introduction to psychology, James W. Kalat Chapter 8

Two types of thinking

We often make decisions quickly and automatically, using System 1. When we recognize a problem as being more difficult, we do calculations, ponder the evidence, or in other ways engage effortful processes, using System 2.

Attentive and preattentive processes

We quickly notice items that are unusual in certain salient ways, regardless of potential distracters. noticing less distinct items requires attention to one target after another. (

Conceptual networks and priming

We represent words or con- cepts with links to related concepts. Thinking about a concept primes one to think of related concepts.

Understanding language

We understand ambiguous words and sentences in context by applying the knowledge we have about the world in general.

the Stroop effect.

When we are speaking, written words grab attention, making it difficult to attend to the color of the letters.

Reading

When we read, we alternate between fixation periods and saccadic eye movements. an average adult reads about 11 letters per fixation.

productivity

ability to combine words into new sentences that express an unlimited variety of ideas

representativeness heuristic

assumption that an item that resembles members of a category is also probably in that category if something resembles members of some category, we usually assume it too belongs to that category. however, that assumption is risky if the category is a rare one.

Attention bottleneck

attention is limited, and items compete for it. (

far transfer

benefit from practicing something not similar to it

near transfer

benefit to a new skill based on practice of a similar skill

language acquisition device

built in mechanism for acquiring language

critical thinking

careful evaluation of evidence for and against any conclusion

Stages of language development

children advance through several stages of language development, reflecting maturation of brain structures. From the start, children's language is creative, using the rules of language to make new word combinations and sentences.

system 2

cognitive processing for mathematical calculations, evaluating evidence, and anything that requires attention

system 1

cognitive processing for quick, automatic processes

Wernicke's aphasia

condition marked by impaired recall of nouns and impaired language comprehension

top-down process

deliberately deciding to shift your attention to something

Near and far transfer

developing skill at a task aids performance of a similar task. it seldom helps much with a dissimilar task.

Distraction

directing attention to one item means subtracting it from another. For example, talking on a cell phone distracts from attention to driving.

attention deficit disorder (ADD)

easy distraction, impulsiveness, moddiness, and failure to follow through on plans people with attention deficit dis- order have trouble shifting attention. two tests of attention problems are the choice-delay task and the stop-signal task. treatment with stimulant drugs has advantages and disadvantages.

algorithm

explicit procedure for calculating an answer or testing a hypothesis

priming

exposing someone to an experience that facilitates thinking of or recognizing something else

change blindness

failure to detect changes in parts of a scene We often fail to detect changes in a scene if they occur slowly or during an eye movement.

prototype

familiar or typical example of a category

Williams syndrome

genetic condition characterized by mental retardation in most regards but surprisingly good use of language relative to other abilities

Children exposed to no language or two

if deaf children are not exposed to language, they invent a sign language of their own. however, a deaf child who learns neither spoken language nor sign language in childhood is impaired on learning any language later. children in a bilingual environment sometimes have trouble keeping the two languages separate but possibly gain increased ability to control attention.

fixation

in vision: when the eyes are stationary freud's theory: preoccupation with the pleasure area associated with that stage of psycho sexual development

Language and intelligence

it is possible to have intelligence without language or language without other aspects of intelligence. Therefore, many psychologists regard language as a specialized capacity, not just a by-product of overall intelligence.

morpheme

linguistic unit of meaning

Limits to our language understanding

many sentences are dif- ficult to understand, especially those with embedded clauses or with one or more negatives.

Mental imagery

mental images resemble vision in certain respects. The time required to answer questions about a rotat- ing object depends on how far the object would actually rotate between one position and another.

choice-delay task

opportunity to choose a small immediate reward and a bigger delayed reward

Algorithm and heuristics

people solve problems by algorithms (ways of checking every possibility) and heuristics (ways of simplifying a problem).

Other errors

people tend to be overconfident about their judgments on difficult questions. They tend to look for evidence that confirms their hypothesis instead of evidence that might reject it. They answer the same question differently when it is framed differently. They sometimes take unpleasant actions to avoid admitting that previous actions were a waste of time or money.

