Chapter 10 Key Terms Flashcards
the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Cognition
a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
Concepts
a mental image or best example of a category
Prototypes
a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
Algorithm
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms
Heuristic
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions
Insight
a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s perceptions
Confirmation bias
the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; impediment to problem solving
Fixation
a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Mental set
the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving
Functional fixedness
judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information
Representativeness heuristic
estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps b/c its vivid), we presume such events are common
Availability heuristic
the tendency to be more confident than correct; to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgements
Overconfidence
the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgements
Framing
the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid
Belief bias
clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
Belief perseverance
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Language
in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Phonemes
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
Morpheme
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
Grammar
the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning
Semantics
the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
Syntax
ability to comprehend speech
receptive language
ability to produce words
productive language
beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
Babbling stage
the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words
One-word stage
beginning at about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements
Two-word stage
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - “go car” - using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting auxiliary words
Telegraphic speech
all languages have the same grammatical building blocks that underlies all human language
universal grammar
Over time, we grasp specific phonemes, morphemes, words, and sentences, and the rules by which we can combine them; Chomsky called it this
surface structure
While deciphering surface structure, we also learn to discern its meanings; Chomsky called it this
deep structure
A period for mastering certain aspects of language during childhood
critical period
Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think
Linguistic determinism
ability to learn to inhibit one language while using their other language and helps better able to inhibit attention to irrelevant information
Bilingual advantage
told to imagine the destination you want to achieve
Outcome stimulation
told to imagine how you are going to get to the destination you want
Process stimulation
