cognition: thinking, problem solving, creativity, and language

Cognition: Thinking, Problem Solving, Creativity, and

Language

Introduction1) T / F – People more easily detect male prejudices against females than

females against males or females against females.

2) T / F – Humans are the only creatures to display insight.

3) T / F – Exceptionally creative architects and engineers usually score no higher on intelligence tests than their less creative peers.

4) T / F – We all have a tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked for us previously.

5) T / F – In general, people underestimate how much they really know.

6) T / F – It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to create them in the first place.

7) T / F – People are more likely to be afraid of snakes and spiders than they are of driving a car, even though driving is more dangerous.

8) T / F – The babbling of a infant at 4 months of age makes it clear whether the infant is French, Korean, or Ethiopian.

9) T / F – Many bilinguals report that they have different senses of self, depending on which language they are using.

10) T / F – Imagining a physical activity triggers action in the same brain areas that are triggered when actually performing the activity.

1) T / F – People more easily detect male prejudices against females than females against males or females against females.

2) T / F – Humans are the only creatures to display insight.

3) T / F – Exceptionally creative architects and engineers usually score no higher on intelligence tests than their less creative peers.

4) T / F – We all have a tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked for us previously.

5) T / F – In general, people underestimate how much they really know.

6) T / F – It takes less compelling evidence to change our beliefs than it did to create them in the first place.

7) T / F – People are more likely to be afraid of snakes and spiders than they are of driving a car, even though driving is more dangerous.

8) T / F – The babbling of a infant at 4 months of age makes it clear whether the infant is French, Korean, or Ethiopian.

9) T / F – Many bilinguals report that they have different senses of self, depending on which language they are using.

10) T / F – Imagining a physical activity triggers action in the same brain areas that are triggered when actually performing the activity.

Introduction

• Cognition (thinking)• Complete Need for Cognition Scale

• Complete the Thinking Styles Inventory

Thinking

Concepts• What are they?

• Concepts are similar to Piaget’s idea of….

In order to think about the world, we form……..

Schemas

These animals all look different, but they fall under our concept of “dogs”.

Cognitive Complexity• = How simple or elaborate a person’s system of

personal constructs is• Think of a person you like and someone you dislike. Take 5

minutes to write descriptions of these people. Pay special attention to the person’s habit, beliefs, ways of treating others, mannerisms, and similar attributes – any aspect of the person’s personality or behavior, but NOT physical characteristics.

• Like –

• Dislike –

Prototypes• A mental image or best

example of a category.• Matching new items to a

prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories

• If a new object is similar to our prototype, we are better able to recognize it.

We base our concepts on ….

If this was my prototype of a

man; then what am I?

Which better fits your prototype of a bird?

Prototypes

• Why does this matter?– Prejudices –

• Less likely to recognize prejudice & discrimination that does not fit our prototype

– Faces Experiment

• Faces Experiment

– Shown a face 70% Caucasian, people remembered the face more Caucasian than it actually was. (Same for Asian)

Problem Solving

Problem Solving

• Tower of Hanoi Problem– Move the tower from the left peg to the right peg,

moving only 1 disk at a time and never putting a larger disk on a smaller disk.

Solving ProblemsStrategies

• Trial & Error

• Algorithms– Step-by-step

• Heuristic

• Insight

Trial and Error

Algorithms• Methodical, logical

rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

• Usually by using a formula.

• They work but are sometimes impractical.

Heuristics• A rule-of-thumb

strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.Who would you trust to

baby-sit your child?

Your answer is based on your heuristic of their appearances.

• It is fast, but…o Can be prone to errors

Insight

• A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.

• No real strategy involved

The “Aha” Experience• Sudden flash of insight• What do you see in each?

• What is the relative position of “just?”– you just me

• What do the words communicate?– Stood– Well– View

Creativity• Creativity• Strernberg’s five components

– Expertise– Imaginative thinking skills– A venturesome

personality– Intrinsic motivation– A creative environment

Creativity• Creativity Test #1

– You have 2 minutes to come up with as many uses as possible for the following object:

• Creativity Test #2 – Try to think of at least 4 – 8 things that might happen

(changes) if we suddenly had three arms?

Obstacles to Problem Solving

• Confirmation bias

• Fixation–Mental set

–Functional fixedness

Confirmation Bias• A tendency to

search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

For example, if you believe that during a full moon there is an increase in admissions to the emergency room where you work, you will take notice of admissions during a full moon, but be inattentive to the moon when admissions occur during other nights of the month.

