Psychology Exam Chapter Seven Cognition Concepts and Prototypes Simply put cognition is thinking and it encompasses the processes associated with perception knowledge problem solving judgment language and memory Cognitive psychology is the field of psychology dedicated to examining how people think It attempts to explain how and why we think the way we do by studying the interactions among human thinking emotion creativity language and problem solving in addition to other cognitive processes Concepts are categories or groupings of linguistic information images ideas or memories such as life experiences Concepts are informed by our semantic memory You absorb a large quantity of information by listening to and participating in discussions examining maps and reading first hand accounts of people s lives Piaget s stages of development are abstract concepts A prototype is the best example or representation of a concept Civil disobedience Rosa Parks Natural and Artificial Concepts Natural concepts are created naturally through your experiences and can be developed from either direct or indirect experiences If you live in a snowy region snow is a natural concept because you can construct an understanding of it through direct observations or experiences of snow An artificial concept on the other hand is a concept that is defined by a specific set of characteristics Mathematical formulas like the equation for area length width are artificial concepts defined by specific sets of characteristics that are always the same Artificial concepts can enhance the understanding of a topic by building on one another According to Goldstone and Kersten 2003 concepts act as building blocks and can be connected in countless combinations to create complex thoughts Area is equal to Length x Width Area is equal to Length x Width Schemata A schema is a mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts Schemata are a method of organizing information that allows the brain to work more efficiently When a schema is activated the brain makes immediate assumptions about the person or object being observed A role schema makes assumptions about how individuals in certain roles will behave An event schema also known as a cognitive script is a set of behaviors that can feel like a routine Because event schemata are automatic they can be difficult to change Language Components Language is a communication system that involves using words and systematic rules to organize those words to transmit information from one individual to another Lexicon refers to the words of a given language Thus lexicon is a language s vocabulary Grammar refers to the set of rules that are used to convey meaning through the use of the lexicon A phoneme the sounds ah vs eh is a basic sound unit of a given language and different languages have different sets of phonemes Phonemes are combined to form morphemes which are the smallest units of language that convey some type of meaning I is both a phoneme and a morpheme Semantics refers to the process by which we derive meaning from morphemes and words Syntax refers to the way words are organized into sentences We apply the rules of grammar to organize the lexicon in novel and creative ways which allow us to communicate information about both concrete and abstract concepts Language Development Young children master language very quickly with relative ease B F Skinner 1957 proposed that language is learned through reinforcement Noam Chomsky 1965 criticized this behaviorist approach asserting instead that the mechanisms underlying language acquisition are biologically determined Babies can discriminate among the sounds that make up a language for example they can tell the difference between the s in vision and the ss in fission early on they can differentiate between the sounds of all human languages even those that do not occur in the languages that are used in their environments 1 year to 18 months and for the next few months the child will remain in the one word stage of language development Overgeneralization refers to an extension of a language rule to an exception to the rule those two gooses or three mouses Language and Thought When we speak one language we agree that words are representations of ideas people places and events Psychologists have long investigated the question of whether language shapes thoughts and actions or whether our thoughts and beliefs shape our language Language may indeed influence the way that we think an idea known as linguistic determinism Boroditsky suggested that habits in language encourage habits in thought The Dani have two words for color one word for light and one word for dark In contrast the English language has 11 color words Researchers hypothesized that the number of color terms could limit the ways that the Dani people conceptualized color However the Dani were able to distinguish colors with the same ability as English speakers despite having fewer words at their disposal Problem Solving A problem solving strategy is a plan of action used to find a solution For example a well known strategy is trial and error An algorithm is a problem solving formula that provides you with step by step instructions used to achieve a desired outcome A heuristic is a general problem solving framework Different types of heuristics are used in different types of situations but the impulse to use a heuristic occurs when one of five conditions is met When one is faced with too much information When the time to make a decision is limited When the decision to be made is unimportant When there is access to very little information to use in making the decision When an appropriate heuristic happens to come to mind in the same moment Working backwards is a useful heuristic in which you begin solving the problem by focusing on the end result Problem Solving Pitfalls A mental set is where you persist in approaching a problem in a way that has worked in the past but is clearly not working now Functional fixedness is a type of mental set where you cannot perceive an object being used for something other than what it was designed for An anchoring bias occurs when you focus on one piece of information when making a decision or solving a problem The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms your existing beliefs Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable even though it really wasn t