Categorization

people use many categories that are hard to define. many items are marginal examples of a category, so we cannot insist on a yes-no decision.

stop-signal task

procedure in which a person responds as quickly as possible to a signal but inhibits the response in the event of a second signal

spreading activation

process by which the activation of one concept activates or primes related concepts

saccades

quick eye movements from one fixation to another

attentive process

requires searching through the items in series

Research methods in cognitive psychology

researchers infer mental processes from measurements of speed and accuracy.

attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

similar to ADD but also has excessive activity and fidgetiness

heuristics

strategy for simplifying a problem and generating a satisfactory guess

transformational grammar

system for converting a deep structure into a surface structure

choice blindness

tendency for people to act as if they do not know what they have chosen

word-superiority effect

tendency ti identify a letter more accurately when it is presented by itself

confirmation bias

tendency to accept a hypothesis and then look for evidence to support it instead of looking for other possibilities

functional fixedness

tendency to adhere to a single approach or a single way of using an item

framing effect

tendency to answer a question differently when it is worded differently

availability heuristic

tendency to assume that if we easily think of examples of a category, then the category most be common We generally assume that the more easily we can think of examples of some category, the more common that category is. however, this heuristic misleads us when items in rare categories get much publicity.

attention

the tendency to respond to certain stimuli more than others

maximizing

thoroughly considering as many choices as possible to find the best one

cognition

thought and knowledge

bottom-up process

when a loud noise or flashing light catches your attention -peripheral stimuli controls this

preattentive process

when something differs drastically from other items around it in shape, size, color, or movement -stands out immediately

sunk cost effect

willingness to do something because of money or effort already spent

13. What is one documented example of far transfer?

13. Playing computer games that require memory and attention provide benefits for low-performing children.

1. When bonobos learned to use symbols to communicate, what training method was used? (a) positive reinforcement (b) negative reinforcement (c) classical conditioning (d) observation and imitation

1d,

2. Someone with Broca's aphasia shows impairments most strongly with regard to which aspect of language? (a) use of nouns and memory of what the nouns mean (b) use of prepositions, word endings, and other grammatical devices (c) comprehension of speech (d) reading

2b,

5. Steve says he has a coworker who is persecuting him. You conclude that Steve is paranoid, ignoring the possibility that Steve really does have an enemy. This is a possible example of which heuristic? (a) The representativeness heuristic (b) The availability heuristic

5a,

6. Someone tells me that if i say "abracadabra" every morning, i will stay healthy. i say it daily and, sure enough, i stay healthy. i conclude that this magic word ensures health. What error of thinking have i made? (a) overconfidence (b) Functional fixedness (c) confirmation bias (d) The framing effect

6c,

Top-down and bottom-up processes

Some stimuli grab our attention automatically. We also control our attention, delib- erately shifting it from one item to another.

language productivity

human languages enable us to create new words and phrases to express new ideas.

satisficing

searching only until you find something satisfactory

Stroop effect

tendency to read words instead of saying the color of the ink used to write the word

bilingual

understanding two or more languages

10. Which of the following offers by your professor would probably be more persuasive? (a) "If you do this extra project, there's a chance I will add some points to your grade." (b) "I'm going to penalize this whole class for being inattentive today, but if you do this extra project, there's a chance I won't subtract anything from your grade."

10. Probably (b). People are generally more willing to take a risk to avoid losing something than to gain something

18. How many phonemes are in the word thoughtfully? How many morphemes?

18. It has seven phonemes: th-ough-t-f-u-ll-y. It has three morphemes: thoughtfully.

20. If a word is longer than 11 letters, will a reader need more than one fixation to read it?

20. Sometimes, but not always. Suppose your eyes fixate on the fourth letter of memorization. You should be able to see the three letters to its left and the seven to its right—that is, all except the final letter. Because there is only one English word that starts memorizatio-, you already know the word

8. reading alternates between fixations and saccades. on average, a person reading an alphabetic language can read about __ characters during a fixation and about __ during a saccade. (a)11 . . . 11 (b)11 . . . 0 (c)0 . . . 11 (d)8 . . . 3

8b

broca's aphasia

condition characterized by difficulties in language production

base-rate information

data about how common two categories are

phoneme

linguistic unit of sound

1. What is the relationship between top-down versus bottom-up processes, and attentive versus preattentive processes?

1. Bottom-up processes are preattentive. Top-down processes are attentive.

10. many people recommend that old people do crossword puzzles or similar activities to improve everyday memory. if that advice worked (and generally it doesn't), it would be an example of what? (a) near transfer (b) Far transfer (c) The representativeness heuristic (d) The availability heuristic

10b.

11. If you and your 6-year-old cousin spent 10,000 hours practicing chess, starting today, who would probably reach master level first?

11. Probably your cousin would. Other things being equal, practice is more effective if it begins at an early age.

12. The introduction to Module 7.1 mentioned the World Memory Championships, in which contestants compete at memorizing long lists of words, numbers, or cards. How would practice enable them to develop this kind of expertise? That is, what must they do differently from other people?

