Cognitive Psychology
Denise Trentman
Student ID # AC1904704
PS400 Cognitive Psychology
Assignment # 08
August 19, 2021
The third major feature of language is pragmatics. Using examples, explain the role of pragmatics in human speech.
Language is a system of symbols used to express thoughts between two or more people. Language makes use of both mental and social images. An author connects with a reader using letter and word representations to get across concepts. In a speech, speakers and listeners share mental images using voiced rather than written expressions. All languages share four fundamental characteristics: children learn them, adults can articulate and understand them quickly, they catch concepts that people typically communicate, and they allow contact between groups of people in a social and socio-cultural context.
Language pragmatics is how people interpret language in context while using their experiences of the environment and their perceptions of how other speakers communicate. In terms of pragmatics, signs refers not to physical signs but to subtle movements, gestures, tone of voice, and body language that often accompany speech (Nordquist, 2019). The most crucial theory in pragmatics is called the cooperative principle, which believes that your conversational partner is engaging with you to strive to get meaning across honestly. Our knowledge of pragmatics, our understanding of syntax and floral phonology, are effortlessly deployed but require many complex computations. For example, if I were to say, “give me that book”, that would be very sweet of you! You must understand that this book is offered to me as a well-mannered command.You’re not interpreting. You’re not reading as a reflection about a theoretical set of circumstances, and you’re just assuming that I needed something and used the series of words to express the demands respectfully. Another example is when you ask someone to lend you a hand. It’s not an offer to the individual to lend you their hand to help you out. Understanding the vocabulary means finding an antecedent of the pronouns. This illustrates that language comprehension is a vast array of human behavior, human experiences, human relationships, and we sometimes have to use that context information. Pragmatics relates to the manner wherein speakers express their thoughts and intentions based on a social sense. A speech act is a phrase and is the pronunciation to express the speaker’s intention in a manner that the listener would understand. The act of direct speech takes a grammatical form adapted to a specific purpose.
Describe the pros and cons of different ideas about the origins of language, including the difficulties involved in establishing evidence for any one perspective.
The roots of language are uncertain, and some claim it evolved and formed through gestures. Others argue that vocabulary has developed due to human beings’ great brains. Another tool used to locate the language’s roots potentially is researching ancient languages’ written signs and documents. However, this takes us only back about 10,000 years ago, while homo sapiens and other hominids, possibly using some form of language, go even deeper in history. The pros are that we know how the human brain functions and how it evolved, based on the skulls’ form and scale. On either hand, we’re never going to know precisely if these organisms are the long-discussed theory because the language has evolved from gestures. However, it seems that speech and gestures may well have developed together. When our ancestors first started to express their feelings to other people, they wanted to refer to particular objects and relate certain items. Understanding that movements are coordinated frequently to communicate context in time with oral statements. Spoken and gestural outputs are both coordinated congenitally blind individuals who have never seen a human gesturing. It may be that gestural and spoken performance evolved in parallel, with each one focusing on the contact of different forms. A whole other theory is that vocabulary has developed due to a human’s large brain. Language may be an example of taking an established biological system and modifying it to a new purpose. The difficulty with that view is that language is indeed a very complex function. Adapting an internal structure to accommodate such a dynamic new feature would appear uncommon. As Atchison observed, “ A species of wading bird utilizes its wings as a sunshade: there is no proof of birds using what’s been a sunshade as wings”.
A viable alternative is that language, communication, and a large brain have evolved concurrently. As our early hominid descendants were living together in overwhelmingly large communities, social contact levels increased. Manipulation may have been a more important advantage of gaining food, water, and shelter necessary for survival.Social powers may have preferred a significantly larger brain and may have chosen a means of communication and interaction simultaneously. Therefore, language and brain capacity may have fed each other throughout the evolution process, and more advanced communication methods may have demanded more complicated brain structures.
Explain the four stages of creativity that are generally recognized by cognitive psychologists. Illustrate each stage based on a single conceivable problem you might like to pursue.
The first stage is the preparation, which includes gathering information and materials, identifying sources of inspiration, and acquiring knowledge about the project or problem at hand ( Gregoire, 2021). The development of a product that deserves society’s recognition takes years of education and careful practice to succeed in results. Preparation also carries over into every day acts of creativity, such as figuring out what to write for a term paper, seeking answers to a problem, or coming up with an arrangement for a vegetable garden. In day to day cases, the preparation process is not as extensive. However, when it comes to something that takes a more extended period, such as a sizable detailed painting, it can require support from those around the individual focusing on creating. The second step in the creative process is incubation which refers to putting the problem aside and doing other things. This phase can vary in duration and form; when working on a creative project, one may incubate by taking a vacation. Sometimes when puzzling over a difficult problem for a class, one may incubate by listening to music, coloring, or going out to eat. Despite the specific case, incubation requires thinking about something aside from the problem or project that has been the primary focus.
The third stage in the process is illumination, when the crucial insight seizes consciousness. It is the “Aha!” moment of an experience that indicates solutions to the problem at hand. Illumination may represent the breakdown of a mental system that led the problem solver in the opposite direction. Illumination or insight is a belief, dubious occurrence, not a long-lasting, fully detailed resolution. The fourth stage is verification, in which the details of the solution are filled in and closely reviewed, and are always observed. It could turn out that illumination failed to present an appropriate solution to problems. The artist uses critical thinking and aesthetic judgment skills to hone and refine the work and then communicate its value to others ( Gregoire, 2021).
In the context of conditional reasoning and cognitive constraints on conditional reasoning. (1.) Define the confirmation bias in general terms, providing salient examples. (2.) Describe and explain the types of belief confirmation related to political climate, again providing relevant examples.
Confirmation biases the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs (Casad, 2019). People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. Once we have formed a view, we embrace information that confirms that view while ignoring, or rejecting information that casts doubt on it. Confirmation bias suggests that we don’t perceive circumstances objectively. For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they place greater importance on this “evidence” that supports what they already believe. This person might even seek proof that further backs up this belief while discounting examples that don’t support the idea. People who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information to support it, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas (Cherry, 2021).
In the current political climate, we have different types of confirmation bias. Myside bias derives from the fact that people seek and interpret facts in a bias-based way that promotes their own pre-existing political, ethical, religious, economic perception and thoughts. For example, gun control. People that are pro-gun control will only look at the negative effects of owning guns and looks for evidence that supports his current point of view. In this case, people prefer the one-sided view instead of the two-sided view. The two-sided view leaves room for argumentation where it shows the pros and cons of a certain situation or subject. It is difficult to think about arguments in a dispassionate, reasonable manner when it comes to personal belief systems, and a high degree of cognitive capabilities does not alter this fact.
Reference
Casad, B. (2019). Confirmation bias. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias.
Cherry, K. (2021). Why do we favor information that confirms our existing beliefs? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-confirmation-bias-2795024.
Gregoire, C., WeWork, & Bratskeir, K. (2021, July 8). Understanding the four stages of the creative process. Ideas. https://www.wework.com/ideas/professional-development/creativity-culture/understanding-the-four-stages-of-the-creative-process.
Kellogg, R. T. (2016). Fundamentals of cognitive psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications
Nordquist, R. (2019). Pragmatics helps place language in context. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/pragmatics-language-1691654.
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