Language and thinking

Language
- Our spoken written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phonemes
- In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
- Chug has three phonemes ch, u, g

Morphemes
- In a language the smallest unit that carries meaning
- Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix)

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 language
- Adding ed at the end of words means past tense

Syntax
- The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Language Development
- Babbling Stage: starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds. not limited to the phonemes of the infants household language
- One-Word Stage: 1-2 year old, uses one word to communicate big meanings
- Two Word Stage: at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings - called telegraphic speech

Skinner
- Skinner thought that we can explain languge development through social learning theory

Chomsky
- 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

Whorf's Linguistic Relativity
- The idea that language determines the way we think (not vice versa)

Thinking Without Language
- We can think in words
- But more often we think in mental pictures

Thinking
Cognition
- Another term for thinking, knowing, and remembering

Concepts
- A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or peopl
- Concepts are similar to piaget's idea of Schema

Prototypes
- A mental image or best example of a category
- If a mew object is similar to out prototype, we are better able to recognize it

HOW DO WE SOLVE PROBLEMS

Trial & Error
- A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristics
- A rule of thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently
- A short cut (that can be probe to errors)

Insight
- A sudden and often novel realizatipn of the solution to a problem
- No real strategy involved

Obstacles to problem solving

Confirmation Bias
- A tendency to search for info that confirms ones perconceptions

Match Problem
- Fixation: The inability to see a problem from a new perspective

The Jug Problem
B - A - 2C = desired amount of water
- For problems 6 and 7 (20 and 18) there are easier ways than using your formula from your mental set

Mental Set
- A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, esp if it has worked in the past
- May or may not be a good thing

Functional Fixedness
- The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

TYPES OF HEURISTICS (often lead to errors)

Representative
- 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 info

Availability
- Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in out memory
- If it comes to mind easily (maybe a vivid event) we presume it is common

Overconfidence
- The tendency to be more confident than correct
- To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgements

Framing
- The way an issue is proposed
- It can have drastic effects on your decisions and judgements

Belief Bias- Tendency for ones preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning
- Sometimes making invalid conclusions valid or vice versa

Belief Perserverance
- Clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited