Transcript 02_Thought_and_Language

Thought and Language
(PS) 264-271
Discuss with your partner.
Someone leaves a beautiful puppy at your door. You don’t like
animals, but you know it would be a great birthday present for your 7
year-old child. He loves animals and so does your husband/wife.
However, you know that your apartment is too small and they aren’t
careful enough to take care of the puppy so you will probably end up
taking care of and cleaning it. What would you do?
•(PS) 264-271
BASIC FUNCTIONS OF THOUGHT:
INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM
Approach that studies human thought processes and compares
them with the way computers process information. Thinking is
defined as the manipulation of mental representations.
Incoming
stimulus
Stage 1
SENSORY
PROCESSING
Stage 2
PERCEPTION
(description)
(elaboration)
Stage 3
DECISION
MAKING
(Planning)
Stage 4
RESPONSE
SELECTION
(Action)
Stage 5
RESPONSE
EXECUTION
(Action)
INFORMATION-PROCESSING SPEED:
Reaction Time
• Mental chronometry: timing of mental events
• Reaction time: time elapsing between stimulus and response
- complexity: if you have a large number of possible responses, then
your reaction time will be longer.
- stimulus-response compatibility: if the spatial relationship between
your stimuli and possible response are not compatible, then
your
reaction time will be slower.
- expectancy: if you already expect some kind of stimulus, your reaction
time will be faster.
- speed-accuracy tradeoff: your errors will increase in a task if you try
to respond quickly. On the other hand, if you try for an errorfree performance, your reaction time will increase.
INFORMATION-PROCESSING SPEED:
Reaction Time
•complexity:
•stimulus-response
compatibility:
•expectancy:
•speed-accuracy tradeoff:
MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS: The ingredients
of thought.
– PROCESS OF THOUGHT

» describe
» elaborate
» decide
» plan
WHAT?
» act
Information
MENTAL CHRONOMETY
( reaction time)
4. propositions.
1. Cognitive
maps
2. images
3. concept schemas
and scripts
1. COGNITIVE MAPS
(conceptual, mind, sketch)
•Cognitive maps: mental
representations of familiar parts
of your world. Experience shapes
cognitive maps.
•Maps are not accurate copies of
the environment; they include
systematic distortions.
2. IMAGES
• Images are mental representations
of visual information.
• Manipulations performed on images
of objects are very similar to those
that would be performed on the
objects themselves.
• The more and finer details in
question, the longer the response
time takes.
3. CONCEPT SCHEMAS and EVENT SCRIPTS.
• They’re a way of thinking about the world that encodes the meaning of things.
•Through the manipulation of concepts, which are categories of objects, events, or
ideas with common properties.
– concrete and visual
– abstract
– artificial
– natural
•When you have a concept. You recognize the properties, relationships or features
that are shared by and define the members of a category
•Scripts: schemas about familiar sequences of events or activities
PROPOSITIONS
• Mental representations of relationships between and among
concepts, the smallest units of knowledge that can stand as a
separate assertion.
•Spoken or unspoken
•Describe relationships between concepts
•Describe the relationship between a concept and its
properties
• Vocabulary
- Parts of the body
- Parts of the house
- Feelings
- Family relationships
- Verbs
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Verb “to be”
Simple present
Simple past
Past continuous
Present perfect