CH 8 Flashcards
Language and Thought
1
Q
What are 4 common properties of human language?
A
- Symbolic
- Semantic
- Generative
- Structured
2
Q
Describe Symbolic language property
A
spoken and written words to represent objective, actions, events, and ideas
3
Q
Describe Semantic language property
A
meaning behind language
4
Q
Describe Generative language property
A
can combine symbols to create infinite number of messages
5
Q
Describe Structured language property
A
rules control arrangement of words into phrases and sentences
6
Q
How is language a fundamental human behavior?
A
some say that its the division between humans and animals
7
Q
What is the smallest unit of speech?
A
PHONEME:
- alone has no meaning but put together to make a word
- “the” has 2 (th uh)
- “strangers” has 10 (s t r a n g uh r s)
8
Q
What is the 2nd smallest unit of speech? (one larger than phoneme)
A
MORPHEME:
- smallest unit of meaning
- “strangers” has 3
9
Q
What are the 2 units of Structure?
A
Semantics and Syntax
10
Q
Describe Semantics
A
- meaning of word and combos
- Denotation (dictionary meaning)
- connotation (emotional overtones and secondary implications)
11
Q
Describe Syntax
A
- system of rules specifying how words can be arranged into sentences
- example sentences must have a subject word
- what goes first, noun or verb- language dependant
12
Q
Language Development Milestones:
1-6 months
A
1-6 months:
- vocalizing with crying, cooing, laughing
- only babies between 3-12 months can take any phoneme from any language in the world, but ability lost
13
Q
Language Development Milestones:
6-18 months
A
6-18 months:
- babbling (lalala mama)
- monumental development in babies- even found in deaf babies in the form of physical signing
14
Q
Language Development Milestones:
10-13 months
A
10-13 months:
- first words (mama, dada, nana etc built from phonemes that babies babble
15
Q
Language Development Milestones:
12-18 months
A
12-18 months:
- vocabulary slowly grows
- understand more than they can say
- early words often actions or things they see
16
Q
Language Development Milestones:
18-24 months
A
18-24 months:
- vocabulary spurts
- some may learn up to 20 new words per week
- fast-mapping is common now
17
Q
What is fast mapping
A
take meaning and word and connect after even one exposure. see doll, know doll concept after 1 exposure
18
Q
Language Development Milestones:
End of 2nd year
A
end of 2nd year:
- combine words into sentences
- early sentences emit extra words and are usually content words not carriers
- “give toys” vs “please give me the toy”
- telegraphic speech- only in English really
19
Q
Language Development Milestones:
3rd year
A
3rd year:
- complex ideas are formed
20
Q
Language Development Milestones:
5th + year
A
5th + year:
- metalinguistic language
- use puns, sarcasm, jokes as they gain knowledge skills
21
Q
Language Development Milestones factors
A
- control of tongue and air
- size of oral cavity
- connecting neurons to brain
- easiest to learn new languages when very young, harder more you age
22
Q
What are the 3 Child Language Errors?
A
- Overextension
- Underextension
- Overregularization
23
Q
Describe Overextension with example
A
- incorrectly using words to describe wider set of objects/actions than they are meant to
- all animals = doggy
24
Q
Describe Underextension with example
A
- incorrectly using words to describe narrower set of objects
- only rose is called a flower, no other type
- often when learning new words
25
Describe Overregularization with example
- incorrectly generalize grammatical rules to cases where they don't apply
- he eated my lunch
- all languages have this
- occurs most when learning grammar
26
Language Acquisition: Behaviorist Theory
- skinner
- children learn language thru imitation and reinforcement
- when vocalization not reinforces, declines in frequency
- when people can understand kids statements and respond, reinforces verbal behavior
- gain language skills by imitating adult sentences, reinforced by answer
27
Language Acquisition:
| Nativist Theory
- Chomsky
- cant be skinners veriosn because no one says goed to the store etc
- children learn rules of language
- Language Acquisition Device
28
What is the Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
LAD= Chomsky's explanation for learning language
- different brain structures and neurons to prepare humans to learn languages
- argument for it is the baby ability to recognize all phonemes internationally before language picked/taught
29
Language Acquisition:
| Interactionist Theory
- biology and experience are important to language development
30
Language Acquisition:
| Cognitive Theory
- language develop= important aspect of cognitive development
- depends on both maturation and experience
31
Language Acquisition:
| Social Communication Theory
- interpersonal communication has functional value
- social context in which language evolves
- says there is a reason we talk high pitched and simply with babies
32
What are the 2 language brain areas?
