Chapter 8 Psych Flashcards
concepts
mental representations of specific objects, events, or ideas (apple pie vs. blueberry pie)
categories
larger groups of concepts based on their similarity to one another (all pies)
classical categorization approach
we group together objects & events into categories because they share common defining features (dogs bark, 4 legs, animal)
graded membership
some members are better representatives than others
sentence verification technique
experiment asking true or false like a ‘robin’ is a bird, people are faster to say yes rather than a penguin is a bird
prototype
the average of all members of a category (seeing a motorcycle unlike one you’ve seen before but still knowing that its a motorcycle)
semantic network
connection to similar concepts will be closer than ones with dissimilar concepts (ex. bird-fly-beak)
linguistic relativity (or the whorfian hypothesis)
the idea that differences in languages between culture change the way members of those cultures actually perceive the world
algorithm
a slow, logical, and step-by-step solution to a problem based on a set of rules
Heuristics
relying on past experience to make a quick and reasonable guess as to the problems solution (good for guessing)
cognitive obstacles
when you can’t think of the normal solution (9 dot obstacle)
functional fixedness
the tendency to treat objects as only serving one function
representativeness heuristic
the assumption that all members of a category share the same features based on ones experience with only a small number of category members (getting a jason thinking he’s rude then assuming all other masons are rude)
base rates/ conjunction fallacy
same group of people that do a certain thing will be smaller than people don’t
the availability heuristic
making judgements about the frequency with c=which events occur based on how easy it is for us to think of examples (more words start with K rather than have it as a 3rd letter)
the anchoring effect
restrictions in a persons numerical judgements based solely on their exposure to some number (high # high estimate, low # low estimate)
framing effects
when the mere wording of a question has a biasing influence on our judgements or decision making
belief perseverance
persisting in ones pre-existing beliefs, despite exposure to evidence that contradicts those beliefs
conformation bias
seeking out and attending to evidence that supports one belief, while also actively avoiding evidence that contradicts that belief
maximizers
thoroughly explore the pros and cons associated with every option in an effect to make the best possible choice
satisficers
do very little research and simply choose first option that fulfils some minimum set of criteria
aphasia
any specific impairment in the ability to produce or comprehend language (usually damage in frontal lobe)
broca’s aphasia
in impairment in the ability to comprehend spoken language
language
a rule based means of communication, using spoken, written, or gestural symbols
language advantages
- allows us to communicate about things that are not physically present
- allows for creating symbols to represent completely novel concepts that may not even exist in reality
- can be transferred from one generation to the next
language productivity
the basic units of language permit an almost infinite number of combinations
phonemes
the smallest unit of language. they are the units of sound that we use to form words
morphemes
the smallest meaningful units of language. (plant is one, er is one, together planter)
semantics
the study about how people learn the memory of words
orthography
the visual representation of words (reading)
phonology
the speech-based representation of words (talking)
Dyslexia
troubles translating the orthography words into phonological representation
syntax
the rules that define the acceptable order of combining words into phrases and sentences
noun phrase
“all rule following sentences”
verb phrase
“must have a noun phrase and a verb phrase”
pragmatics
non-lingustic aspects of our communication (understand sarcasm)
Dr. Werker
‘this doll’ vs. ‘your doll’ detected young infants can detect the difference in the ‘d’ sound
naming explosion
through infancy & toddlerhood humans learn so fast it qualifies as a type of explosion
fast mapping
very young children appear to learn many words with only one exposure
overgeneralization errors
“we goed to the park. I chased the gooses.”
sensitive period
the early period in our lifespan, during which acquisition of language occurs quite easily & naturally - 7
cross-fostering
placing a chimpanzee into a family - Viki
lexigrams
small symbols used for communication (kanzi)
features of infants that support language acuquliston
- infants prefer speech sounds over others
- prefer nouns and verbs over other words
- prefer phoneme combinations that are common in the language they are exposed to
