Chapter 10      Thinking and Language         (CR7, CR15, CR16)

Chapter 10 Objectives:

1. Describe the nature of concepts and the role of prototypes in concept formation.

2. Discuss how we use trial and error, algorithms, heuristics, and insight to solve problems.

3. Describe how the confirmation bias and fixation can interfere with effective problem solving.

4. Explain how the representativeness and availability heuristics influence our judgments.

5. Describe the effects that overconfidence and framing can have on our judgments and decisions.

6. Discuss how our beliefs distort logical reasoning, and describe the belief perseverance phenomenon.

7. Describe artificial intelligence, and contrast the human mind and the computer as information processors.

8. Describe the structure of language in terms of sounds, meanings, and grammar.

9. Trace the course of language acquisition from the babbling stage through the two-word stage.

10. Explain how the nature-nurture debate is illustrated in the various theories of language development.

11. Discuss Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis and the relationship between thought and language.

12. Describe the research on animal intelligence and communication and discuss the controversy over whether animals have language.