Chapter 8 Flashcards
Thinking
Any mental activity or processing of information, including learning, remembering, receiving, communicating, believing, and deciding
Cognitive bias
Systematic error in thinking
Representativeness heuristic
Heuristic that involves judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype
Base rate
How common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population
Availability heuristic
Heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds
Hindsight bias
Our tendency to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it is already occurred
Concept
Our knowledge and ideas about a set of objects, actions, and characteristics that share core properties
Linguistic determinism
Do that all thought is represented verbally and that, as a result, our language defines our thinking
Linguistic relativity
View that characteristics of language shape our thought process
Decision making
The process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives
Framing
The way a question is formulated that can influence the decisions people make
Problem solving
Generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal
Algorithm
Step by step learn to procedure used to solve a problem
Mental set
Phenomenon of becoming stuck in a specific problem solving strategy, inhibiting our ability to generate alternatives
Functional fixedness
Difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically is used for one purpose can be used for another
Language
Largely arbitrary system of communication that combine symbols and rule-based ways to create meaning
Phoneme
Category of sounds are vocal apparatus produces
Morpheme
Smallest meaningful unit of speech
Syntax
Grammatical cues that govern how words are composed into meaningful strings
Extralinguistic information
Elements of communication that aren’t part of the content of the language but are critical to interpreting its meaning
Semantics
Meaning derived from words and sentences
Dialect
Language variation used by a group of people who share geographic proximity or ethnic background
Babbling
Intentional vocalization that lacks specific meaning
One word stage
Early period of language development when children use single word phrases to convey an entire thought
Bilingual
Proficient influent at speaking and comprehending two distinct languages
Metalinguistic
Awareness of how language is structured and used
Homesign
System of signs invented by children who are deaf and born of hearing parents and therefore receive no language input
Sign language
Language developed by members of a deaf community that uses visual rather than auditory communication
Generative
Allowing an infinite number of unique sentences to be created by combining words in novel ways
Nativist
Account of language acquisition that suggests children are born with some basic knowledge of how language works
Language acquisition device
Hypothetical organ in the brain in which nativists believe knowledge of syntax resides
Social pragmatics
Account of language acquisition that proposes that children infer what words and sentences mean from context and social interactions
Whole word recognition
Reading strategy that involves identifying common words based on their appearance without having to sound them out
Phonetic decomposition
Reading strategy that involves sounding out words by drawing correspondence between printed letters and sounds
