Chapter 8

Question 1

What is thinking?

Answer 1

Any mental ability or processing of information

Question 2

What is a cognitive miser?

Answer 2

Cheap with their mental energy

Question 3

What is top down processing?

Answer 3

Filling in the gaps of missing information using our own experiences and background knowledge

Question 4

What is bottom up processing?

Answer 4

Our brains only process the information it receives, and constructs meaning from it slowly and surely by building up understanding through experience

Question 5

What is decision making?

Answer 5

The process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives

Question 6

What is paralysis by analysis?

Answer 6

When our brains can get overwhelmed by excessive information

Question 7

What is framing?

Answer 7

Is the way the question is formulated that can influence the decisions people make

Question 8

What is problem solving?

Answer 8

Generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal

Question 9

What are algorithms?

Answer 9

Step by step procedures

Question 10

What are the three obstacles to solving problems?

Answer 10

Salience of surface similarities, mental sets, and functional fixedness

Question 11

What is salience of surface similarities?

Answer 11

We tend to focus our attention on the surface-level properties of a problem

Question 12

What is a mental set?

Answer 12

Once we find a solution that’s dependable, we often get stuck in that solution mode

Question 13

What is functional fixedness?

Answer 13

It is the difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used for another

Question 14

What is language?

Answer 14

Is a system of communication that combines symbols, such as words or gestural signs

Question 15

What are phonemes?

Answer 15

The sounds of our language

Question 16

What are morphemes?

Answer 16

The smallest units of meaningful speech

Question 17

What is syntax?

Answer 17

The grammatical rules that govern how we compose words into meaningful strings

Question 18

What are extralinguistic information?

Answer 18

Elements of communication that aren’t part of the content of language but are crucial to interpreting its meaning, such as facial expressions and tone of voice

Question 19

What is semantics?

Answer 19

Which is meaning derived from words and sentences

Question 20

What are dialects?

Answer 20

Are variations of the same language used by groups of people from specific geographic areas

Question 21

What is babbling?

Answer 21

Any intentional vocalization that lacks specific meaning

Question 22

What is overextension?

Answer 22

When children apply words in a broader sense, such as calling all men ‘daddy’

Question 23

What is under extension?

Answer 23

When children apply the word in a narrower sense, such as thinking that the word ‘cat’ only applies to their pet cat

Question 24

What is the one-word stage?

Answer 24

When children use individual words to convey entire thoughts

Question 25

What is sign language?

Answer 25

A type of language developed by members of communities with hearing loss that allows them to use visual rather than auditory communication

Question 26

What is being bilingual?

Answer 26

Being proficient and fluent at speaking and comprehending two distinct languages

Question 27

What is homesign?

Answer 27

A system of signs invented by children with hearing loss of hearing parents who receive no language input

Question 28

What is generative?

Answer 28

It allows an infinite number of unique sentences to be created by combining words in novel ways

Question 29

What is the nativist account?

Answer 29

It is a language acquisitions theory that suggest children are born with some basic knowledge of how language works

Question 30

What is a language acquisition device?

Answer 30

A hypothetical construct in the brain in which nativists believe knowledge of syntax resides

Question 31

What is the social pragmatics account?

Answer 31

It proposes that children infer what words and sentences mean from context and social interactions

Question 32

What is the general cognitive processing account?

Answer 32

It proposes that children’s ability to learn a language results from general skills that children apply a variety of activities