Chapter 8: Thought and Language Flashcards
_____: the mental
representation of an object,
event, or idea
Concept
_____: clusters
of interrelated
concepts
Categories
Rule-based categorization
is… _______:
Membership in a category
is all-or-none and all
members are equal
Definition-based
ex: all birds are recognized as birds, no matter how different they may look
______:
Members of category
vary in typicality
Graded Membership
alters response time, may take longer to recognize more obscure members
what does high typicality mean? low?
high typicality means we automatically can place an object/thing (ex: an apple has high typicality as a fruit)
low typicality: more obscure objects, harder to place, takes more time (olives arent as recognizable as fruits)
______: mental
representations of an
average category
member
prototypes
explains graded membership
_____: categorization made by comparing stimulus to an
available example from memory (i.e., whatever comes to mind)
Exemplars
______ provide information about typicality, ______
provide information about variability within a category
Prototypes
exemplars
Categories and concepts organized from general
to more specific in a ______
semantic network
do semantic networks have hierarchial organization?
yes! subordinate, basic, superorindate
______: Language influences how we experience the world
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
________:
Faster and more accurate
discrimination of stimuli
that straddle a colour
boundary
Categorical Perception
if we have specific, different names for colours, our reaction time might be faster if we can separate the colours in our mind when given multiple shades of similar colours
_____: common repertoire of thought
and perception that then influences all languages
Universalist view
believes everyone is equal in same way
T/F: Languages guide what we pay attention to,
then attention shapes our cognition
true
T/F: Languages evolve along predictable lines
true!
what view is opposite from linguistic relativity?
universalist view
_____: strategies based on following a series of rules
Algorithms
trying EVERYTHING in a specific order, how a computer has to solve things
_____: strategies that rely on our prior experiences
Heuristics
mental shortcuts, educated guesses
what are our two approaches to solving problems?
algorithms and heuristics
_____: Can result from rote
learning during problem
solving with no deeper
understanding of problem
developed
mental set
when we’re stuck in our ways… believe/trust things that may not be accurate anymore
______: Occurs when an individual can only think of
an object’s most obvious function
functional fixedness
ex: people not recognizing they can use the box to help them stand a candle up against the wall
_______: mistaken belief that finding a
specific member in two overlapping categories is
more likely than finding any member of one of the
larger, general categories
Conjunction fallacy
_______: Making judgments of
likelihood based on how
well an example
represents a specific
category
explains gambling, law of small numbers
representative heuristic
explain base-rate neglect with doctor/lawyer question
Decided based on whether the person resembles their
conception of a lawyer or
engineer (when given a short description of person), rather than using
base-rate likelihood… if theres 70 lawyers in a room and 30 engineers, probs more likely they’re a lawyer
what is the Monty Hall problem? what does it show?
The Monty Hall Problem shows that the best strategy is to always switch doors after Monty reveals a goat. While it might seem like a 50/50 situation after Monty opens a door, the correct probabilistic reasoning reveals that switching gives a 2/3 chance of winning, while staying with the original choice only gives a 1/3 chance.
This counterintuitive result can be difficult to grasp at first, but it highlights the importance of understanding probability and how new information (Monty revealing a goat) affects the odds of different outcomes.
______: Estimating the frequency of
an event based on how easily
examples of it come to mind
availability heuristic
Frequency information
substituted with ease of
examples coming to mind
what can impact our availability heuristic tendencies?
constant media exposure to
certain events can provide an
example that is ‘top of mind’… makes shark attacks seem likely, makes planes seem scary (their incidents are over-reported because they’re so rare!)
T/F: Emotional memories are particularly influential for
our availability heuristic
true!
ex: nuclear power is our best option for climate change, but people emotionally remember chernobyl so they’re innately scared of it… even though its now super safe!
Participants asked to
provide either 6 or 12
examples from their life
when they acted in an
assertive manner, what were the results? how does availability heuristic have an impact?
when having to think of LESS answers, people come up with them quicker… convince themselves they MUST be more assertive as a person since they so easily came up with six examples
opposite with 12, took more time = less assertive
how does framing a question affect our judgement?
we notice extremes more often, because we’re constantly trying to justify our decisions we will pick things that can justify our thinking
ex: if we frame things as a loss, people become more risk adverse because they don’t want to be wrong/ruthless
how are two ways we use framing in the real world?
political polls- using names (ex: obamacare)
sales and negotiating tactics: anchor people to original price, make them believe sale is so good they cant pass up!
