228 Chapter 7 Thinking and Intelligence
You are about to learn...
• the basic elements of thought.• whether the language you speak affects the way
you think.
• how conscious and nonconscious thinking help
us and can also cause trouble.
• why we must sometimes resort to rules of thumb
to solve problems.
• some insights about insight and intuition.thought: Using What
We Know
In 2011, when an IBM computer named Watson
defeated two incredibly smart human beings on
Jeopardy, the world was abuzz about whether that
meant machines would finally outthink people.
Cognitive scientists were quick to point out that
the human mind is far more complex than a com-
puter; yes, the machines may be fast, but they
have yet to learn to make puns and jokes, acquire
an immediate insight into another person’s feel-
ings, or write a play or book. Nonetheless, there
are also similarities between the mind and the
machine: Both of them actively process infor-
mation by altering it, organizing it, and using it
to make decisions. Just as computers internally
manipulate representations of 0s and 1s to “think,”so we mentally manipulate internal representa-
tions of objects, activities, and situations.The Elements of Cognition LO 7.1
One type of mental representation is the concept,
a mental category that groups objects, relations,
activities, abstractions, or qualities having com-
mon properties. The instances of a concept are
seen as roughly similar: Golden retriever, cocker
spaniel, and border collie are instances of the con-
cept dog; and anger, joy, and sadness are instances
of the concept emotion. Concepts simplify and
summarize information about the world so that it
is manageable and so that we can make decisions
quickly and efficiently. You may never have seen
a basenji or eaten escargot, but if you know that
the first is an instance of dog and the second an
instance of food, you will know, roughly, how to
respond (unless you do not like to eat snails, which
is what escargot are).
Watch the Video The Big Picture: I Am,
Therefore I Think at MyPsychLab
Basic concepts have a moderate number of
instances and are easier to acquire than those
having either few or many instances (Rosch,
1973). The concept apple is more basic than fruit,
which includes many more instances and is more
abstract. It is also more basic than Braeburn apple,
which is quite specific. Children seem to learn
basic-level concepts earlier than others, and adultsconcept A mental cat-
egory that groups objects,
relations, activities,
abstractions, or quali-
ties having common
properties.
basic concepts
Concepts that have a mod-
erate number of instances
and that are easier to
acquire than those having
few or many instances.
Some instances of a concept are more representative or prototypical than others. A bachelor is an unmarried man, but
during the years that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were in a romantic relationship and even shared a home,
was he a “bachelor”? Is the Pope a bachelor? What about actor Alan Cumming, who married his long-time male part-
ner in New York in 2012, but whose marriage would not be recognized in most American states?