Chapter 8
Cognitive Processes
Chapter 8 Preview
Studying Cognition
Language Use
Visual Cognition
Problem Solving and Reasoning
Judgment and Decision Making
Recapping Main Points
Concept of Cognition
Processes of knowing, including
Cognition
attending, remembering, and
reasoning
Content of processes (e.g.
concepts and memories)
Cognitive Psychology
Concept of Cognition
Study of higher mental
processes such as attention,
language use, memory,
perception, problem-solving,
and thinking
Domain of Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Science
Concept of Cognition
Interdisciplinary field of
study of systems and
processes that manipulate
information
Domain of Cognitive Science
Studying Cognition
Discovering
Process of
Mind
• F.C. Donders
• Reaction
time
experiments
Mental Processes and Mental Resources
Serial
Processes
Carried out in
order, one
after other
Parallel
Carried out
Processes
simultaneously
Breaking
down HighLevel
Cognitive
Activities
Mental Processes
Responsible for
distributing
Attentional
limited
Processes
processing
resources over
different tasks
Mental Processes
Controlled
Processes
Require
attention
Do not
Automatic
Processes
require
attention
Language Use
Language Production
What people say, sign, and write and processes they go
through to produce message
Speakers versus listeners
Language Use
Audience Design
• Shaping message depending on audience
• H. Paul Grice
Cooperative principle
• Speakers produce utterances appropriate to setting and meaning of
ongoing conversation
Language Use
Audience Design
• Herbert Clark
• Common Ground
• Community membership
• Linguistic co-presence
• Physical co-presence
Speech Execution and Speech Errors
Processes
Representations
Speech Execution and Speech Errors
Spoonerism
• “You have tasted the whole worm!”
• “Tips of the slung”
Language Understanding
Brain Bases of Ambiguity Resolution
Products of Understanding
Inferences
• Missing information filled in on basis of sample of evidence
or on basis of prior beliefs and theories
• Number of potential inferences after utterance is unlimited
Language and Evolution
Critical Thinking in Your Life
• Why and how do people lie?
• How might people’s motives for lying
affect the validity of research on lying?
• What does the study on page 219 of your
text suggest about ethical constraints for
studying lying in a laboratory setting?
Language, Thought, and Culture
Does language affect thought?
Linguistic Relativity
Edward Sapir and Benjamin
Whorf
Structure of language impacts
way in which individual thinks
about world
Visual Cognition
Ability to engage in
efficient mental rotation
depends partially on
Visual images answer
certain questions about
visual experiences
world
Visual images can be
based on verbal imagery
Rotated R Used to Assess Mental Imagery
Problem Solving and Reasoning
• Thinking
directed toward
Problem
Solving
solving specific
problems
• Moves from
initial state to a
goal by mental
operations
Problem Solving
Problem Space
Well-defined
Problem
Ill-defined
Problem
• Elements that make
up a problem
Problem Solving
Algorithm
• Step-by-step procedure
• Always provides right
answer
• Cognitive strategies
Heuristic
(“rules of thumb”)
• Shortcuts to solving
complex inferential
tasks
Problem Solving
• Verbalizing
Think-
aloud
Protocols
ongoing
thoughts
while
working on
task
Problem Solving
• Inability to
perceive new
Functional
use for object
Fixedness
associated
previously
with some
other purpose
Problem Solving
Creativity
Ability to generate ideas or
products that are both novel and
appropriate to the
circumstances
Problem Solving
Creativity
• Divergent thinking
• Convergent thinking
• Insight
Making Judgments about Creativity
Reasoning
Reasoning
Process of thinking in which
conclusions are drawn from a
set of facts
Directed toward given goal
Deductive Reasoning
Deductive
Belief-bias
Reasoning
Effect
Drawing conclusions by
Prior knowledge,
logically following two
attitudes, or values
or more statements
distort reasoning
Inductive Reasoning
Inductive
Analogical
Reasoning
Problem Solving
Conclusion made
about probability based
on available evidence
and past experience
Mental Set
Judging and Deciding
Judgment
Forming opinions, reaching conclusions, and making critical evaluations
Decision Making
Choosing between alternatives
Heuristic and Judgment
Availability Heuristic
• Judgment based on information readily available in memory
Representative Heuristic
• Assigns object to category on basis of few characteristics
Anchoring heuristic
• People show insufficient adjustment up or down from original
starting value when judging probable value of outcome
Psychology of Decision Making
Framing
Consequences of
Decisions
Decision Making
Decision
Aversion
Recapping Chapter 8 Main Points
Studying Cognition
• Discovering the Processes of the Mind
• Mental Process and Mental Resources
Language Use
• Production
• Understanding
• Language Evolution
• Language Thought and Culture
Recapping Chapter 8 Main Points
Visual Cognition
• Using Visual Representation
• Combining Verbal and Visual Representations
Problem Solving and Reasoning
• Problem Solving
• Deductive Reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
Recapping Chapter 8 Main Points
Judgment and Decision Making
• Heuristics and Judgment
• Psychology of Decision Making