PS102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: The Problem Solvers, Representativeness Heuristic, Conjunction Fallacy
Document Summary
Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge. (thinking) Language consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those symbols that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages. The symbolic nature of language greatly expands what people can communicate about. Symbols allow one to refer to objects that may be in another place and to events that happened at another time. Language symbols are flexible in that a variety of somewhat different objects may called by the same name. A limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite variety of ways to generate an endless array of novel messages. People can generate an infinite variety of sentences, these sentences must be structured in a limited number of ways. The structure of language allows people to be inventive with words and still understand each other.
