• A girl who was just learning to drive went down a one-way street in the wrong direction, but didn't break the law. How come?

• How can you throw a ball as hard as you can and have it come back to you, even if it doesn't hit anything, there is nothing attached to it, and no one else catches or throws it?

Thinking and Language

Chapters 6 and 7

Going Beyond Memory…

How do we think?

How do we solve problems?

How do we create ideas?

• If storage and retrieval were the only processes we used to handle information, then human beings would be little more than glorified:

• Yet we are capable of doing things with information that make the most complex computers seem simple.

Thinking

• Changing and reorganizing the information stored in memory to create new information.

• It may sound simple, but it is a complex process…

Units of Thought

Image

• The most primitive unit.

• A visual, mental representation of an event or object.

• It is specific.

• Describe a ball.

Symbol

• An abstract unit of thought that represents an object or quality.

• The most common in thinking – words.

• A symbol may have many meanings.

•

Concept

• A label for a class of objects or events that have at least one attribute in common.

• Examples: Animals, music, liquid, beautiful people.

• Concepts enable us to chunk large amounts of information.

What concept would you put the following in?

Prototype

• A representative example of a concept.

• What comes to your mind when you hear the word truck?

Rule

• A statement of relation between concepts.

• Examples: – A person cannot be in two places at the same

time.– Mass remains constant despite changes in

appearance.

Units of Thought

Kinds of Thinking

• Convergent (Directed)– A systematic and logical attempt to reach a specific goal or answer– It is deliberate and purposeful.– Example: a math problem.

• Divergent (Nondirected)– Consist of free flow thoughts– Depends more on images.– Example: daydreaming or just thinking.

• Metacognition– Thinking about thinking.– Thinking about one’s strategy.

One of the main functions of directed thinking is to solve problems---

Tools of Problem Solving

• Algorithms– A fixed set of procedures or rule.

• Heuristics– Rule-of-thumb problem solving strategies.– Can sometimes result in bad decisions.

• Mental sets*– When a problem solving strategy becomes habit.

• Functional fixedness– The inability to imagine new functions for familiar

objects.

• Creativity– The capacity to use information and/or abilities in a new

and original way.

• Flexibility– The ability to overcome rigidity.– How many ways can you think of to use

this object?

• Recombination– Rearranging the elements of a problem to arrive at an

original solution

• Insight – The apparent sudden realization of the solution to a

problem.– The “aha” experience.

Common Faults in Human Thought

• http://listverse.com/2010/01/07/top-10-common-faults-in-human-thought/

• Two students are sitting on opposite sides of the same desk. There is nothing in between them but the desk. Why can't they see each other?

Language

What Language Do You Understand?

• Listen to this song. Do you know the language? Can you understand the words of the song in this language?

• Now listen to this song. Do you know the language? Can you understand the words of the song in this language?

COMPLEX

• Of all the things that we do, nothing seems as complex and as important as understanding and speaking a language.

The same in many languages.

• Ik houd van deze klasse. (Dutch)

• J'aime cette classe. (French)

• Ich mag diese Kategorie. (German)

• Συμπαθώ αυτήν την κατηγορία. (Greek)

• Gradisco questo codice categoria. (Italian)

• Я люблю этот тип. (Russian)

What is Language?

• The expression of ideas through symbols and sounds that are arranged according to rules.

Three Elements of Language

• Phonemes– The smallest units of sound– A single letter (e) or a combination of letters (sh)– The English language has about 43 sounds.

• Morphemes– The smallest unit of meaning.– Can be a word (book), a letter (s), a prefix (un), a suffix (ly)

• Syntax– Rules for combining words into meaningful phrases or sentences to

express thoughts that can be understood by others.– Example: “Boy small bike large rode.”

• In English we follow grammatical rules, such as placing adjectives in front of nouns.

– “The small boy rode a large bike.”

Semantics

• The study of meaning in language.

• The same word can have different meaning.– “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”– “Do you mind if I sit here?”

• How did you know what the word mind meant?

Theories of Learning

• B.F. Skinner– Operant conditioning– When children utter sounds that are like those of adults they are

rewarded with smiles and extra attention.

• Others say that children understand language even before they speak.

• Even others say children learn language through observation, exploration, and imitation.

• Noam Chomsky– Infants possess an innate capacity for language; children inherit a

mental program that enables them to learn grammar.

How Language Develops• Around 2 months – coos

– Long sounds• Around 4 months – babbling

– Learn to control their vocal cords and to make, change, repeat and imitate the sounds of their parents.

• Around 9 months – Refined babbling– Increases the sounds that are a part of their native language.

• Around 12 months – Single words– Use words to describe familiar objects. (doggie, da-da, ba-ba)

• Around 24 months – Two words– Expresses ideas– “Milk gone” “Me play” – Beginning to learn the rules of grammar

• At age 2-3 – Sentences of several words– Telegraphic speech – leaves out articles such as the, with, parts of verbs.– “I go to park” “Me ride horse”

• By age 5– Language development is largely complete.

Linguistic Relativity

• How cultures value the same word with different meanings.

• What does the word snow mean to you?

• bill of goods, con, conning, flattery, flimflam, hosing, ripoff, scam, smoke and mirrors, soft sell, soft soap, song and dance, the business betray, bluff, burn*, cheat, chisel, con, deceive, delude, diddle, double-cross, dupe, entice, exploit, finesse, flimflam*, gyp*, have, hoodwink*, impose on, jockey, juggle, lure, manipulate, mislead, play, rook*, rope in*, scam, screw, seduce, shave*, snow*, stick*, string along, suck in*, take, take in, trick

http://www.sesameworkshop.org/tec/index.php