Confirmation Bias• We look for evidence to

confirm our beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts them.

• For example, if one believes that most of NJ are Italians who are in the mafia or are all about GTL, then they turn on MTV or HBO.

Look…I knew it was true!!!But is it really?

Match Problem

Can you arrange these six matches into four equilateral triangles?

Match Problem

Fixation

• The inability to see a problem from a new perspective.

Mental set• a.k.a. rigidity• A tendency to approach a

problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past.

(established thought patterns)• May or may not be a good

thing.• Door Problem

– You come to this door and want to get to the room on the other side…

– WHAT DO YOU DO?!

Mental set• Mental Set # 1

– There are 6 eggs in a basket. Six people take one of the eggs each. How is it that one egg can still be left in the basket?

• Mental Set #2 – What occurs once in June, once in July, and twice

in August?

Functional Fixedness• Tendency to think of things only

in terms of their usual functions• Inability to see a new use for an

object.

Think of as many uses as you can for a ……

Functional Fixedness

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments

Using and Misusing Heuristics

The Representative Heuristic• Task #1 – A Die has 4 green sides and 2 red sides and will be

rolled several times. You will be paid $25 if either GRGRRR or RGRRR occurs. Which would you choose?

• Task #2 – Linda is 31, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy in college. As a student, she was deeply concerned with discrimination and other social issues, and she participated in antinuclear demonstrations. – Which statement is more likely?

• A) Linda is a bank teller• B) Linda is a bank teller and active in the feminist

movement.

Representative Heuristic

Task #3 – Who went to Harvard?

• If I tell you that Sonia Dara is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, you would make certain quick judgments (heuristics) about her…like about her interests or intelligence.

• She is an economics major at Harvard University.

Representative Heuristic

• A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype.

• Can cause us to ignore important information.

Below is Amy. She loves books and hates loud noises.

Is Amy a librarian or a beautician?

Chances are, she is a beautician!!!Examples –

• Why is it funny to think of Mr. Rockwell as a kindergarten teacher? • Any stereotypes –

• Blondes are dumb (or have more fun), Irish are leprechauns (or drunks), Germans are not funny, Psych teachers are awesome!

Using and Misusing HeuristicsThe Base Rate Fallacy• If a test detects a disease whose prevalence is 1 in

1000 has a false positive rate of 5%, what are the chances that a person found to have a positive results, actually has the disease, assuming you know nothing else about the person?

• Dr. Swinkels cousin, Rudy– What do you think Rudy’s occupation most likely is?– A) Farmer C) Librarian E) Lawyer– B) Surgeon D) Trapeze Artist

Tendency to ignore or underuse base-rate information and instead be influenced by the distinctive features of the case being judged.

Using and Misusing Heuristics• The Availability Heuristic

• Handout 7B-5

Availability Heuristic

• Estimating the likelihood of events based on their “availability” in our memory.

• If it comes to mind easily (maybe a vivid event)

we presume it is common.

Although diseases kill many more people than accidents, it has been shown that people will judge accidents and diseases to be equally fatal.

This is because accidents are more dramatic and are often written up in the paper or seen on the news on TV, and are more available in memory than diseases.

Availability HeuristicWhich place would you be more scared of getting mugged or

even murdered?

Camden, NJ Orlando, FLThe crime rate of Camden, NJ is about the SAME as Orlando, FL, but when you think of crime, which town comes to mind?

Example – “The best pizza and wings are from my hometown.”“Have you tried any others?” “No”

Overconfidence• FBI & Crime Questions

Overconfidence• The tendency to be

more confident than correct.

• To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments.

• Results from 7B-5

Considering “overconfidence” would you want to risk 1 million dollars on an audience poll?

Overconfidence

The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon

• Belief perseverance– clinging to one’s initial

conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.

• Belief Bias - People will tend to accept any and all conclusions that fit in with their systems of belief, without challenge or any deep consideration of what they are actually agreeing with

– Capital Punishment Studies• Effect?• Consider the opposite

– Examples?– Implications?

Language

The Effects of Framing• Framing

–Framing experiments

• 90% of the population will be saved with this medication…..or

• 10% of the population will die despite this medication.

• Meat is 80% Fat-free! … or• Meat is 20% Fat!• Condoms have a 95% success rate! …. or• Condoms have a 5% failure rate!

