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Psych 289 > Chapter 8: Language and thought > Flashcards

Chapter 8: Language and thought Flashcards

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1
Q

What is cognition?

A

The mental process of acquiring knowledge > thinking

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2
Q

What was the initial research method for cognition?

A

introspection

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3
Q

What is language?

A

symbols that convey meaning + the rules for combining those symbols that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages

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4
Q

What are the critical properties of language?

A

1- symbolic: representative sounds + written words
2- Semantic: meaningful
3- Generative: limited # of symbols can be combined
4- Structured: rules govern arrangement

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5
Q

What is the structure of language?

A

Phonemes> morphemes>word>phrase>sentence

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6
Q

What are phonemes and morphemes?

A

phonemes: smallest speech units in a language > raw sounds
morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language > un, s, er. friend, etc.

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7
Q

What are semantics?

A

Area of language concerned with understanding the meaning of words and combos
> denotation vs conotation

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8
Q

What is syntax?

A

System of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences
> underlie all language use

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9
Q

What’s the special thing that babies can do up to three months?

A

distinguish phonemes of all languages

> disappears 4-12 months

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10
Q

What can babies do at 8 months?

A

recognize and store common word forms

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11
Q

What was Werkers theory re baby language aqcuisition?

A

Babies have a perceptual bias that facilitates acquisition of phonology

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12
Q

What are the main language dev phases?

A

0-3 months: phoneme recognition
0-6 months: crying, cooing, laughter
6- 18months: babbling that corresponds to phonemes and consonant-vowel combos
10-13 months: sounds correspond to words> first words resemble syllables most babbled
13-18 months: vocab grows > understand more than speak
18-24 months vocab spurt > 2 yr old can learn 20 words a week

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13
Q

What is the importance of babbling and what are the two theories of origin?

A
  • Babbling considered monumental milestone of language acquisition
  • 1) babbling is motor achievement to practice and develop mechanics of speech > byproduct of brain development
    -2) babbling is mechanism that affords opportunity to produce patterned structure of natural language
    > signing babies match signed babbling
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14
Q

What type of words are typically first words?

A

Nouns > because they are concrete objects and are easier to encode

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15
Q

What is fast-mapping?

A

Process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept

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16
Q

Why is there a vocab spurt at 2 yrs?

A
  • increase in articulation
  • increase in understanding
  • increase in cognitive development
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17
Q

What are common toddler language errors?

A

Overextension: when a child uses one word to describe a wider set of objects
Underextensions: when a child uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects

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18
Q

When do children start combining words?

A

End of second year

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19
Q

What is telegraphic speech?

A

consists mainly of content words

> less critical words ommitted

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20
Q

When do children start speaking complex ideas?

A

End of 3rd year

> plural and past tense

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21
Q

What is overregularization and when does it occur?

A

when grammatical rules are applied to exceptions incorrectly (foots > feet)
> start correctly, then wrong, then must correct again over time
- occurs as children learn grammar

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22
Q

What is the process of language refinement?

A

When children start appreciating and playing with language > developing metalinguistic awareness
> occurs at school age

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23
Q

What is metalinguistic awareness?

A

ability to reflect on and play with the use of language

> puns, metaphors

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24
Q

At what ages do kids start appreciating irony and sarcasm?

A

6-8

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25
Q

What is irony vs sarcasm?

A
  • irony: conveying an implied meaning that is opposite of statements literal meaning
  • sarcasm is similar but caustic and directed at someone
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26
Q

What are advantages of bilingualism?

A
  • higher cognitive flexibility
  • analytical reasoning
  • attention
  • metalinguistic awareness
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27
Q

What are the 3 hypotheses re bilinguial processing?

A

1- bi kids should develop executive process control earlier
2- bi adults should therefore have advantage in cognitive tasks using executive processing
3- bi adults should show delayed decline in executive processes and it’s usually first to go

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28
Q

What physiological effects are documented with bilingualism?