12. As with other kinds of expertise, experts at memorizing learn to recognize patterns. Whereas most people would see "king of hearts, two of spades, three of clubs, seven of clubs, ace of diamonds" as five items, someone who has practiced memorizing cards might see this as a single famil- iar pattern or as a part of an even larger pattern.

14. Based on the studies with bonobos, can you offer advice about how to teach language to children with impaired language learning?

14. Based on the studies with bonobos, can you offer advice about how to teach language to children with impaired language learning?

15. Brain-damaged patient A speaks fluently but is hard to understand, and she has trouble understanding other people's speech. Patient B understands most speech, but he speaks slowly and inarticulately, and he leaves out nearly all prepositions, conjunctions, and word endings. Which kind of aphasia does each patient have?

15. Patient A has Wernicke's aphasia. Patient B has Broca's aphasia.

16. Why do psychologists believe that even very young children learn rules of grammar?

16. Children show that they learn rules of grammar when they overgeneralize those rules, creating such words as womans and goed.

17. What are the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism?

17. Advantages: The individual can speak with more people, and perhaps improves the ability to control attention. Disadvantages: The individual takes longer to learn two languages than one, and probably will not master either language as well as someone who is learning only one language

19. What evidence indicates that we do not read a word one letter at a time?

19. Ambiguous letters, such as those in Figure 8.32, appear to be one letter in one context and another letter in a different context. Also, a reader sometimes "recognizes" a misspelled word even when certain letters are out of order

1. in a pioneering study, Shepard and metzler concluded that imagining how something would look from a different angle is something like actually watching something rotate. They drew this conclusion by measuring what? (a) The delay of people's responses (b) The accuracy of people's responses (c) Brain activity (d) people's self-reports of how they answered the question

1a,

1. in contrast to System 1 (or type 1 thinking), what is true of System 2? (a) it is quick and almost effortless. (b) it evolved earlier in the animal kingdom. (c) it is best suited to considering and evaluating complex evidence. (d) it generally leads to incorrect answers.

1c,

2. Did you find the changes in Figure 8.9 by a preattentive or an attentive mechanism?

2. The changes did not jump out by a preattentive mechanism. You had to use an attentive process to check each part of the scene one at a ti

2. Suppose you are in a field of brownish bushes and one motionless brown rabbit. You will find it by _______________. if the rabbit starts hopping, you will find it by _________. (a) an attentive process . . . an attentive process (b) an attentive process . . . a preattentive process (c) a preattentive process . . . an attentive process (d) a preattentive process . . . a preattentive process

2b,

2. What is a heuristic? (a) an explicit procedure for calculating an answer (b) a procedure that carefully tests every hypothesis before choosing an answer (c) a strategy for simplifying a problem

2c,

3. Describe one of the behavioral tests used to measure deficits of attention or impulse control

3. In the choice-delay task, the question is under what conditions someone will sacrifice a reward now for a larger one later. In the stop-signal task, one signal calls for a response and a second signal cancels the first signal; the question is under what circumstances a person can inhibit the response.

3. What does the Stroop effect demonstrate? (a) Familiarity with a word can interfere with saying the color of its ink. (b) an item that looks different from all the others captures attention automatically. (c) We often fail to detect visual changes that occur slowly or during an eyeblink. (d) people find it possible to deal with categories even when they are hard to define

3a,

3. at what age do people begin to use rules of grammar? (a) Very early, even at ages 2 or 3 (b) When they start school (c) after a few years of school (d) as teenage

3a,

3. in decision making, what is the disadvantage of being a maximizer? (a) maximizers tend to make decisions too quickly. (b) maximizers tend to make worse overall decisions. (c) maximizers tend to be less satisfied with their decisions. (d) maximizers tend to be too influenced by what other people have chosen.

3c,

4. Which would people answer faster: whether politicians give speeches or whether they sometimes eat spaghetti? Why?

4. It would take longer to answer whether politicians eat spaghetti. Giving speeches is a distinctive feature of politicians. Eating spaghetti is not. To answer the second question, you have to reason that politicians are people, and most people eat spaghetti.

4. other things being equal, which children in a class are most likely to be treated for adhd? (a) children who are taller than average for the grade in school (b) children who are younger than average for the grade in school (c) children whose parents have low expectations for their school performance (d) children with greater than average athletic ability

4b,

4. people who believe that violent or bizarre behavior is more common on nights of a full moon remember the few occasions that fit this expectation and decide that the results sup- port their belief. This is an example of which heuristic? (a) The representativeness heuristic (b) The availability heuristic

4b,

4. What is the most convincing evidence that early exposure to language is necessary for language development? (a) early language exposure alters development of certain brain areas. (b)it is easier to learn the correct pronunciation of a foreign language if one starts when young. deaf (c)children who do not learn any language when young are seriously impaired when they try to learn one later.

