Chapter 8- Thought, Language, Intelligence Flashcards
What is language?
Language is a shared system of symbols, including spoken, written, and signed words and gestures, and a set of rules for how to combine those symbols to communicate meaning
What are phonemes?
Phonemes are individual speech sounds
What are morphemes?
Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry bits of meaning
What is grammar?
Grammar governs the way that language parts are put together so that people can understand each other
What is syntax?
Syntax is the grammatical rules that governs how words and phrases combine into well-formed sentences
What are pragmatics?
Pragmatics are rules that govern the practical aspects of using language
What is the linguistic determinism hypothesis?
The linguistic determinism hypothesis states that different languages impose different ways of understanding the world that can constrain and shape our thinking
What is babbling?
Babbling often takes the form of consonant-vowel combinations, such as “ma” or “ba” repeated over and over
What are overregularization errors?
Overregularization errors are when children extend rules, such as adding an -ed, which usually marks the past tense for English verbs, to irregular verbs that don’t follow the rules such as runned, comed, and eated
What does the larynx do?
The larynx makes speech possible
What does the language acquisition device refer to?
Noam Chomsky proposed that the language acquisition device gets turned on when children are exposed to language and that it guides language learning
What is the sensitive period?
The sensitive period is the period where language acquisition can occur, but afterward, language acquisition will be limited
What does the “less is more” hypothesis?
The “less is more” hypothesis states that languages are learned best from the ground up: learners master the smallest components of language first followed by the more complex components
What is cognition?
Cognition refers to all mental activities associated with thinking
What is cognitive psychology?
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental activities and how they work
What are mental representations?
Mental representations are internal mental symbols that stand for some object, event, or state of affairs in the world
What are concepts?
Concepts are mental categories that group similar objects, events, ideas, or people
What are prototypes?
Prototypes are a kind of best example or average member of the concept that incorporates more of the features most commonly associated with it
What are superordinate concepts?
Superordinate concepts are more abstract and encompass basic-level concepts
What are Subordinate concepts?
Subordinate concepts are more specific concepts within basic-level concepts
What is trial and error?
Trial and error involves trying actions or strategies at random until they find something that works
What are algorithms?
Algorithms are step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution
What is insight?
Insight is a sudden, conscious change in a person’s understanding of some situation or problem
What is a mental set?
A mental set is a mental framework for how to solve later problems
What is functional fixedness?
Functional fixedness is a tendency to focus on an object’s typical functions and thus fail to recognize unusual functions that could solve a problem
What is restructuring?
Restructuring is best when prior experience gets in the way of one’s understanding of a problem
What are judgments?
Judgments are conclusions drawn from some evidence we have at hand
What are decisions?
Decisions are choices that affect our behavior
What are rational decisions?
Rational decisions are based purely on reason and logic
What is bounded rationality?
Bounded rationality states that people’s capacity to make rational decisions are bounded, or constrained by their limited resources
What are the dual-processing theories?
People have two types of thinking that they can use to make judgments and decisions
What is the controlled system?
The controlled system is slower and more effortful and leads to more thoughtful and rational outcomes
What is the automatic system?
The automatic system is fast and fairly effortless and leads to decent outcomes most of the time
What are Heuristics?
Heuristics are a powerful set of mental tools that people use to navigate everyday judgments and decisions
What is a representativeness heuristic?
Representativeness heuristics are a shortcut for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or be prototypical of some category?
What are availability heuristics?
Availability heuristics are a strategy for deciding how frequent or probable something is based on how easily it comes to mind
What is the affect heuristic?
The affect heuristic is a tendency to use the affect we associate with various objects and events in the world to make judgments and decisions
What are moral judgments?
Moral judgments are about the “rightness” or “wrongness” of a particular behavior
What is the confirmation bias?
Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for and weigh evidence that confirms preexisting beliefs more strongly than evidence that is inconsistent with those beliefs
What is belief perseverance?
Belief perseverance is a phenomenon that makes it difficult for people to change their beliefs even when faced with disconfirming evidence
What is framing?
Framing means the way information is presented
What is loss aversion?
Loss aversion is a tendency for people to try and make choices that will minimize or avoid loss
What is hindsight bias?
Hindsight bias is the tendency for people to overestimate the likelihood that they would have predicted some outcome
