Midterm (1st sem)

1. UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY
9TH EDITION
By Robert Feldman
Powerpoint slides by Kimberly Foreman

2.  CHAPTER EIGHT:
COGNITION AND LANGUAGE

3. MODULE 23: Thinking and
Reasoning
 What is thinking?
 What processes underlie reasoning and
decision making?

4. MODULE 23: Thinking and
Reasoning
 Cognitive Psychology
› Branch of psychology that focuses on the
study of higher mental processes, including
thinking, language, memory, problem
solving, knowing, reasoning, judging, and
decision making

5. MODULE 23: Thinking and
Reasoning
 Thinking
› Manipulation of mental representations of
information

6. Mental Images: Examining the
Mind’s Eye
 Representations in
the mind of an object
or event
› Not just visual
representations but
every modality

7. Concepts: Categorizing the
World
 Concepts
› Categorizations of
objects, events, or
people that share
common properties
 Prototypes
 Highly
representative
examples of a
concept
 Example:
 Vehicle

8. Reasoning: Making Up Your
Mind
 Syllogistic Reasoning: The Formal Rules of
Logic
› Kind of formal reasoning in which a person
draws a conclusion from a set of assumptions
› Example
 Premise 1: All professors are mortal.
 Premise 2: Professor Rivera is a professor.
 Conclusion: Therefore, Dr. Rivera is mortal.

9. Reasoning: Making Up Your
Mind
 Algorithm
› Rule that, if applied appropriately,
guarantees a solution to a problem
 a² + b² = c²

10. Reasoning: Making Up Your
Mind
 Heuristic
› Cognitive shortcut that may lead to a
solution
 Representativeness heuristic
 Rule one applies when he judges people by the
degree to which they represent a certain category
or group of people
 Availability heuristic
 Judging the probability of an event on the basis of
how easily the event can be recalled from memory

11. Computers and Problem Solving:
Searching for Artificial
Intelligence
 Field that examines how to use
technology to imitate the outcome of
human thinking, problem-solving, and
creative activities

12. MODULE 24: Problem Solving
 How do people approach and solve
problems?
 What are the major obstacles to problem
solving?
 What is creativity?

13. Preparation: Understanding
and Diagnosing Problems
 Well-defined Problem
› Both the nature of the problem itself and the
information needed to solve it are available
and clear
 Ill-defined Problem
› Not only the specific nature of the problem is
unclear, but the information required to solve
the problem is less obvious

14. Preparation: Understanding
and Diagnosing Problems
 Kinds of Problems
› Arrangement
problems
› Problems of inducing
structure
› Transformation
problems

15. Preparation: Understanding
and Diagnosing Problems
 Representing and
Organizing the
Problem
› Depends on the way a
problem is phrased, or
framed

16. Production: Generating
Solutions
 Means-end Analysis
› Involves repeated tests for differences
between the desired outcome and what
currently exists
› Most frequently applied heuristic in problem
solving

17. Production: Generating
Solutions
 Forming Subgoals: Dividing Problems into
Their Parts
 Insight: Sudden Awareness
› Wolfgang Köhler

18. Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions
 Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem
Solving Such a Problem?
› Functional Fixedness
 Tendency to think of an object only in terms of
its typical use
› Mental Set
 Tendency for old patterns of problem solving
to persist

19. Judgment: Evaluating the
Solutions
 Impediments to Solutions: Why Is Problem
Solving Such a Problem?
› Inaccurate evaluation of solutions
 Confirmation bias
 Problem solvers favor initial hypotheses and ignore
contradictory information that supports alternative
hypotheses or solutions

20. Creativity and Problem Solving
 Creativity
› Ability to generate original ideas or solve
problems in novel ways
 Divergent thinking
 Ability to generate unusual, yet appropriate,
responses to problems or questions
 Convergent thinking
 Produces responses that are based primarily on
knowledge and logic

21. MODULE 25: Language
 How do people use language?
 How does language develop?

22. MODULE 25: Language
 Communication of information through
symbols arranged according to
systematic rules

23. Grammar: Language’s
Language
 Grammar
› System of rules that determines how our
thoughts can be expressed
 Phonology
 Smallest basic units of speech
 Phonemes
 Syntax
 Rules that indicate how words and phrases can be
combined to form sentences
 Semantics
 Meanings of words and sentences

24. Language Development:
Developing a Way with Words
 Babbling
› Speechlike but meaningless sounds
 Production of Language
› Telegraphic speech
› Overgeneralization

25. Language Development:
Developing a Way with Words
 Approaches
› Learning theory approach
› Nativist approach
 Universal grammar
 Language-acquisition device
 Neural system in the human brain
› Interactionist approach
 Genetically determined predispositions and
environmental circumstances that help teach
language

26. The Influence of Language on
Thinking: Do Eskimos Have More
Words for Snow than Texans Do?
 Linguistic-relativity hypothesis
› Notion that language shapes and, in fact,
may determine the way people in a specific
culture perceive and understand the world

27. Do Animals Use Language?
 Chimpanzees and sign language
› Critics contend that language such animals
use lacks grammar and complex and novel
constructions of human language

28. Teaching with Linguistic
Variety: Bilingual Education
 Bilingual Education
 Immersion Programs
› Students are immediately plunged into
foreign language instruction in all subjects
 Alternation Model