Thinking, Reasoning, and Language: Cognitive Processes in Psychology

Thinking, Reasoning, and Language

Thinking

Thinking refers to any mental activity or processing of information, including learning, remembering, perceiving, communicating, believing, and deciding. Our brains are described as cognitive misers, meaning we invest as little energy as possible in processing information—a phenomenon known as cognitive economy.

• Cognitive Economy: Allows us to simplify what we attend to and keep the information we need for decision making to a manageable minimum.

• Quick Judgments: Judgments of people are often made quickly and on the basis of limited observation.

Example: Deciding whether someone is trustworthy based on a brief interaction.

Heuristics and Biases

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that increase our thinking efficiency, but they can also lead to systematic errors known as cognitive biases.

• Cognitive Bias: Systematic error in thinking—predispositions and default expectations used to interpret experiences.

• Heuristics:

  • Representativeness Heuristic: Judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype, often ignoring base rates.

  • Availability Heuristic: Estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on how easily it comes to mind.

  • Hindsight Bias: The tendency to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it has already occurred.

Example: Believing you "knew it all along" after learning the outcome of an event (hindsight bias).

Top-Down Processing

Top-down processing streamlines cognitive functioning by utilizing pre-existing knowledge to fill in gaps, sparing us from reinventing the wheel each time we encounter information.

• Concepts: Our knowledge and ideas about a set of objects, actions, and characteristics that share core properties.

• Schemas: Organized knowledge structures or mental models that we've stored in memory.

Example: Recognizing a new type of chair as a chair because it fits our concept of what a chair is.

Decision-Making

Decision-making is the process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives. Many daily decisions are made implicitly and based on cognitive economy, but important decisions require more careful analysis.

• Paralysis by Analysis: Overanalyzing can overwhelm us and make decision-making more difficult.

• Framing Effect: The way information is presented (framed) can impact decisions, even when the underlying information is identical.

Example: "5% chance of winning" feels more appealing than "95% chance of losing," despite being equivalent.

Problem Solving

Problem solving involves generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a specific goal. We often rely on algorithms—defined, inflexible step-by-step procedures that always yield the correct answer.

• Algorithms: Useful for tasks like replacing a car starter or making a sandwich.

• Alternative Approaches: When algorithms fail, we can use subgoals or analogical reasoning (applying solutions from similar problems).

Example: Using a recipe (algorithm) to bake a cake; if missing an ingredient, using an analogy to substitute.

Obstacles to Problem Solving

• Mental Sets: Becoming stuck in a specific problem-solving strategy, inhibiting the generation of alternatives.

• Functional Fixedness: Difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used for another.

Example: The candle problem—using a box of tacks as a candle holder requires overcoming functional fixedness.

Language

Nature and Features of Language

Language is an arbitrary system of communication that combines symbols (words or gestural signs) in rule-based ways to create meaning. The arbitrariness means that sounds, words, and sentences bear no clear relation to their meaning.

• Communication: Language allows for the communication of information, as well as social and emotional functions.

Example: The word "dog" does not resemble the animal it represents.

Levels of Language Analysis

• Phonemes: The basic or fundamental sounds of language, influenced by the vocal tract, lips, teeth, and tongue placement.

• Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning in a language (e.g., "dog," "re-", "-ed").

• Syntax: The set of rules by which sentences are constructed.

• Extralinguistic Information: Elements of communication not part of the content of language but critical to interpreting meaning (e.g., facial expressions, tone of voice).

Phonemes

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in any language. There are about 100 distinct phonemes worldwide, but each language uses only a subset.

• English uses 40-45 phonemes; most languages use 15-60.

• Hawaiian uses as few as 13 phonemes.

• Some phonemes are language-specific (e.g., Inuktitut: a, i, u, aa, ai, au).

Morphemes

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language and convey information about semantics (meaning derived from words and sentences).

• Can be full words ("dog") or modifiers ("re-", "-ish", "-ed").

• "re-" means "to do again" (e.g., recall, rewrite).

• "-ish" means "to a moderate degree" (e.g., warmish, pinkish).

• "-ed" indicates an action has already occurred.

Syntax

Syntax refers to the rules by which we construct sentences in a language.

• Correct syntax: "I ate pizza for dinner."

• Incorrect syntax: "Pizza ate I for dinner."

Extralinguistic Information

Extralinguistic information includes elements of communication that are not part of the content of language but are critical to interpreting meaning.

• Facial expressions, tone of voice, and previous statements by others.

• Helps interpret ambiguous information.

• Emails and text messages can be misinterpreted due to lack of extralinguistic cues.

Language Development

Learning Language

Children begin to recognize their native language before birth. By the fifth month of pregnancy, the auditory systems of unborn infants are developed enough to recognize their mothers’ voices and some characteristics of their native language.

• Babbling: Intentional vocalization that lacks meaning, emerges before one year, and allows babies to develop control over vocal tracts.

• Phoneme Recognition: Develops around 8-12 months; infants learn which sounds are relevant for their language.

Learning Words

• Comprehension precedes production—children recognize words before they can say them.

• By 6 months, children recognize their own name; by 10-12 months, they comprehend other words.

• Between 12 and 18 months, children accumulate a vocabulary of 20-100 words.

Syntactic Development

• Combining words into phrases begins after the one-word stage (around one year).

• By two years, children combine two words.

• Children can comprehend basic syntax rules before they can use them in speech.

Sign Language

Sign language is used by deaf communities and relies on visual communication. It is not simply gesturing; it has its own phonemes, words, syntax, and extralinguistic information.

• Same brain areas are involved as in spoken language.

• Developmental stages are the same in spoken and sign languages.

• Deaf babies "babble" with their hands.

Accounts of Language Acquisition

Several theories explain how language is acquired:

• Imitation: Babies learn language by hearing it used systematically and imitating adults. However, this does not account for the generative nature of language (the ability to create novel sentences).

• Nativist: Children are born with some basic knowledge about how language works. Chomsky proposed a language acquisition device—a hypothetical brain construct where knowledge of syntax resides.

• Social Pragmatics: Specific aspects of the social environment structure language learning; children infer meaning from context, actions, and gestures.

• General Cognitive Processing: Language learning results from general cognitive skills applied across activities.

Reading

Reading as a Cognitive Skill

Reading is not a basic cognitive capacity that develops naturally; it must be taught and practiced. Like language, reading becomes an automatic process that does not consume attentional resources.

• Most people find it difficult to ignore printed words, even when the task does not require reading them.

The Stroop Effect

The Stroop Effect demonstrates the automaticity of reading. When asked to name the color of the ink rather than the word itself, people experience interference if the word and color do not match.

Control Condition	Stroop Interference Condition
Rabbit	Red
House	Blue
Blanket	Green
Dance	Yellow
Flower	Purple
Key	Orange
Seven	Black
Dance	Yellow
House	Blue
Key	Orange
Seven	Purple
Flower	Black
Rabbit	Red
Blanket	Green

How Does Reading Become Automatic?

• Whole Word Recognition: Recognizing common words without sounding them out; used for most printed words.

• Phonetic Decomposition (Phonics): Sounding out new words by figuring out the correspondence between letters and sounds; effective for unfamiliar words.

• Training children in sound-letter correspondences improves reading efficiency.

Speed Reading

• The average student reads 200-300 words per minute (WPM).

• There is a speed-accuracy tradeoff: the faster you read, the more you miss.

• Comprehension drops significantly above 400 WPM.

• Speed reading courses may increase speed but often reduce understanding.

Additional info: The notes above are based on textbook slides and lecture notes for a college-level psychology course, specifically covering cognitive processes related to thinking, reasoning, and language.