Chapter 2: Language and Thinking

Question 1

__________ is the scientific study of psychological aspects of language

Answer 1

Psycholinguistics

Question 2

The 5 properties of language are

Answer 2

Symbolic and Structured, Grammar, Syntax, Generativity, Displacement

Question 3

___________ refers to language’s ability to communicate about things not physically present or that do not exist.

Answer 3

Displacement

Question 4

___________ refers to language’s ability to combine symbols into infinite messages.

Answer 4

Generativity

Question 5

What do surface structure and deep structure each refer to, respectively?

Answer 5

Surface structure consists of syntax and grammar, deep structure refers to semantics/meaning

Question 6

What are phonemes and morphemes?

Answer 6

Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound recognized as separate by humans, morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning.

Question 7

Pragmatics refers to the ____________ aspects of using language.

Answer 7

practical

Question 8

Chomsky argued that all languages have __________.

Answer 8

common deep structure

Question 9

Infants vocalize the entire range of human phonemes from what ages?

Answer 9

1 - 3 months.

Question 10

Infants learn to discriminate sounds specific to their native language at what ages?

Answer 10

6 - 12 months.

Question 11

Parents/caregivers influence the social learning of language through what means?

Answer 11

Operant Conditioning.

Question 12

Broca’s area, located in the ________ lobe, is involved in language (production/comprehension).

Answer 12

Frontal, production

Question 13

Wernicke’s area, located in the ________ lobe, is involved in language (production/comprehension).

Answer 13

Temporal, comprehension

Question 14

Hockett’s design features isolated three factors that make up a language. They are:

Answer 14

Vocal auditory channel, displacement, learnability.

Question 15

Mental representations (belonging to the cognitivist perspective) can be broken down into two types. They are:

Answer 15

Analogical representations and symbolic representations.

Question 16

Three types of thought are:

Answer 16

Propositional (expresses a statement), Imaginal (consists of sensory representations), Motoric (representations of motor movements)

Question 17

A __________ is the best/most familiar example of a category, _________ are all of the examples of a category.

Answer 17

prototype, exemplars

Question 18

What is a schema?

Answer 18

A mental blueprint of how we organize knowledge for application

Question 19

What is a script?

Answer 19

A schema that directs our behaviour over time given a specific situation.

Question 20

Four steps to problem solving are:

Answer 20

Framing problem, generating solutions, testing solutions, evaluating results.

Question 21

What is functional fixedness.

Answer 21

Having fixed ideas about the typical function of objects.

Question 22

What are two strategies to problem solving?

Answer 22

Algorithms (guide to generate solutions) and heuristics (general strategies)

Question 23

Which type of heuristic identifies differences between present situation and desired state, and uses subgoal analysis to reach goal?

Answer 23

Means-end analysis.

Question 24

Which type of heuristic makes judgements and decisions based on availability of information in memory?

Answer 24

Availability heuristic.

Question 25

Why are availability heuristics sometimes misinformed?

Answer 25

They often do not capture the full picture, impression may not be aligned with reality. E.g. a fear of sharks even though vending machines kill more people.