Chapter 7: Language and thought Flashcards
Aphasia
Difficulty in producing or comprehending language.
Language
A system for communicating with others using signals that convey meaning and are combined according to rules of grammar.
Lexicalization
The process whereby the thoughts underlying the words are turned into sounds.
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise, for example ‘ba’ or ‘pa’.
Phonological rules
A set of rules that indicate hox phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds.
Morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of language.
Grammar
A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.
Morphological rules
A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.
Syntactical rules
A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.
Alignment
The process whereby speakers share a reciprocal arrangement to exchange information.
Inference
Speakers generate deeper conceptual understanding based on what has been said.
Routine expression
Unambiguous conventions that facilitate language.
Speech monitoring and repair
Speakers interact to understand what others are sying by seeking clarification.
Fast mapping
The process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure.
Telegraphic speech
Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists monthly of content words.
Nativist theory
The view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.
Language acquisition device (LAD)
A collection of processes that facilitate language learning.
Genetic dysphasia
A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence.
Lexicon
Our mental dictionary.
Grapheme
Units of written language that corresponds to a phoneme.
Dual-route models
Propose that there are essentially two pathways to the lexicon.
Direct lexical route
One where the grapheme maps directly onto the phoneme.
Indirect sublexical route
One that does not involve the lexicon at all but maps the grapheme directly onto the pronunciation.
Dyslexia
A disorder involving difficulty with reading and writing.
Dyslexia
A disorder involving difficulty with reading and writing.
Surface dyslexia
People with this disorder are unable to read irregular words.
Phonological dyslexia
People with this disorder are unable to read pronounceable non-words.
Semantics
Meaning of a word.
Semantic priming
The meaning of a word influences the processing of other words that are conceptually related.
Deep dyslexia
Readers cannot retrieve the meaning of words.
Linguistic determinism hypothesis
Language shapes the nature of thoughts.
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
The proposal that language may influence the way we think and perceive.
Concept
A mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events or other stimuli.
Category-specific deficit
A neurological syndrome characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category while leaving the ability to recognize objects outside the category undisturbed.
Family resemblance theory
Members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category members but may not be possessed by every member.
Prototype theory
Our psychological categorization is organized around the properties of the most typical member of the category.
Exemplar theory
A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgement by comparing a new instance with stored memories of other instances of the category.
Base rates
The actual likelihood of events occuring.
Rational choice theory
The classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two.
Availability bias
Items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently.
Heuristics
Faster and efficient strategies that may facilitate decision making but do not guarantee that a solution will be reached.
Algorithm
A well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem.
Conjunction fallacy
Thinking that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event.
Representativeness heuristic
A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event.
Framing effects
People give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed).
Sunk-cost fallacy
A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation.
Prospect theory
Proposes that people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gain.
Frequency format hypothesis
The proposal that our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur.
System 1 decision making
Operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.
System 2 decision making
Allocates attention to more taxing and mental activities and is often associated with a subjective experience of making choices.
Means-ends analysis
A process of searching for the means or steps to reduce the differences between the current situation and the desired goal.
Analogical problem solving
Solving a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem.
Functional fixedness
The tendency to perceive the functions of objects as fixed.
Reasoning
A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps to reach conclusions.
Practical reasoning
Working out what to do, or reasoning directed towards action.
Theoretical reasoning
Reasoning directed towards arriving at a belief.
Belief bias
People’s judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments that are assumed to be true.
Syllogistic reasoning
Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true.