• Tasks

• The way a problem is presented can drastically effect the way we view it.

The Effects of Framing

Language

LanguageIntroduction

• Definition – – our spoken, written, or

signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

– Examples?

Language can be…..

Phonemes

• In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

• English has about 44 phonemes.

• Chug has three phonemes, ch, u, g.

How many phonemes does platypus have? Phones make sound.

Phonemes Experiment

Morphemes• The smallest unit of

meaningful sound.– Most are combinations

of 2 or more phonemes

• Can be words like a or but.

• Can also be parts of words like prefixes or suffixes… – “ed” at the end of a word

means past tense.

Phonemes & Morphemes Practice

• Phonemes– How many phonemes (sounds) are in these

words?• Chin • Habits • Thing • Psychology• Nation • Quickly• laughed

• Phonemes– How many phonemes (sounds) are in these words?

• Chin (3) • Habits (5) • Thing (3)• Psychology (8)• Nation (5) • Quickly (6)• laughed (4)

Phonemes & Morphemes Practice

• Morphemes– How many prefixes or suffixes can be added to the word READ?– How many morphemes are in the following words?

1) People 2) Redevelopment 3) Language 4) Waited5) George’s 6) Desirability7) Unhappy 8) Water 9) Higher10) Houseboat 11) Antidisestablishmentarianism

• Morphemes– How many prefixes or suffixes can be added to the word READ?– How many morphemes are in the following words?

1) People (1)2) Redevelopment (3)3) Language (1)4) Waited (2)5) George’s (2)—the “-‘s” is a morpheme6) Desirability (3)7) Unhappy (2)8) Water (1)9) Higher (2)10) Houseboat (2)11) Antidisestablishmentarianism (7)

Grammar

• A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.

Semantics

• The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language.– Adding ed at the

end of words means past tense.

The Chinese languages do not have expansive semantic rules. They usually have totally

different symbols for different tenses.

Syntax

• The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

• Noun/Subject then Verb/Predicate

• In English, adjectives come before nouns, but not in Spanish!

Is this the White House or the House White?

Casa Blanca

Language DevelopmentWhen Do We Learn Language?

• Receptive language– Ability to comprehend speech

• Productive language– Babbling stage

• link

– One-word stage• link

– Two-word stage• Telegraphic speech• link

Language DevelopmentWhen Do We Learn Language?

4 Stages

How do we learn language?

• Skinner: Operant Learning– Learning principles

• Association• Imitation• Reinforcement

– Explanation?

Language DevelopmentExplaining Language Development


• Chomsky: Inborn Universal Grammar– Language acquisition

device (LAD)• We acquire language too quickly for it to

be learned.• We have this “learning box” inside our

heads that enable us to learn any human language.

– Universal grammar• All languages have same grammatical

building blocks


• Critical (sensitive) period– It appears that a person who is

not exposed to any language (after about age 9) will never be able to fully develop in any language

– Once a person passes through this period, ability to develop language is diminished

– Genie

Thinking and Language

Language Influences Thinking

• Whorf’s linguistic determinism

• Bilingual advantage

Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity• The idea that

language determines the way we think (not vive versa).

•The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

Do people that speak more than one language think differently

depending on their language at that time?

Thinking in Images

• Implicit memory

Thinking without Language• We can think in words.• But more often we think in mental

pictures.

In 1977, Reggie Jackson hit 3 HR’s against the Dodgers. He has stated that before each at bat, he visualizes crushing a home run. Do you think visualization helps?

The End

Cognition

= the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concept

= a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Prototype

= a mental image or best example of a category.

Algorithm

= a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone – use of heuristics.

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 and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

Creativity

= the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Confirmation Bias

= a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Fixation

= the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

Mental Set

= a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past.

Functional Fixedness

= the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

Representativeness Heuristic

= judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.

Availability Heuristic

= estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Overconfidence

= the tendency to be more confident that correct – to over-estimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Belief Perseverance

= clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they are formed has been discredited.

Intuition

= an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.

Framing

= the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Language

= our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phoneme

= in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

Morpheme

= in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

Grammar

= in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Semantics

= the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning.

Syntax

= the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.

Babbling Stage

= beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language.

One-word Stage

= the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.

Two-word Stage

= beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.

Telegraphic Speech

= early speech state in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs.

Linguistic Determinism

= Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

cognition: thinking, problem solving, creativity, and language

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