Chapter 9 (Language & Thinking) Flashcards
(61 cards)
Propositional thought
express a proposition, or statement
Example: “I am hungry” or “It is almost time for dinner”
Imaginal thought
Images that we can see, hear or feel in our mind
Example: relaxation exercise – pretending you are on a beach.
Motoric thought
mental representation of motor movement
Example: throwing something
Proposition
statement that express ideas
Example: university students are intelligent people
Propositions consists of concepts combined in a particular way. University students + intelligent people = two different concepts, but one proposition
Concepts
basic units of semantic memory - mental categories into which we place objects, activities, abstractions and events that have essential features in common.
Every psychological term is a concept.
Example: fruit
Mental category that encompasses a wide range of objects: apples, bananas, oranges and pears. - Each fruit would also be its own concept.
Prototypes
the most typical and familiar members of a category, or class.
Eagle is more of a prototype than bat or penguin.
Deductive reasoning
reason from the top down – that is, from general principles to a conclusion about a specific case.
Example: All humans are mortal. Socrates is a human. Therefore, Sokrates must be mortal.
Conditional reasoning (Watson four-card selection task)
Inductive reasoning
reasoning from the bottom up, starting with specific facts and trying to develop a general principle.
Example: John, Lisa and Sam gets a rash from eating peanuts. Therefore, peanuts produce rash. - Not allergies with those individuals.
Difference - inductive and deductive reasoning
Deductive conclusions are certain to be true IF the premise is true
Inductive reasoning leads to the likelihood rather than certainty.
Belief bias
the tendency to abandon logical rule in favour of our own personal beliefs.
Example: Jordan Peterson only eating meat when doctors tell him to have a more balanced diet.
Framing
the idea that the same information, problem or options can be structured and presented in different ways
The stages of problem-solving
- Interpret (frame) and understand the problem
- Generate hypothesis or possible solutions
- Test the solution or hypothesis, seeking to disconfirm one or more of them
- Evaluate results and, if necessary, revise stages 1, 2 or 3.
Mental set
the tendency to stick to solutions that have worked in the past
Example: used to picking up girls in america, and then trying the same technique in another culture.
Problem-solving Schemas
mental blueprints or step-by-step scripts for selecting information and solving specialized classes of problems.
Example: baking a cake
2 Important strategies for problem-solving
Algorithm and Heuristics.
Algorithm
formula or procedure that automatically generates the correct solution.
Example: mathematic division formula
Heuristics
general problem-solving strategies that we can apply to certain classes or situations
Example: Means-end analysis and Subgoal analysis
Means-end analysis
identify differences between the present situation and the desired state, or goal, and then make changes that will reduce these differences.
Example: have a 30 page paper due. Have not written a page. Need to write 30 pages. What needs to be done?
Subgoal analysis
formulating subgoals, or intermediate steps, towards a solution.
Example: LEGO-set
Representativeness heuristic
how closely something or someone fits our prototype for a particular concept, or class, and therefore how likely it is to be a member of that class.
Example: Thinking Magnus, who loves philosophy, is a philosophy or psychology student/professor rather than oil-rig worker.
Availability heuristic
causes us to base judgements and decisions on the availability of information in memory.
Example: thinking shark-attacks are more typically than they are because you just read 2 articles about it – and its fresh in memory.
Confirmation bias
tending to look for evidence that will confirm what we currently believe rather than looking for evidence that could disconfirm our beliefs.
Example: looking up “Why president trump is the best” instead of “Why Trump sucks”
Overconfidence
the tendency to overestimate ones correctness in factual knowledge, beliefs and decisions.
Example: Thinking you are ready for a test, but then realizing you are not.
Divergent thinking
the generation of novel (new) ideas that depart from the norm.
Example: brainstorming for a new marketing campaign to stick out.
