Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Language and Thought287Like the availability heuristic, the representativeness heuristic can lead to inaccuratejudgments. Consider the following description:Maria is a perceptive, sensitive, introspective woman. She is very articulate, but measuresher words carefully. Once she’s certain she knows what she wants to say, sheexpresses herself easily and confidently. She has a strong preference to work alone.On the basis of this description, is it more likely that Maria is a successful fictionwriter or that Maria is a registered nurse? Most people guess that she is a successfulfiction writer. Why? Because the description seems to mesh with what many peoplethink of as the typical characteristics of a writer.However, when you compare the number of registered nurses (which is verylarge) to the number of successful female fiction writers (which is very small), it’sactually much more likely that Maria is a nurse. Thus, the representativenessheuristic can produce faulty estimates if (1) we fail to consider possible variationsfrom the prototype or (2) we fail to consider the approximate number of prototypesthat actually exist.What determines which heuristic is most likely to be used? Research suggests thatthe availability heuristic is most likely to be used when people rely on informationheld in their long-term memory to determine the likelihood of events occurring.On the other hand, the representativeness heuristic is more likely to be used whenpeople compare different variables to make predictions (Harvey, 2007).The Critical Thinking box “The Persistence of Unwarranted Beliefs” on the nextpage discusses some of the other psychological factors that can influence the way inwhich we evaluate evidence, make decisions, and draw conclusions.Solution to Figure 7.4Language and ThoughtKey Theme• Language is a system for combining arbitrary symbols to produce an infinitenumber of meaningful statements.Key Questions• What are the characteristics of language?• How does language affect thinking?• How have nonhuman animals been shown to use language?The human capacity for language is surely one of the most remarkable of all ourcognitive abilities. With little effort, you produce hundreds of new sentences everyday. And you’re able to understand the vast majority of the thousands of wordscontained in this chapter without consulting a dictionary.Human language has many special qualities—qualities that make it flexible,versatile, and complex. Language can be formally defined as a system for combiningarbitrary symbols to produce an infinite number of meaningful statements.We’ll begin our discussion of the relationship between language and thought bydescribing these special characteristics of language. In Chapter 9, we’ll discusslanguage development in children.Solution to Figure 7.5 Most people try tocorrect the equations in Figure 7.5 by movinga matchstick that changes one of thenumbers. Why? Because solving the mathproblems that we are assigned in schoolalmost always involves manipulating thenumbers, not the arithmetic signs. Whilethis assumption is a useful one in solvingthe vast majority of math problems—especially the ones that you are assignedas homework—it is an example of a mentalset that can block you from arriving atnew, creative solutions to problems.The Characteristics of LanguageThe purpose of language is to communicate—to express meaningful information ina way that can be understood by others. To do so, language requires the use of symbols.These symbols may be sounds, written words, or, as in American Sign Language,formalized gestures.