Thinking

Lecture 10Chapter 9

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Mental Concepts

1. Concepts2. Problem solving3. Decision making4. Judgment

formation

3

Category HierarchiesCourtesy of Christine Brune

4

Development of Concepts

Triangle (definition)

Bird (mental image)

Daniel J. Cox/ G

etty Im

ages

J. Messerschm

idt/ The Picture Cube

5

Problem Solving

Problem solving strategies include:

1. Trial and Error2. Algorithms3. Heuristics4. Insight

Insight

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySMh1mBi3cI

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

Confirmation BiasFixation

Misusing HeuristicsOverconfidence

Belief Perseverance

Misusing Heuristics

• Representative Heuristic• Availability Heuristic

Intuition

• What is good about it?

• What is bad about it?

Framing

11

Do Animals Think?

Common cognitive skills in humans and

apes include the following:

1. Concept Formation

2. Insight3. Problem Solving4. Culture

African grey parrot assorts redblocks from green balls.

William

Munoz

12

Animal Culture

Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over

generations.

Dolphins using sponges asforging tools.

Chimpanzee mother using andteaching a young how to use

a stone hammer.

Copyright Amanda K Coakes

Michael N

ichols/ National G

eographic Society

13

Do Animals Exhibit Language?

There is no doubt that animals

communicate.

Vervet monkeys, whales and even

honey bees communicate with members of their species and other

species.Rico (collie) has a

200-word vocabulary

Copyright Baus/ Kreslowski

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But Can Apes Really Talk?

ForThey can learn more than 100

signs. Chimpanzees who know sign do it spontaneously with each other.

Humans don’t learn language without exposure to it either. Washoe, the chimpanzee, taught her adopted son signs.

AgainstApes acquire their limited

vocabularies with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Washoe_chimpanzee.jpg

But Can Apes Really Talk?For

Apes can understand syntax shown by their behavior. Chimpanzees can string together signs to make sentences and combine signs to make up words for things they don’t have a sign for.

AgainstChimpanzees can make signs to receive a

reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language.

Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack human syntax.

Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see (perceptual set).

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