3-language and thought Flashcards
cognition
- how we think
- Past experiences, beliefs, emotion, creativity, language, problem solving
- Cognition is an essential feature of human consciousness, yet not all aspects of cognition are consciously experienced
cognitive psychology
field of psych dedicated to examining how people think
concept
- group/categories of shared features of related objects, events, or stimuli
- Help organize the world
Informed by semantic memory
- Help organize the world
types of concepts
concrete: Fruit, Clouds
complex: Psychology, Pythagoras’ theorem
Natural—experienced in the world, can construct an understanding of it through direct observation
- Snow/fruit/birds
- Artificial—understood through a set of properties, characteristics, build on one-another
- area of a square/Pythagoras’ theorem/dictionary definitions
Prototype
- the best example of a concept, possess many if not all of the characteristics of the category
- Varies from person to person
- The closer the new object is to the prototype, the better example of a object it would be considered
- People make category judgements (does this new example belong to the category) based off the category’s prototype
- We make probability judgements by comparing an object or event with its prototype
- Helps us understand and predict the world
Schemas
represents clusters of related concepts, help us organize information, allows the brain to work more efficiently. helps you fill in gaps in the information you receive from the world around you.
Role schema
How a person should behave based on their categorization
event schema
- AKA Cognitive scripts
- What do you do in certain events
- When we are uncertain about events schemas… we look to others
- Some are more powerful than others!
- Taking an exam > going out to a bar
LANGUAGE
a system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules and that convey meaning
lexicon
the words of a given language, vocavulary
GRAMMAR
the set of rules that are used to convey meaning through the use of the lexicon
PHONEMES
- Smallest of the language
- 44 different phonemes in English
- Ch / ph / sh / ai / igh / ee / oo
PHONETIC RULES
how we can combine phonemes to produce sounds
MORPHEMES
- smallest meaningful units of language
- We can combine phonemes to make this
MORPHOLOGICAL RULES
- how we combine morphemes to remix words
- We use grammar to construct language
SEMANTICS
what words mean
SYNTAX
how words are organized
behaviourist view on language acquisition
- we learn language through reinforcements
- Skinner said that language is learned through reinforcement
Nativists view on language acquisition
- innate, biological capacity for language (language acquisition device)
- Noam Chomsky said NO it’s biologically determined
- More difficult to learn language after puberty
- Initial language leaves lasting traces in the brain
- Similar language development irrespective of culture
Interactionists view on language acquisition
Combination of behaviourist principles and nativists
babies and phenomena?
Babies are born with the ability to make all phenomena from all languages
Telegraphic speech
no function morphemes, only content
fast mapping
the ability of children to acquire new words and concepts with minimal exposure to them.
overgeneralization
an extension of a language rule to an exception to the rule
LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY HYPOTHESIS
- language shapes the nature of thought (Benjamin Whorf 1956)
- A language which does not have a linguistic feature will struggle when dealing with related concepts
- No past tense in a language — struggle when thinking about the past
- A language which does not have a linguistic feature will struggle when dealing with related concepts
criticisms of the linguistic relativity hypothesis
a lot of “evidence” for this hypothesis is anecdotal
- Some researchers suggest Whorf was half-right
trial and error
try different solutions till you land on the one that works
Algorithm
problem-solving formula with step-by-step instructions
Heuristic
- rules-of-thumb/mental shortcut
- We use them most often when:
- There is too much information
- There is too little time
- We don’t really care (decision unimportant)
- There is little information
- We use them most often when:
Mental set
approaching a problem in the same way that has worked in the past…but is not working now
- Several biases
Functional fixedness
seeing the function of an object as unchanging
Anchoring bias
using an initial piece of information (the anchor) to make further judgments
Confirmation bias
focusing on information that confirms your existing beliefs
Representative bias
unintentionally stereotype someone/something because they look like a good representation
Availability heuristic
information that is readily available is judged as more likely to have happened (or happen)
Hindsight bias
the likelihood of something → you predicted it all along HUHUHU
