Caucasian o Problem Solving strategies and Obstacles Problem solving stratagies Algorithms a methodical logical rule or procedure that gaurentees solving a particular problem Contrasts with the usally seedier but also more error prone heuristis Some problems we solve through trail and error o Ex Thomas eddison with the light bulb Heuristic a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms Insight a sudden realization of a problems solutuion contrast with strategy based solutions Conformation bias a tendancy to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence Mental set a tendency to approach a problem a sertian way Often a way that has been successful in the past o Forming good and bad Decisions Intuition an effortless immediate automatic feeling or thought as contrasted with explicit conscious reasoning The Availability Heuristiic Availability Heuristic estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory if instances come readily to mind perhaps because of vividness we presume such events are common o Anything that pops in our mind o Can sometimes affect our judgment about people or event Ex if someone from a terrorist group comits a terrorist act as happened on 9 11 or readily available memory of the dramtic event might shape or impression of the whole group We fear the wrong things EX flying because we play in our heads some air disaster We fear letting our children walk to school or play outside because we play tapes or news casts or families whose children were abducted even though its really not the norm Over confidence Over confidence the tendency to be more confident than correct to over estimate the accuracy of our belief and judgements Belif perseverance Belif perseverance clinging to ones initial conceptions after the biais on which they were formed has been discredited The effects of framing Framing the way an issue is posed How an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments Ex one Dr says that 10 of patients die during this surgery another Dr says 90 survive The information is the same but the result is different Why being an organ donor depends on where u live In some countries the defualit option to be an organ donor is yes but after you can decide to opt out In the U S and many eurpoean countries the defalt option is no but you can opt for yes There is nearly an 100 organ donor rate for the opt no countries vs the 25 from for the opt yes Other book exaamples The power of intuition We often think that the more complex an issue or choice is the longer we should spend making a rational thought out decision But psychologists have shown that its is actually better to let are brain do the work on the problem without thinking about it Intuition is usally adaptive o Do other species share our cognitive skills Using concepts and numbers even pigons can sort objects When given a picture of an unseen chair the pigeon was able to press a key that signified chair Displaying insight using tools and transmitting culture other cognitive skills Language Language Language our spoken written or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning o Language structure Phonemes the smallest distinctive sound in a language Morphemes in a language the smalles unit that carries meaning it may be part of a word Ex a prefix Grammer in a language the system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others In a given language semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds and syntax is the set of rules for combining words into grammatically correct sentences o Language development o The brain Language o Do Other Species have Language Thinking and Language o Language influences Thinking o Thinking in Images