Wernicke's area, Broca's area
- where it is located depends on where dominant hemisphere is
- - right handed = areas in left hemisphere
33
Describe Wernicke's Area
helps speech processing and understanding language
34
Describe Broca's Area
helps producing coherent speech
35
Linguistic Relativity
- hypothesis that one's language determines the nature of one's thoughts
- research shows some support for idea of linguistic relativity
36
What is Benjamin Whorf's advocate?
- linguistic relativity support by saying inuit has 3 words for snow and english has 1- shapes how we see world
- critiqued for ignoring and over estimating different factors
37
What is Bilingualism?
acquisition of 2 languages
38
Advantages and disadvantages of Bilingualism
Adv:
- greater vocab (combo both languages greater than or equal to 1 vocab)
-cog adv
-- more focus
-- better social skills
-- helps delay the onset of dementia (by 4 yrs)
Dis: very few and are outweighed by advantage
39
Do animals have language?
- animals dont have the same vocal apparatuses to acquire human speech
- some species can learn ASL
- some species exhibit behaviors of language within species
- ability to primitively use language not unique to humans but no comparison b/w humans & animals
40
Do chimps actually learn ASL?
- might learn might imitate- do they acquire language skills
- learn grammar rules
- training the animals
- Sue Savage-Rumbaugh & Kanzi
- - kanzi able to do 72% of 660 novel actions
- - formed own sentences form 100+ words taught
41
Evolutionary Explanations of Language
- being able to communicate helps save time and risk if you can pass along info to others
- language may have evolved to
- - build and maintain social groups
- - aid hunting and gathering, fighting, mating
- - avoid predators and poisons
42
Language and Visual Input
- visual input influences interpretation of auditory input
- McGurk effect
- children with autism spectrum disorder not subject to McGurk effect
- - due to abnormal processing of facial cues?
43
What is problem solving
- active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily available
- must go beyond given information
44
What are the 3 types of problems?
1- Problems of inducing structure
2- problems of arrangements
3- problems of transformation
45
Describe Problems of Inducing structure
- analogy (lawyer-client = doctor - ____)
| - series of completion (ABMCDM__)
46
Describe Problems of Arrangements
- string problem (2 strings hung on ceiling, wider than persons span, some tools, how to attach?)
- anagram (NCOAE= OCEAN)
- insight found from failure
47
Describe Problems of Transformation
- water jar problem (21 cup jug, 127 cup jug, 3 cup jar, discard as much water as wanted measure out exactly 100 cups)
48
what are the 4 barriers of problem solving
1- irrelevant info
2- functional fixedness
3- mental set
4- unnecessary constraints
49
Describe Irrelevant Information
ex: in family, 5 brothers that each have 1 sister, plus mom how many females in house? 2)
- # of brothers is irrelevant
- people often incorrectly assume all numerical info in a problem will be needed to solve
- must be able to distinguish relevant and irrelevant info
50
Describe Functional Fixedness
- perceiving an item only in terms of its most common use
| - must find a novel (creative) use for the object
51
Describe Mental Set
- persist in using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past
- always attempt to pull on the door that looks the same, won't try push, get stuck
- not always bad, it may be inefficient to spend extra time searching for a differnt strategy
52
Describe Unnecessary Constraints
- self-imposed constraints not mentioned in the problem
| ex: drawing outside the lines
53
What are the 3 approaches to solving a problem?
- trial and error
- algorithms
- heuristics
54
What are the 4 parts of Heuristics?
