Psychology Chapter 8: Cognition and Language

Choice-Delay Task

Would you prefer a small reward now or a bigger reward later? Obviously, it depends on how much bigger and how much later. On average, people with ADHD are more likely than other people their age to opt for the immediate reward

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.

You hear the sound that makes more sense in context, un- less the context is delayed.

What is meant by the "word-superiority effect"?

You more easily recognize a letter when it is part of a word than when it is alone.

language acquisition device

a built-in mechanism for acquiring language

wernickes aphasia

a condition marked by impaired recall of nouns and impaired language comprehension, despite fluent and grammati- cal speech.

Williams syndrome

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

bottom-up process

a process controlled by peripheral stimuli

transformational grammar

a system for converting a deep structure into a surface structure

morpheme

a unit of meaning. For example, the noun thrills has two morphemes (thrill and s). The final s is a unit of meaning because it indicates that the noun is plural Harp has one morpheme, and harping has two, but harpoon has just one, as it is not derived from harp. Morphemes help us break an unfamiliar word into meaningful parts. For example, we can see reinvigoration as re-in-vigor-ation, meaning the process of increasing vigor again.

phoneme

a unit of sound, such as f or sh. Machines that talk to you, such as a GPS, take a written word, break it into phonemes, and pronounce the phonemes. For some words with ir- regular spellings, the machine's pronunciation may be wrong or hard to understand

confirmation bias

accepting a hypothesis and then looking for evidence to support it instead of considering other possibilities.

algorithm

algorithm, an explicit procedure for calculating an answer or testing every hypothesis.

attentive process

attentive process— one that requires searching through the items in series (where's waldo)

Attention deficit disorder (ADD)

characterized by easy distraction, impulsiveness, moodiness, and failure to follow through on plans.

prototypes

familiar or typical examples

system 2

for mathematical calculations, evaluating evidence, and anything else that requires attention. System 2 relies heavily on working memory, and if your working memory is already loaded, because you are trying to remember some- thing else, you tend to fall back onto System 1In fact, because System 1 saves time and energy, we rely on it whenever we can

base-rate information

how common the two categories are.

saccades (sa-KAHDS)

quick eye movements from one fixation point to an- other.

heuristics

strategies for simplifying a problem and generating a satisfactory guess.

Stop-Signal Task

the O key whenever you see an O. However, if you hear a "beep" shortly after either letter, then you should not press. If the letter and beep occur simulta- neously, you easily inhibit your urge to press the button. If the beep occurs after you have already started to press, it's too late. The interesting results are with short delays: After how long a delay could you still manage to stop your finger from pressing the button? Most people with ADD or ADHD have trou- ble inhibiting their response after short delays

representativeness heuristic

the assumption that an item that resembles members of a category is probably also in that category.

critical thinking

the careful evaluation of evidence for and against any conclusion

change blindness

the failure to detect changes in parts of a scene.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

the same except with excessive activity and "fidgetiness."

functional fixedness,

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

availability heuristic

the tendency to assume that if we easily think of examples of a category, then that category must be common.

Attention

the tendency to respond to and remember some stimuli more than others.

sunk cost effect

the willingness to do something undesirable because of money or effort already spent

Cognition

thinking and using knowledge

maximizing

thoroughly considering all available choices to find the best one.

fixations

when your eyes are stationary

In contrast to System 1 (or Type 1 thinking), what is true of System 2 ?

It is best suited to considering and evaluating complex evidence.

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

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

Broca's aphasia

a condition characterized by difficulties in language production

near transfer

benefit to a new skill based on practice of a similar skill, is a robust phenomenon, easy to demonstrate.

word-superiority effect.

identify the letter more accurately when it is part of a word than when it is presented by itself

choice blindness

people act as if they don't know what they had chosen

top-down process

you can deliberately decide to shift your attention

What is a heuristic?

A strategy for simplifying a problem

framing effect

The tendency to answer a question differently when it is framed differently

spreading activation

Thinking about one of the concepts shown in this figure will activate, or prime, the concepts linked to it

far transfer

benefit from practicing something less similar

productivity

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

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.

(b) 11 . . . 0

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 _________.

(b) an attentive process . . . a preattentive process

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

. It has seven phonemes: th-ough-t-f-u-ll-y. It has three morphemes: thought-ful-ly.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism?

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.

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

Ambiguous letters, such as those in Figure ., 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.

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?

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 familiar pattern or as a part of an even larger pattern.

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

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

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

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

Other things being equal, which children in a class are most likely to be treated for ADHD?

Children who are younger than average for the grade in school

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?

Confirmation bias

What is the most convincing evidence that early exposure to language is necessary for language development?

Deaf children who do not learn any language when young are seriously impaired when they try to learn one later.

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?

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.

What does the Stroop effect demonstrate?

Familiarity with a word can interfere with saying the color of its ink.

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?

Far transfer

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?

Framing effect

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

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.

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?

It is an example of the availability heuristic

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?

It is an example of the representativeness heuristic.

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

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.

In decision making, what is the disadvantage of being a maximizer?

Maximizers tend to be less satisfied with their decisions.

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

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

When we read a word, do we read it one letter at a time? And what's the evidence?

No, we do not. An ambiguous letter can appear to be one letter in one context and a different letter in some other context.

When bonobos learned to use symbols to communicate, what training method was used?

Observation and imitation

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?

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

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 , how might you explain why some people and not others identified the word bird?

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.

Why do most musicians have better-than-average hearing? And what's the evidence?

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.

What is one documented example of far transfer?

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

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."

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

priming a concept gets it started.

Reading or hearing one word makes it easier to think or recognize a related word. Seeing something makes it easier to recognize a related ob- ject. Priming is important in language.

Satisficing

Satisficing is searching only until you find something satisfactory

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

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.

Priming a concept is responsible for which of the following?

Spreading activation

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

Start language learning when a child is young. Rely on imitation as much as possible instead of providing direct reinforcements for correct responses.

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?

The availability heuristic

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

The changes did not jump out by a preattentive mecha- nism. You had to use an attentive process to check each part of the scene one at a time.

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?

The delay of people's responses

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?

The representativeness heuristic

Stroop effect

The tendency to read the words instead of saying the color of ink

As people develop expertise in a skill such as chess, what improves?

Their ability to recognize common patterns

system 1

Type 1 thinking) for quick, automatic processes (such as recognizing familiar faces and routine actions) and for questions we think are easy. System 1 generally proceeds without much effort

Someone with Broca's aphasia shows impairments most strongly with regard to which aspect of language?

Use of prepositions, word endings, and other grammatical devices

At what age do people begin to use rules of grammar?

Very early, even at ages 2 or 3