______: Tendency to readily
accept evidence
consistent with our
beliefs and to ignore
information that
refutes them
belief perseverance
any counter evidence is resisted
______: Tendency to
search only for
evidence that will
confirm our
beliefs instead of
for evidence that
might disconfirm
them
confirmation bias
what does the Four Card task work?
“if a card has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number on the other side”
people tend to only want to flip cards that are confirming of this theory, when we would really want to flip one card to confirm, one to disconfirm
we tend to not seek out disconfirming evidence!
how does confirmation bias affect conspiracy theories?
Challenging information
reinterpreted to fit with
current beliefs
its biased, people only internalize info they want to hear
how does belief perseverance affect file drawer problem and publication bias?
scientists only publish studies that confirm their beliefs, never those that contradict
______: Communication that involves spoken, written, or gestural
symbols that are combined in a rule-based form
language
what are the four unique features of language?
semanticity
productivity
displacement
socially learned
______: the most basic unit of speech sounds
Phonemes
T/F: Vocal tract capable
of 400 different
phonemes, english uses around 44
false! only about 200 different phonemes
but english does only use around 44!
______: Young infants
capable of discriminating
all 200 phonemes, but
lose this ability around
10 months
Experience-dependent
plasticity
they retain what they are taught/witness in these first 10 months
_______: the smallest
meaningful units of a
language
Morphemes
T/F: About 50,000 morphemes
in English – includes root
words, prefixes, and
suffixes
true!
______: Often words are ambiguous and their meaning needs
to be considered in the context of how they are being
used (e.g., crash/accident vs crash/sound)
semantics
how we derive meaning from words, we listen to how they are used! in what context!
how can we create new meaning by modifying morphemes?
by adding or subtracting them!
______: the rules for combining words and
morphemes into meaningful phrases and
sentences
Syntax
we learn this implicitly, don’t know we’re actually learning it!
________: Sentence syntax evaluated on
a word-by-word basis rather
than once all the information is available
garden path sentences
T/F: Garden path sentences lead
you to one misleading or
unintended interpretation
based on early words in the
sentence
The old man the boats
true!
______: Non-linguistic aspects of language
§ How context contributes to
meaning
§ Prior knowledge, environment,
tone of voice, gestures
pragmatics
pragmatics are the _______ of language
informal rules
uses social assumptions (like slang!)
what is the Wernicke-Geschwind Model
of Language?
classical model of language processing in the brain, primarily focused on the brain regions involved in language comprehension and production (Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area)
______: disorders of
language (not thought)
caused by damage to the
brain structures that support
using and understanding
language
Aphasias
what happens in Broca’s aphasia?
can understand but not produce language
what happens in Wernicke’s aphasia?
can produce but with no meaning
what are the problems with the Wernicke-Gershwind Model?
Brain damage rarely isolated
to region of theoretical interest
Isolated damage to Broca’s
and Wernicke’s areas rarely
produces lasting deficits
Language functions more
distributed; aphasias
associated with widespread
damage
■ Localization vs circuits
T/F: we’re moving towards a circuit-based understanding of the brain
true! things work in relation to eachother!
Newborns distinguish function and
content words, then prefer the _____ words by 6 months
content
they choose words that derive meaning!
______: a rapid increase
in vocabulary size around 20-24 months aided by ‘fast mapping’
Naming explosion
can map a concept when heard!
T/F: when experiencing the naming explosion from 20-24 months, babies have a Receptive vocabulary larger
than productive vocabulary
true!
they understand more words than they can say
when does overextension and underextension occur in childhood language development?
around two years
over- calling anything round a “ball”
under- calling only a tennis ball, “ball”
when does overgeneralization occur in childhood language development?
around 3-4
overgeneralization: apply rules of language when not supposed to (don’t yet know exceptions)
“i runned into the gooses”
______ awareness: understanding of how
language is being used (puns, metaphors, etc.)