4c,

5. Suppose someone says "cardinal" and then briefly flashes the word bird on a screen. Some viewers identify the word correctly, suggesting priming, and some do not. Considering both priming and the encoding specificity idea from Chapter 7, how might you explain why some people and not others identified the word bird?

5. People who heard "cardinal" and thought of it as a bird would have spreading activation to prime the word bird. However, other people who thought of "cardinal" as an officer in the Catholic church would have spreading activation to prime a very different set of words and not bird

5. Suppose one sound in a word is engineered to sound halfway between d and t, or halfway between s and sh. What do you hear? (a) You hear both sounds. (b) You hear whichever sound is more common in your language. (c) You hear the sound that makes more sense in context, unless the context is delayed. (d) You hear the sound that makes more sense in context, even if the context is delayed.

5c,

5. priming a concept is responsible for which of the following? (a) change blindness (b) The Stroop effect (c) The stop-signal task (d) Spreading activation

5d.

6. Who would have more trouble choosing a meal from a six-page menu, maximizers or satisficers?

6. Maximizers would have more trouble, because they want to consider every choice. A satisficer might find an acceptable choice quickly

6. What is meant by the "word-superiority effect"? (a) children learn to read faster by the use of phonics than by the whole-word method. (b) children learn to read faster by the whole-word method than by the use of phonics. (c) people who describe an event in words remember it better than those who don't. (d) You more easily recognize a letter when it is part of a word than when it is alone

6d,

7. Although fatal automobile crashes are far more common than airplane crashes, many people fear airplane travel, partly because they vividly remember hearing about airplane crashes. Is this an example of the representativeness heuristic or the availability heuristic?

7. It is an example of the availability heuristic.

7. people will buy meat that claims "90 percent fat free," but not one that says "contains 10 percent fat." This observation is an example of which of the following? (a) overconfidence (b) Framing effect (c) Sunk cost effect (d) inappropriate use of the availability heuristic

7b,

7. When we read a word, do we read it one letter at a time? and what's the evidence? (a) Yes, we read one letter at a time. Brain areas corresponding to the various letters become active in order, one at a time. (b) Yes, we read one letter at a time. The evidence is that people tell us how they read. (c) no, we do not. an ambiguous letter can appear to be one letter in one context and a different letter in some other context. (d) no, we do not. The evidence is that people tell us they read a word all at once.

7c,

8. You meet a tall man and guess that he is more likely to be a professional basketball player than a salesperson. Is this an example of the representativeness heuristic or the availability heuristic?

8. It is an example of the representativeness heuristic.

8. Why do most musicians have better-than-average hearing? and what's the evidence? (a) prolonged practice improves hearing. Longitudinal studies find progressively better hearing year by year in people playing music. (b) prolonged practice improves hearing. twins with more music practice have better hearing than their twins with little or no practice. (c) people with better hearing are more likely than average to practice music. Longitudinal studies find no change from year to year in people practicing music. (d) people with better hearing are more likely than average to practice music. twins with more music practice do not have better hearing than their twins with little or no practice.

8d,

9. Someone says, "More than 90 percent of all college students like to watch late- night television, but only 20 percent of adults over 50 do. Therefore, most watchers of late-night television are college students." What error in thinking has this person made?

9. Failure to consider the base rate: 20 percent of all older adults is a larger number than 90 percent of all college students. This is an example of inappropriately using the representativeness heuristic

9. as people develop expertise in a skill such as chess, what improves? (a) Their ability to recognize common patterns (b) The ratio of excitatory to inhibitory transmission in their brain (c) The accuracy of their vision, hearing, and other senses (d) Their overall memory and intelligence

9a,

expertise

Becoming an expert requires years of practice and effort, but a given amount of practice benefits some people more than others. experts recognize and memorize familiar and meaningful patterns more rapidly than less experienced people do.

Language training in nonhumans

Bonobos, and to a smaller extent other species, have learned certain aspects of language. human evolution evidently elaborated on potentials found in our apelike ancestors but developed that potential further

Brain organization and aphasia

Brain damage, especially in the left hemisphere, impairs people's ability to understand or use language. many brain areas contribute to language in varied ways.

Predisposition to learn language

Noam Chomsky and others have argued that the ease with which children acquire language indicates that they are born with a predisposition that facilitates language learning.

Maximizing and satisficing

The maximizing strategy is to consider thoroughly every possible choice to find the best one. The satisficing strategy is to accept the first choice one finds that is good enough. people using the maximizing strategy usually make good choices but are often not fully pleased with them. The maximizing strategy is especially problematic when many choices are available.