Psych 1101 Chapter 9 Thinking and Language Cognition cognition refers to the mental activities associated with thinking knowing remembering and communicating we form some concepts by definition e g a triangle has three sides more often we form a concept by developing a prototype a mental image or best example of a particular category once we place an item in a category our memory of it later moves in the direction of the category prototype Cognitive Strategies and Problem Solving Trial and Error problem solving Algorithm a methodical or step by step process of problem solving more effortful we often rely instead on simple thinking strategies called heuristics however more error prone confirmation bias searching for information that confirms our ideas this can sometimes lead to illogical ideas conclusions in our problem solving another obstacle to problem solving is fixation the inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective the tendency to repeat solutions that have worked in the past is a type of fixation called mental set Decision Making and Judgment intuition effortless immediate automatic thinking availability heuristic operates when we base our judgments on the availability of information in our memories enables us to make snap judgments these quick decisions may lead us to ignore important information overconfidence the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments can be both adaptive and problematic belief perseverance clinging to our ideas despite contrary evidence Once beliefs are formed and justified more compelling evidence is needed to change them than it did to create them to avoid this form of bias is to make a deliberate effort to consider evidence supporting the opposite position Cognition and Intuition human intuition although prone to error can be whether conscious or unconscious remarkably efficient and adaptive research shows that in making complex decisions we benefit by letting our brain work on a problem without thinking about it as we gain expertise in a field we become better at making quick adept judgments e g experienced therapists vs novice therapists intuition is powerful but sometimes perilous and especially so when we overfeel and underthink Language language way of combining words to communicate meaning spoken language is built from basic speech sounds called phonemes and elementary units of meaning called morphemes and words finally language must have a grammar a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others semantics refers to the rules we use to derive meaning from sounds syntax refers to the rules we use to order words into grammatically sensible sentences language becomes increasingly complex as we move from one level to the next