Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
Module 14
Thought & Language

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
FORMING CONCEPTS
• Concept
– a way to group or classify objects, events,
animals, or people based on some features,
traits, or characteristics that they all share in
common
• Exemplar model
– form a concept of an object, event, animal, or
person by defining or making a mental list of the
essential characteristics of a particular thing

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
FORMING CONCEPTS (CONT.)
• Prototype theory
– form a concept by creating a mental image that is
based on the average characteristics of an object
• Functions of concepts
– organize information
– group things into categories an thus better
organize and store information in memory
– avoid relearning
– can be used to classify and categorize things, you
can easily classify new things without having to
relearn what that thing is

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
SOLVING PROBLEMS
• Problem solving
– involves searching for some rule, plan, or strategy
that results in our reaching a certain goal that is
currently out of reach
• Different ways of thinking
– algorithms
– are fixed set of rules that, if followed correctly, will
eventually lead to a solution

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
SOLVING PROBLEMS (CONT.)
• Different ways of thinking
– Heuristics
• rules of thumb, or clever and creative mental
shortcuts, that reduce the number of
operations and allow one to solve problems
more easily and quickly
– Availability heuristic
• says that we rely on information that is more
prominent or easily recalled and overlook other
information that is available but less prominent
or notable

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
SOLVING PROBLEMS (CONT.)
• Different ways of thinking
– Artificial intelligence
• means of programming machines (computers,
robots) to imitate human thinking and problem-
solving abilities
– Three strategies for solving problems
• changing one’s mental set
• functional fixedness
• refers to a mental set that is characterized by
the inability to see an object as having a
function different from its usual one

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
SOLVING PROBLEMS (CONT.)
• Using analogies
– a strategy for finding a similarity between the new
situation and an old, familiar situation
• Forming subgoals
– a strategy that involves breaking down the overall
problem into separate parts that, when completed
in order, will result in a solution

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
THINKING CREATIVELY
• How is creativity defined?
– Creative thinking
• combination of flexibility in thinking and
reorganization of understanding to produce
innovative ideas and new or novel solutions
– Creative individual
• someone who regularly solves problems,
fashions products, or defines new questions
that make an impact on his or her society

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
THINKING CREATIVELY (CONT.)
• How is creativity defined?
– Psychometric approach
• uses objective problem-solving tasks to
measure creativity, focuses on the distinction
between two kinds of thinking—convergent
and divergent
– Convergent thinking
• means beginning with a problem and coming
up with a single correct solution
– Divergent thinking
• means beginning with a problem and coming
up with many different solutions

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
THINKING CREATIVELY (CONT.)
• How is creativity defined?
– Case study approach
• analyzes creative persons in great depth and
thus provides insight into their development,
personality, motivation, and problems
– Cognitive approach
• tries to build a bridge between the objective
measures of the psychometric approach and
the subjective descriptions provided by case
studies
• cognitive approach identifies and measures
cognitive mechanisms that are used during
creative thinking

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES
• Four rules of language
1. Phonology
• specifies how we make the meaningful sounds
that are used by a particular language
• phonemes
• basic sounds of consonants and vowels
2. Morphology
• system that we use to group phonemes into
meaningful combinations of sound and words
• morphene
• smallest meaningful combination of sounds in
a language

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Four rules of language
3. Syntax, or grammar
• set of rules that specifies how we combine
words to form meaningful phrases and
sentences
1. Semantics
• specifies the meaning of words or phrases
when they appear in various sentences or
contexts

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Understanding language
– Chomsky’s theory of language
• Norm Chomsky
• says that all languages share a common
universal grammar and that children inherit a
mental program to learn this universal
grammar

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
p313 SPEECH CENTERS

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Understanding language
– Mental grammar
• allows us to combine nouns, verbs, and
objects in an endless variety of meaningful
sentences
• innate brain program
• makes learning the general rules of grammar
relatively easy

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
LANGUAGE: BASIC RULES (CONT.)
• Different structure, same meaning
– Surface structure
• refers to the actual wording of a sentence, as it
is spoken
– Deep structure
• refers to an underlying meaning that is not
spoken but is present in the mind of the
listener
– Transformational rules
• procedures by which we convert our ideas
from surface structures into deep structures
and from deep structures back into surface
ones

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE
• Language stages
– refers to all infants going through four different
periods or stages—babbling, single words, two-
word combinations, and sentences
1. begins about 6 months, is the first stage in
acquiring language
2. single word
• second stage in acquiring language, which
occurs at about 1 year of age

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• Language stages
2. single word (cont.)
– parentese (motherese)
– way of speaking to young children in which the
adult speaks in a slower and higher than normal
voice, emphasizes and stretches our each word,
uses very simple sentences, and repeats words
and phrases
3. two-word combinations
– represents the third stage in acquiring language,
occurs at about 2 years of age

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• Language stages
4. sentences
– represents the fourth stage of acquiring language,
occurs at about 4 years of age
• Telegraphic speech
– distinctive pattern of speaking in which the child
omits articles (the), prepositions (in, out), and
parts of verbs

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• What are innate factors?
– genetically programmed physiological and
neurological features that facilitate our making
speech sounds and acquiring language skills
– Innate physiological factors
• special adapted vocal apparatus (larynx and
pharynx) that allows us to make sounds and
form words
– Innate neurological features
• left hemisphere of the brain is prewired to
acquire and use language, whether spoken or
signed

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• What are innate factors?
– Innate developmental factors
• critical language period
• time from infancy to adolescence when
language is easiest to learn
• more difficult to learn anytime after
adolescence

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• What are environmental factors?
– refer to interactions children have with parents,
peers, teachers, and others who provide
feedback that rewards and encourages language
development, as well as provides opportunities
for children to observe, imitate, and practice
language skills
• Social cognitive learning
– emphasizes the acquisition of language skills
through social interactions, which give children a
chance to observe, imitate, and practice the
sounds, words, and sentences they hear from
their parents or caregivers

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
REASON, THOUGHT & LANGUAGE
• Two kinds of reasoning
– Reasoning
• means thinking, is a mental process that
involves using and applying knowledge to
solve problems, make plans or decisions, and
achieve goals
– Deductive reasoning
• begins with making a general assumption that
you know or believe to be true and then
drawing specific conclusions based on this
assumption

Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition, Rod Plotnik
Module 14: Thought & Language
REASON, THOUGHT & LANGUAGE (CONT.)
• Two kinds of reasoning
– Inductive reasoning
• making particular observations that you then
use to draw a broader conclusion
– Theory of Linguistic Relativity
• states that differences among languages result
in similar differences in how people think and
perceive the world