Metalinguistic
Between the ages of ____ years children can learn to
understand irony and sarcasm (i.e., pragmatics)
6-8
______: a time during childhood during
which children’s brains are primed to develop
language skills
Sensitive period
Ability fades starting seventh year
■ Same with sign language, and accents!
______: a time during
development in which a child
needs to be exposed to
language or else language
skills will not develop
normally
Critical period
Exposure needs to occur
within first 12 years
which case study examined the critical period for language?
Genie case study
genie wasn’t talked to for first 12 years of life… she developed large
vocabulary but never
mastered more complex
language skills…. she missed that critical period
what are the costs/benefits to bilingual brains?
Costs
■ Smaller vocabulary in
bilingual children
■ Word access diminished
in adulthood compared
to unilingual adults
Benefits
■ Executive functions
improved
■ Potential health benefits
T/F: benefits often outweigh costs of being bilingual
very true! great for brain health and many of the “costs” go away with time… vocabulary increases during adulthood and might only experience some difficulty pulling words to front of mind
_______: children
acquire sentence structure and syntax through imitation and operant conditioning
- B.F. Skinner (1950s)
Behaviourist theory
T/F: Many aspects of language have
a learned component
(Accents are product of environment, not genetics)
hep confirm behaviourist theory
true… but some children still make errors even when corrected… can’t just be behavioural
______: assumes
humans have a native (genetic)
predisposition to develop
language effortlessly
- Noam Chomsky (1950s)
Nativist theory
T/F: Pace of language acquisition
consistent across cultures
what theory does this confirm
true!
nativist theory of language
______: common
grammatical building blocks
present in all languages
- Nouns/verbs,
subjects/objects
Universal grammar
is the behaviourist or nativist theory of language better?
no better options, limitations to both… nature and nuture interact equally in all cases!
______:
language development
involves both biology and
experience
Interactionist theory
Special emphasis on the
need for social interaction
for proper language
development
■ Balanced approach to
nature-nurture debate- makes it the more modern (and probably correct) theory!
_____: individual raised as a member of a
different species
Cross-fostering studies
what animal was used in the Cross-fostering studies?
viki (chimpanzee!)
closest evolutionary relative to humans, thought they SHOULD learn english relatively easily (only learned four words… vocal apparatus is different! doomed from the start)
after viki, what was focus shifted to in animal language studies?
shifted to sign language
( so biology doesn’t influence results)
Washoe taught ~350 ASL signs
Koko taught ~1000 GSL signs
however, Nim study questioned all of it
why did the Nim study question everything about animals learning ASL and GSL?
Nim would only copy everything, didn’t actually have an understanding of the language she used
trainer thought other researchers came to care about their other gorillas, interpreted results where there were none
why was Koko the gorilla able to learn so many more words compared to Washoe?
Koko was taught GSL… made specifically for gorilla hands!
what was the lexigram approach in animal language studies?
Kanzi (bonobo)
used Lexigram board
comprised of
symbols that
represent various
objects and ideas
- Understood 350
symbols and
3,000 spoken
words
could measure/quantify responses with no subjectivity from researchers on meaning of words
T/F: Dolphins learn syntactic rules in
an artificial gestural language
true
T/F: Chaser (border collie) learned
over 3000 words
false, only 1000… could bring you any 1000 of its toys (individually named!)
T/F: Alex (African grey parrot) could
say ~150 words to identify
shapes, colours, numbers, etc
true!
what are the two ways animals can communicate?
by displacement- physically
through semantics- context clues
whats an example of animal displacement communication?
honeybee waggle dance! communicating about things in different places using physical movement
whats an example of animal semantics communication?
Referential alarm calls
function as primitive words
monkeys use eagle alarms, leopard alarms, snake alarms… they can discern meaning from context clues
T/F: Like humans, some
select animal groups also
need to learn species-
typical vocalizations to
communicate properly
true!
ex: transmission of whale songs! in different territories they have different songs… shared over time!
is human language unique?
yes and no
All forms of animal
communication, human
or otherwise, exist along a
continuum
Evolutionary building
blocks of language can be
found in other species
but may be what makes us dominant…