A

Higher grey matter density in left perietal cortex

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29
Q

What are negative effects of bilingualism in minority chlidren?

A

exclusive education in majority language undermines self-esteem and heritage language proficiency

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30
Q

What are the 3 factors in second language acquisition?

A
  • Age> ideal prior to age 7
  • Acculturation> degree of integration in new culture
  • Motivation> attitude of learner
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31
Q

What it integrative motivation?

A

willingness to be like valued members of a language community

32
Q

Why don’t chimps speak?

A

No vocal apparatus

> little evidence rules of language learned with ASL

33
Q

What research indicated that chimps could learn rules?

A

Pygme chimps> ability to understand English

> skepticism re assessment

34
Q

What has imaging shown?

A

That neurological substrates underlying language may be present in chimps and ability to use language is not entirely unique to humans

35
Q

What is Pinker’s language evolution theory?

A

Language as product of natural selection
> enables acquisition of knowledge
> removes need for trial and error

36
Q

How did Dunbar challenge Pinker?

How did Pinker rebutt?

A
  • Suggested language developed as a device to build and maintain social conditions
  • small adaptive disparities are sufficient to fuel evolutionary change >genees will explain
37
Q

What is the behaviourst language theory?

A

Skinner- environmental factors govern language dev
> imitation, reinforcement and other conditioning principles
> children learn correct meanings and pronunciations from parental reinforcement
> reinforcement teaches syntax

38
Q

What is the nativist language dev theory?

A

Chomsky- humans equipped with language acquisition device (LAD) which is innate mechanism that facilitates the learning of language
> challenges skinner with overregularization problem
> children acquire language quickly and effortlessly regardless of environment
> dev of language similar across cultures

39
Q

What is the LAD supposed to be?

A

brain structures + neural wiring that enable humans to discriminate phonemes, fast-map morphemes, etc
> not detailed, criticised as too vague

40
Q

What are the 3 types of interactionist theories?

A

Biology + experience, beliwve human equipped for language learning but social exchange is critical
1- cognitive theories> language part of cog dev
2- Social communication> functional value of interpersonal communication and social context
3- Emergentist theory> neural circuits supporting language are not prewired but emerge in response to language learning experience

41
Q

How does a cultural group’s language determine their thoughts?

A

Linguistic relativity hypothesis> one’s language determines nature of one’s thoughts
>applies to colour and colour names
> debate re how strong or weak

42
Q

What is problem solving?

A

The active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable

43
Q

What are the 3 classes of problems?

A

1- inducing structure: relationships among #s, words, symbols
2- arrangement: arrangements of parts of a problem in a way that satisfies a criterion > burst of insight
3- Transformation: sequence of transformations to reach goal

44
Q

What are the barriers to problem solving?

A
  • Irrelevant information: all info given is necessary
  • Functional fixedness: perceive item as its most common use
  • Mental set- rigid thinking > persist in familiar strategies
  • Unnecessary constraints > assuming constraint exists
45
Q

What is a spatial metaphor used to help solve problems?

A

Problem space: set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver

46
Q

What are the common approaches to solving a problem?

A

> Trial-and-error
Algorithm: trying all possible alternatives, slow, don’t exist for everything, effective for fewer solutions, can be inefficient
Heuristics: rule of thumb/shortcut, narrows problem space
Incubation: period of not consciously thinking about it

47
Q

What are common heuristics?

A
  • forming subgoals
  • working backward
  • search for analogies
  • changing representation/envisioning of problem
48
Q

What illustrates the primary cultural difference in problem solving?

A

Field dependence-independence: individual’s tendency to rely on external vs internal info for reference when orienting themselves in space

49
Q

What is the difference between field dependence and independence?

A
  • field dependence> rely on external physical environment for cues > focus on total context of problem, more common in agrarian and conformist societies
  • field independence> rely on internal frames of reference> analyse or reconstruct physical environment > focus on specific features of a problem and component parts
50
Q

How do Eastern vs Western cultures relate to field dep/ind?

