origin of term, 3-4 value of imperfections and, 163
64 Kuhn, Deanna, 173 Kunda, Ziva, 55-57
l'Acadיmie franחaise, 100 language ambiguity in, 96,98,100-101,11821,164-65 attempts to systematize, 101-3,
104-5 change and, 110-12 formal structure of, 113-21 irregularities in, 1,15,95-101,121
22 neural substrates of, 13 as perfect, 114-16 as source of truth, 65-67 sources of idiosyncrasy in, 105 speech sounds and, 105-10,122 word meanings and, 110-13,114
Lappin, Shalom, 114 larynx, 106-7 law of large numbers, 167 Lederer, Richard, 1 Lerner, Melvyn, 142 Leslie, Sarah-Jane, 113 Levine, Linda, 30 Loewenstein, George, 89 Loftus, Elizabeth, 28-29 logical reasoning, 60-62.
decision making
belief and, 62-64
decision making and, 87-90
language and, 111
losing touch with reality, 155-58.
machine translation, ii9n manic depression.
der Mann, Merlin, 24 Marx, Chico, 65 memorization, 35,173 memory, 18-39.
memory common quirks of, 18-20,31-34 in people vs.
computers, 19-24 as unconscious, 24-25mental contamination, 43-51 mental errors, 144-49 mental illness, 149-60
context and, 15m evolutionary psychology and, 151 55 recurring patterns in, 149-51 mere familiarity effect.
mind
Nash, Ogden, 110 naturalistic fallacy, 164 natural selection.
objectivity confirmation bias and, 53-55 motivated reasoning and, 55-57 subjective impressions and, 45
onomatopoeia, 108 opportunity costs, 169 optimization, 6-9 Orgel, Leslie, 16 Orwell, George, 29-30 others, attitudes toward familiarity and, 50 happiness and, 125,142 overgeneralization, 159-60
paralinguistic information, 114,119 21 paranoia, 156 parentheses, i2on "partial matching," logic of, 111-12 perception belief and, 65-67 choice and, 89 perfection evolutionary history and, 9-11, 16-17,162-63 human language and, 96-101,11316 value of imperfections and, 16364 Perkins, David, i74n Perot, Ross, 30 personalization, 159-60 Pew Research Center, 2007 survey, 58 "Philosophy for Children" curriculum, 175-76 phonation, 106 phonemes, 109-10 physical disorders, beneficial, 152 Pinker, Steven, 7,36,116,135 Piraha (Amazonian language), 113 "pitchfork effect," 42
Plato, 101 pleasure context and, 138-39 duration of, 135-38 evolution of, 124-27,128-35 mental illness and, 158-59 self-deception and, 139-43 "pleasure technologies," 135 poetry, 38,97n, 164 pointing-at-circles task, 71-72
quantifiers, 112-13
Rachlin, Howard, 85-86 rational choice theory evolution and, 72,75-76, 84 reaching and, 70-71
relative sense of value and, 73-75, 78-80 sunk costs and, 77-78 weakness of the will and,
sample size, 167 satisficing, 11 Schacter, Dan, 37 schizophrenia, 151,158