Thinking Concepts Forming concepts a mental grouping of similar objects events ideas or people i e different types of chairs We form concepts by developing prototypes mental image or best example of a category i e traditional table chair Concepts speed and guide our thinking but don t often make us wise Problem Solving strategies and obstacles trial and error algorithms heuristics insight lobe insight strikes suddenly not slowly certain brain activity associated with sudden flashes of insight before the Aha moment frontal lobes were active and then a burst of activity in the right frontal availability heuristics estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in their memory i e even small gambling wins produce flashing lights and we more actively seek out evidence verifying than refuting our ideas confirmation bias tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence fixation inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective intuition an effortless immediate automatic feeling or thought The availability heuristic heuristics enable snap judgements heuristics could lead smartest ppl into dumbest decisions sounds we come to fear extremely rare events can work in opposite direction too less fear about global climate change because of the recent chilly day Overconfidence frequently more confidence than correct overconfidence tendency to be more confident than correct and to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements school projects normally take about twice the amount of time predicted People who generally are more overconfident live more happily belief perseverance clinging to one s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were fired has been discredited Belief Perseverance often fuels social conflict remedy consider the opposite the more we appreciate why our beliefs might be true the more tightly we cling to them The effects of framing framing the way we represent an issue example condom is 95 effective vs failing 5 of the time can be very persuasive The perils and power of intuition intuition fuels gut fears and prejudices sleeping on it by distracting your brain and letting it sort out decisions by itself is actually beneficial Other species sharing out cognitive skills Alex the African Grey Parrot even pigeons can sort objects into categories or concepts while apes can differentiate between cats and dogs Apes display insight using short stick to grab a longer stick which will help them reach fruit Apes use different things in different ways and different tools up to 39 local customs related to tool use chimps ways of cultural diversity A baboon knows everyone s voices within a 80 baboon troop Sheep recognize and recall individual faces many species like apes elephants and dolphins show self awareness in mirrors Language when we speak our brain and voice conjure up air pressure waves that we send banging against another s eardrum language our spoken written or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning Even while reading a book infer from author s mind into mine With language we all know much more about things we have will never encounter or experience Language structure Phonemes the smallest distinctive sound unit chat has 3 ch a t English language has about 40 Consonant phonemes carry more info than vowel phonemes Morphemes the smallest unit that carries meaning could be a word or part of a word I a bat pre etc grammar system of rules that enables us to communicate with one another guide us in deriving meaning in sounds semantics and in ordering words into sentences syntax 40ish phonemes more than 100 000 morphemes produce about 616 500 words Language development you use about 150 words in half your language between 1 18 years old you learn about 60 000 words which averages about 10 per day Schoolteachers only taught you about 200 words a year compared to the 3500 words you learned each year in general natural language about 3 words a second Receptive Language by 4 months of age babies can differentiate sounds and read lips receptive language the ability to understand what is said to and about them 7 months they are able to segment sounds into individual words Adeptness of the task above at 7 months predicts language proficiency between ages of 2 5 Productive language productive language ability to produce words language babbling is not an imitation of adult speech recognition of noun verb displacement happens before we are able to speak sentences with nouns and verbs babbling stage at about 4 months the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household by about 10 month babbling changes so that an outside person can differentiate which is the household language Without exposure to other languages babies lose their abilities to hear and produce sounds from other languages besides their native one one word stage from about 1 2 years children speak in single words by about 18 months babies language goes from about a word a week to a word a day telegraphic speech child speaks with mostly verbs and nouns go car Statistical learning Not born with a built in language Whatever language we learn we start speaking in nouns infants able to distinguish between syllables and words Babies have built in readiness to learn grammar Critical periods childhood has a critical period of language before which the window closes The later you learn a new language the harder and longer it is to master it Exposure to language by 2 3 years old is ideal By age 7 those who have not been exposed to a spoken or signed language generally lose their abilities to master any language The deaf that learn sign language after age 9 without prior english language knowledge do not do as well Without the ability of a specific sense all other available senses are heightened The brain and language aphasia impairment of language usually caused by left hemispheric damage some can speak but not read or sing but not speak Different brain regions are for different language functions Jokes that play on meaning are processes in a different brain area than those that are played on words In processing language the brain operates by dividing its mental functions into sub functions Do other species have language without doubt animals show impressive comprehension and communication Monkeys sound different alarms for different threats and
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