Chapter 9 Language and Communication

Question 1

Language

Answer 1

A system for communicating with other using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning.

Question 2

Grammar

Answer 2

A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.

Question 3

Phoneme

Answer 3

The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise.

Question 4

Phonological Rules

Answer 4

A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds.

Question 5

Morphemes

Answer 5

The smallest meaningful units of language.

Question 6

Morphological Rules

Answer 6

A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.

Question 7

Syntactical Rules

Answer 7

A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form sentences.

Question 8

Deep Structure

Answer 8

The meaning of a sentence.

Question 9

Surface Structure

Answer 9

How a sentence is worded.

Question 10

Fast Mapping

Answer 10

The fact that children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure.

Question 11

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 11

Speech that is devoid of functional morphemes and consists mostly of content words.

Question 12

Nativist Theory

Answer 12

The view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.

Question 13

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Answer 13

A collection of processes that facilitate language learning.

Question 14

Genetic Dysphasia

Answer 14

A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence.

Question 15

Aphasia

Answer 15

Difficulty in producing or comprehending language.

Question 16

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 16

Struggle with speech production.

Question 17

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Answer 17

Difficulty comprehending language.

Question 18

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

Answer 18

The proposal that languages shapes the nature of thought.

Question 19

Concept

Answer 19

A mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or oher stimuli.

Question 20

Family Resemblance Theory

Answer 20

Members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category members but may not be posessed by every member.

Question 21

Prototype

Answer 21

The “best” or “most typical” member of a category.

Question 22

Exemplar Theory

Answer 22

A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgements by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of the category.

Question 23

Category Specific Deficit

Answer 23

A neurological syndrome that is characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, though the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed.

Question 24

Rational Choice Theory

Answer 24

The classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, then multiplying the two.

Question 25

Availabilty Bias

Answer 25

Items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occured more frequently.

Question 26

Heuristic

Answer 26

A fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached.

Question 27

Algorithm

Answer 27

A well defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem.

Question 28

Conjunction Fallacy

Answer 28

When people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event.

Question 29

Representativeness Heuristic

Answer 29

A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event.

Question 30

Framing Effects

Answer 30

When people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed).

Question 31

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Answer 31

A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation.

Question 32

Prospect Theory

Answer 32

The proposal that people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains.

Question 33

Frequency Format Hypothesis

Answer 33

The proposal that our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur.

Question 34

Means-End Analysis

Answer 34

A process of searching for the means or steps to reduce differences between the current situation and the desired goal.

Question 35

Analogical Problem Solving

Answer 35

Solving a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem.

Question 36

Functional Fixedness

Answer 36

The tendency to perceive the finctoions of objects as fixed.

Question 37

Reasoning

Answer 37

A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps to reach conclusions.

Question 38

Practical Reasoning

Answer 38

Figuring out what to do, or reasoning directed towards action.

Question 39

Theoretical Reasoning

Answer 39

Reasoning directed toward arriving at a belief.

Question 40

Belief Bias

Answer 40

People’s judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid.

Question 41

Syllogistic Reasoning

Answer 41

Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true.