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How Do ChildrenAcquire Language?
Infants and children face an especially important
developmental task with the acquisition of language
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How Children Acquire Language
Inborn Universal Grammar – Chomsky – nature stance – inborn- amazing rate of language growth
Skinner / nurture– association of sights of things and sound and reinforcement
Linguistic determinism – Whorf – language determines HOW we think
Language acquisition device (LAD) – Structure in the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar
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How Children Acquire Language
Early stages of language acquisition include the following:
1. The babbling stage2. The one-word stage3. The two-word stage4. Telegraphic speech (short, simple
sentences)5. The naming explosion
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The Rules of Grammar Grammar –
The rules of a language Morphemes –
Meaningful units of language that make up words
Overregularization –Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms(e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”)
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Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses
information from the senses, emotions, and memory to
create and manipulate mental representations, such as
concepts, images, schemas, and scripts
What Are theComponents of Thought?
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Concepts Concepts –
Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience Natural concepts represent objects and
events Artificial concepts are defined by rules
• We organize much of our declarative memories into concept hierarchies
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Animal
FishBird
SalmonSharkOstrichCanary
Has skinEats
Breathes
Has finsCan swimHas gills
Has wingsCan fly
Has feathers
Can singIs yellow
Can’t flyIs tall
Can biteIs dangerous
Is pinkIs edible
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Thought and the Brain
Event-related potentials – Brain waves shown on an EEG in response to stimulation
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Schemas and Scripts Help you Know What to Expect
Schema – A knowledge cluster or general framework that provides expectations about topics, events, objects, people, and situations in one’s life
Script – A cluster of knowledge about sequences of events and actions expected to occur in particular settings
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Good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective
algorithms and heuristics, they know how to avoid the
common impediments to problem solving and decision
making
What Abilities Do GoodThinkers Possess?
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Problem Solving
Good problem solvers are skilled at Identifying the problem Selecting a strategy
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Selecting a Strategy Algorithms –
Problem-solving procedures or formulas that guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied
Heuristics – Cognitive strategies used as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks; they do not guarantee a correct solution
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Heuristics
Useful heuristics include: Working backward Searching for analogies Breaking a big problem into smaller
problems
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Obstacles to Problem Solving
Mental set – Tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used for a previous problem
Functional fixedness – Inability to perceive a newuse for an object associatedwith a different purpose
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Unscramble These Words
nelin ensce sdlen lecam slfal dlchi neque
raspe klsta nolem dlsco hsfle naorg egsta
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Unscrambled Words linen scene lends camel falls child queen
pears talks melon colds shelf groan gates
The algorithm you used to solve the first column probably kept you from seeing the multiple
solutions for the words in the second column
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Obstacles to Problem Solving
Other obstacles include: Self-imposed limitations Lack of interest Fatigue Drugs (legal and illegal)
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The Nine-Dot Problem
. . .
. . .
. . .
Without lifting your pen from the page, can you connect all nine dots with only four lines?
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Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias
Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias
Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias
Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias
Availability BiasAvailability Bias
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Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
Ignoring or finding fault with information that does not fit our opinions, and seeking information with which we agree
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
Tendency, after learning about an event, to believe that one could have predicted the event in advance
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring BiasAnchoring Bias
Representativeness Bias
Availability Bias
Faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a completely unrelated quantity
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Judging and Making Decisions
Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Anchoring Bias
Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias
Availability Bias
Faulty heuristic strategy based on presumption that, once a person or event is categorized, it shares all features of other members in that category
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