1- forming sub-goals
2- searching for analogies
3- changing the representation of the problem
4- incubation effect
55
Describe the forming sub-goals heuristic
- immediate steps toward solution
| - when you reach sub-goal, you've solved part of a problem
56
Describe the searching for analogies heuristic
- solution to previous problem can help solve current problem
- can be a problem of a mental set if using the wrong solution
- can be challenging and people often fail to see parallels
57
describe the changing the representation of a problem heuristic
- one cant solve a problem as you see it, try re-wording or drawing
- time vs space example with the bird and trains
58
describe the incubation effect heuristic
- taking a break leads to new solution to previously unsolved problems
- may occur because
- - people continue to work on problems unconsciously
- - mind wandering leads to new solutions
- sometimes happens during sleep, unconscious thought solving
59
describe culture and problem solving
- different cultures have different approaches to problem solving
- east asian cultures have a holistic cognitive style
- -- consistent with emphasis on group/community
- western cultures have analytic cognitive style
- -- consistent on emphasis on individual
60
Decision Making
- probably make 100s of decisions a day but dont consciously think hmm im making a decision
- evaluating alternatives and making choices among them
- often involve choices about preferences
- option are good until a certain point of being overwhelmed
- involved in marketing as people may leave empty handed as too many options
- deliberate decisions for simple choices, intuitive decisions for complex choices (go with gut can be good)
61
Describe Risky Decision Making
- making choices under conditions of uncertainty (ex: gambling odds are against you but try anyway)
- replace objective value of outcome with subjective utility (is it worth it to you to gamble- fun social activity vs waste of money)
- subjective probability (typically use heuristics)
62
What are the 4 Heuristics in Decision Making
1- availability heuristic
2- representative heuristic
3- tendency to ignore base rates
4- conjunction fallacy
63
Describe the Availability Heuristic of decision making
- basing estimated probability of event on ease with which relevant examples come to mind
- news article on shark attack, fear ocean swim
64
Describe the Representative Heuristic of decision making
- basing estimated probability of event on how similar it is to prototypical event
- ex: flip coin 6 times, same chance H or T everytime
65
Describe the Tendency to Ignore Base Rates heuristic of decision making
- steve is shy and organized, passionate about detail, little interest n people or world, salesman or librarian
- -- say librarian but way more salesman in world so more likely to be a salesman- fits librarian stereotype
66
Describe the Conjunction Fallacy heuristic of decision making
- odds of 2 uncertain events happening together is greater than odds of either event happening alone
- think more words ending in -ing than _n_ but really the _n_ is true
67
What is Fast and Slow Thinking?
- dual-process theory of decision making
- System 1 (thinking fast)
- -- intuitive thinking
- -- quick, simple, automatic judgement
- -- heuristics and biases
- System 2 (thinking slow)
- -- slower, effortful judgements
- tying shoe is system 2 at first then becomes system 1
68
what is the Gamblers Fallacy
- something happens a few times in a row, third time wont happen again- not true, 50/50 chance everytime
- random events dont take history into account
- if event hasnt occured yet, has to happen soon, no correlation to last time
ex: H x3, #4 must be T
69
What is the Law of Small Numbers?
ex: testing on small group of people and taking 80% success doesn't mean that 4 out of 5 people will respond the same way
- high chance of variability in larger numbers
70
What is Confirmation Bias?
- taking a few pieces of info that are related to the problem and adding on more support your decided solution
- often ignore anything that goes against the original idea of solution
71
What is Belief Perseverance?
- hanging onto original belief even when contradictory info is shown
- if you're a big risk taker, you'll be a great firefighter-proven wrong but still believe
- seek info that supports and interpret info you find to support your ideas
- "my study shows proof, its the best out there and 100% right, other saying proving wrong was conducted badly and not relevant realy..."
72
What is the Framing Effect?
- depending on how you frame a statement or event changes how people will react
ex: drug results in 10% death (uh oh) vs results in 90% success (oh thats pretty good)
