COGNITION:

Thinking and language

-thinking about our own thinking

Examples:1. Learning about your own best style of

learning.2. Becoming aware of your own biases in

judging others.3. Learning which strategies are best at

solving certain problems

METACOGNITION:

-mental groupings -helped to simplify the world

PROTOTYPES: best/most typical example of a concept

CONCEPTS:

http://www.pics4learning.com/

-problem-solving strategy-step-by-step procedure where guaranteed

the right answer-examples: -reading a map -mathematical

formulas -using recipe

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_girls_reading_map_of_NYC.jpg

-can be time consuming

ALGORITHMS:

-shortcuts to problem-solving -rules of thumb, educated guesses-quicker but not always accurate

HEURISTICS:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mistakes-Precious_Life_Lessons.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filos_tercer_logo.JPG

-sudden understanding-answer just appears-Wolfgang Kohler: chimpanzees with bananas

-solve problem with no trial and error

INSIGHT:

Inductive reasoning: reason from specific to general

-make conclusions about category based on some examples of the category

-bad exs.=bad conclusions

Deductive reasoning: reason from general to specific

-good conclusions if you start with good initial assumptions

REASONING:

Fixation: inability to look at a problem from a fresh perspective

-Mental set: tendency to approach a problem in the same way that has worked previously

-Functional fixedness: can’t see a new way to use a familiar object

PROBLEMS IN PROBLEM-SOLVING-Fixations:

Representativeness heuristic: judging by how well it matches a prototype (ex. Changing your answer on a multiple choice test because it’s the 4th A in a row)

Availability heuristic: estimating how probable something is based on how easily it comes to mind (ex. Judging that people are more likely to be murdered than die of diabetes because of vivid cases)

Anchoring heuristic: judging based on a previously determined reference point (negotiating a price on a car based on the original asking price, they always start higher than they want)

PROBLEMS IN PROBLEM-SOLVING-Heuristics

Confirmation bias: looking for information that supports your beliefs and ignoring what doesn’t

Belief perseverance: continuing to believe even after evidence refutes it

Belief bias: tendency for beliefs to distort logicHindsight bias: to falsely believe, after the

event, you knew it all alongOverconfidence: to overestimate how right we

are

PROBLEMS IN PROBLEM-SOLVING-Biases

Framing: the way that problem is presented can affect the way that you think about the problem

Examples: 1. The procedure has a 95% survival rate v.

5% of the people who have this procedure die.

2. 90% fat free v. 10% fat 3. The majority of the students passed the

test v. almost half failed.

PROBLEMS IN PROBLEM-SOLVING-Framing

-ability to think in new and unusual ways

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brainstorming.gif

Convergent thinking: thinking toward one correct solution

Divergent thinking: producing many solutions

CREATIVITY:

System of spoken, written or signed symbols that allows for communication

-transmits culture

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Two-people-talking-logo.jpg

LANGUAGE:

PHONEMES: smallest unit of sound-English=about 45 -World=about 100“a”, “b”, “ch”, “th”

MORPHEMES: smallest unit of sound with meaning

-small words, prefixes, suffixes-most morphemes are made up of phonemes

PHONEMES AND MORPHEMES:

-rules that govern a language

SYNTAX: order of words into sentencesEnglish: “beautiful girl”Spanish: “bonita chica”

SEMANTICS: rules that govern meaning in a language

Denotation: actual meaning Connotation: emotional associations

GRAMMAR:

1. BABBLING: (4 mths.) production of phonemes

2. HOLOPHRASE: (around 1) single word

3. TELEGRAPHIC SPEECH: (about 2) 2-word sentences

4. GRAMMATICAL SPEECH: (by about 3) follow rules of grammar

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION STAGES:

Errors in language, caused by lack of knowledge

-Holophrase: use 1 word for broad categoryDog=all furry animals

-Overregularization: apply rules to irregular verbs

“I goed to the store”“I hitted the ball”

OVERGENERALIZATION:

BF Skinner:-language=nurture-learned through imitation, reinforcement, and association-language is learned by shaping from parents

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Parenting.JPG

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:

-nativist-language is innate

-Language Acquisition Device: brains are prewired with

ability to learn language

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Noam_chomsky_cropped.jpg

-Critical Period: best time -must learn language by adolescence or cannot

learn as well

NOAM CHOMSKY: