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Module 14
Thought & Language
INTRODUCTION
• Cognitive Approach
• method of studying how we process, store, and
use information and how this information, in turn,
influences what we notice, perceive, learn,
remember, believe, and feel
– Thinking
• sometimes referred to as reasoning, involves
mental processes that are used to form concepts,
solve problems, and engage in creative activities
INTRODUCTION (CONT.)
– Language
• Special form of communication in which we learn
and use complex rules to form and manipulate
symbols (words and gestures) that are used to
generate an endless number of meaningful
sentences
FORMING CONCEPTS
• Concept
– a way to group or classify objects, events, animals, or
people based on some features, traits, or
characteristics that they all share in common
• Exemplar model
– form a concept of an object, event, animal, or person
by defining or making a mental list of the essential
characteristics of a particular thing
FORMING CONCEPTS
• Prototype theory
– form a concept by creating a mental image that is
based on the average characteristics of an object
• Functions of concepts
– organize information
– group things into categories and thus better organize
and store information in memory
– avoid relearning
– can be used to classify and categorize things, you
can easily classify new things without having to
relearn what that thing is
SOLVING PROBLEMS
• Problem solving
– involves searching for some rule, plan, or strategy
that results in our reaching a certain goal that is
currently out of reach
• Different ways of thinking
– Algorithms
• are a fixed set of rules that, if followed correctly,
will eventually lead to a solution
SOLVING PROBLEMS (CONT.)
• Different ways of thinking
– Heuristics
• rules of thumb, or clever and creative mental
shortcuts, that reduce the number of operations
and allow one to solve problems more easily and
quickly
– Availability heuristic
• says that we rely on information that is more
prominent or easily recalled and overlook other
information that is available but less prominent or
notable
SOLVING PROBLEMS (CONT.)
• Different ways of thinking
– Artificial intelligence
• means of programming machines (computers,
robots) to imitate human thinking and problemsolving abilities
SOLVING PROBLEMS (CONT.)
Three strategies for solving problems
– Changing one’s mental set
• functional fixedness
• refers to a mental set that is characterized by the
inability to see an object as having a function
different from its usual one
– Using analogies
• a strategy for finding a similarity between the new
situation and an old, familiar situation
– Forming subgoals
• a strategy that involves breaking down the overall
problem into separate parts that, when completed
in order, will result in a solution
THINKING CREATIVELY
• How is creativity defined?
– Creative thinking
• combination of flexibility in thinking and
reorganization of understanding to produce
innovative ideas and new or novel solutions
– Creative individual
• someone who regularly solves problems, fashions
products, or defines new questions that make an
impact on his or her society
THINKING CREATIVELY (CONT.)
• How is creativity defined?
– Psychometric approach
• uses objective problem-solving tasks to measure
creativity, focuses on the distinction between two
kinds of thinking—convergent and divergent
– Convergent thinking
• means beginning with a problem and coming up
with a single correct solution
– Divergent thinking
• means beginning with a problem and coming up
with many different solutions
THINKING CREATIVELY (CONT.)
• How is creativity defined?
– Case study approach
• analyzes creative persons in great depth and thus
provides insight into their development,
personality, motivation, and problems
– Cognitive approach
• tries to build a bridge between the objective
measures of the psychometric approach and the
subjective descriptions provided by case studies
• cognitive approach identifies and measures
cognitive mechanisms that are used during
creative thinking
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES
• Language
– special form of communication that involves learning
complex rules to make and combine symbols (words
or gestures) into an endless number of meaningful
sentences
• Word
– arbitrary pairing between a sound or symbol and a
meaning
• Grammar
– a set of rules for combining words into phrases and
sentences to express an infinite number of thoughts
that can be understood by others
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Four rules of language
1. Phonology
• specifies how we make the meaningful sounds that
are used by a particular language
• phonemes
• basic sounds of consonants and vowels
2. Morphology
• system that we use to group phonemes into
meaningful combinations of sound and words
• morpheme
• smallest meaningful combination of sounds in a
language
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Four rules of language
3. Syntax, or grammar
• set of rules that specifies how we combine words
to form meaningful phrases and sentences
4. Semantics
• specifies the meaning of words or phrases when
they appear in various sentences or contexts
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Understanding language
– Chomsky’s theory of language
• Norm Chomsky
• says that all languages share a common universal
grammar and that children inherit a mental
program to learn this universal grammar
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Understanding language
– Mental grammar
• allows us to combine nouns, verbs, and objects in
an endless variety of meaningful sentences
• innate brain program
• makes learning the general rules of grammar
relatively easy
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Different structure, same meaning
– Surface structure
• refers to the actual wording of a sentence, as it is
spoken
– Deep structure
• refers to an underlying meaning that is not spoken
but is present in the mind of the listener
– Transformational rules
• procedures by which we convert our ideas from
surface structures into deep structures and from
deep structures back into surface ones
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Different structure, same meaning
– Chomsky’s theory of language
• all languages share a common universal grammar
and that children inherit a mental program to learn
this universal grammar
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE
• Language stages
– refers to all infants going through four different
periods or stages—babbling, single words, two-word
combinations, and sentences
1. babbling
• begins about 6 months, is the first stage in
acquiring language
2. single word
• second stage in acquiring language, which occurs
at about 1 year of age
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• Language stages
2. single word (cont.)
– parentese (motherese)
– way of speaking to young children in which the adult
speaks in a slower and higher than normal voice,
emphasizes and stretches out each word, uses very
simple sentences, and repeats words and phrases
3. two-word combinations
– represents the third stage in acquiring language,
occurs at about 2 years of age
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• Language stages
4. sentences
– represents the fourth stage of acquiring language,
occurs at about 4 years of age
• Telegraphic speech
– distinctive pattern of speaking in which the child omits
articles (the), prepositions (in, out), and parts of verbs
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• Language stages
• Basic rules of grammar
– rules for combining nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
other parts of speech to form meaningful sentences
• Overgeneralization
– Applying a grammatical rule to cases where it should
not be used
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• What are innate factors?
– genetically programmed physiological and
neurological features that facilitate our making
speech sounds and acquiring language skills
– Innate physiological factors
• special adapted vocal apparatus (larynx and
pharynx) that allows us to make sounds and form
words
– Innate neurological features
• left hemisphere of the brain is prewired to acquire
and use language, whether spoken or signed
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• What are innate factors?
– Innate developmental factors
• critical language period
• time from infancy to adolescence when language
is easiest to learn
• more difficult to learn anytime after adolescence
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• What are environmental factors?
– refer to interactions children have with parents,
peers, teachers, and others who provide feedback
that rewards and encourages language
development, as well as provides opportunities for
children to observe, imitate, and practice language
skills
• Social cognitive learning
– emphasizes the acquisition of language skills
through social interactions, which give children a
chance to observe, imitate, and practice the sounds,
words, and sentences they hear from their parents or
caregivers
DECISIONS, THOUGHT & LANGUAGE
• Words and Thoughts
– Theory of Linguistic Relativity
• States that the differences among languages
result in similar differences in how people think
and perceive the world