A

Eastern cultures have a holistic cognitive style> field dependent
Western have analytic cognitive style > field independent

51
Q

What tends to happen when people have lots of choice?

A

They struggle to choose

52
Q

What are decisions mostly based on these days?

A
  • preferences
  • cognitive biases
  • irrational
  • emotional
53
Q

What are the typical decision making strategies?

A
  • Additive strategy- list attributes and assign value > good for simple choices
  • Elimination by aspects- alternative eliminated by evaluating by attribute in turn > final choice depends on order of elimination > good for complex choices
54
Q

What is general rule of decision making?

A

As complexity of decision increases so does the simplicity of the approach

55
Q

What are common decision making quirks?

A
  • emotion influences D-M
  • Comparative evaluations yield different results than evaluation in isolation
  • people avoid uncertainty and will choose known quantity
  • judgements of quality can be swayed by extraneous factors
  • sometime unconscious thought out-performs conscious deliberation
  • intuition can be superior to logic and reflection
56
Q

What is risky decision making?

A

making choices under conditions of uncertainty
> working out expected value can help
> replacement of objective value with subjective utility

57
Q

What is subjective utility and subjective probability?

A

subjective utility- what outcome is worth to a person

subjective probability- personal estimates of probabilities of events

58
Q

What are the heuristics of judging probabilities?

A
  • Availability heuristic: basing probability on how easily relevant examples come to mind
  • Representativeness: basing probability on how similar it is to the typical prototype/schema > ignores base rates and underestimates personal irsks
  • Conjunction fallacy: when people estimate that the odds of 2 uncertain events happening together or greater than either happening alone
59
Q

What is behavioural economics?

A

study of the effects of people’s actual decision making processes re economic decisions
> psychology + economics

60
Q

What is the theory of bounded rationality?

A

people tend to use simple strategies in DM that often result in irrational decisions that are less optimal

61
Q

How does framing affect decisions?

A

Decision issues are posed and choices structures can influence outcome

62
Q

What is the evolutionary analysis of DM?

A

1- traditional research imposed unrealistic standards of rationality
2- humans only seem irrational because cog psychs ask wrong questions unrelated to adaptive problems

63
Q

Wht do Cosimedes and Tooby say about evolutionary DM?

A

decision making has been tailored to handle real-world adaptive problems vs contrived cognitive problems

64
Q

What are fast and frugal heuristics?

A

inferences from memory in testing using their own knowledge vs givens
> can be effective
> recognition heuristic: if one of two options is recognized assume that known to have higher value
>one-reason DM just as accurate as deliberation

65
Q

What is the dual-process theory?

A

That people depend on

  • one mode that is quick, simple and automatic/intuitive
  • second mode that is slower, deliberate, controlled judgement that monitors an correct first and takes over in more complex situations
66
Q

What can help in reducing DM errors?

A

Increased awareness of common reasoning short-comings

67
Q

What is the Gambler’s Fallacy?

A

the belief that the odds in a chance event increase if the event hasn’t occurred yet
> representativeness heuristic
> can be applied to string of spins but not individual

68
Q

What is the law of small numbers?

A

assumption that results are based on small samples are representative of the population

69
Q

What is overestimating the improbable?

A

tendency to overestimate liklihood of dramatic events

>availability

70
Q

What is confirmation bias?

A

seeking info that supports one’s decisions while ignoring disconfirming info

71
Q

What is myside bias?

A

tendency to evaluate in a manner slanted in favour of one’s own opinions

72
Q

What is belief perseverance?

A

tendency to hang on to beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence

73
Q

What is the overconfidence effect?

A

When people put too much faith in their estimates when they should know better

74
Q

What is semantic slanting?

A

deliberate choosing of words to create specific emotional responses

75
Q

What is namecalling?

A

a way of labelling and categorizing others

76
Q

What is an implied threat?

A

when something you do will result in the application of negative labelling to you> anticipatory name-calling

Psych 289 (8 decks)

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