Chapter 9: Language and Intelligence

Question 1

Phonology

Answer 1

The study of how individual sounds or phonemes are used to produce language

Question 2

Semantics

Answer 2

The study of how meaning in language is constructed of individual words and sentences

Question 3

Syntax

Answer 3

A system of rules for arranging words to convey a specific meaning

Question 4

Pragmatics

Answer 4

The practical aspects of language use, such as pace, gesturing, tone and body language

Question 5

Phoneme

Answer 5

The smallest unit of sound that can distinguish words in a language

Question 6

Morpheme

Answer 6

The smallest unit of sounds that can carry meaning

Question 7

Lexical Meaning

Answer 7

The dictionary definition of a word

Question 8

Prevocal Period

Answer 8

Between 2-4 months of age.
Babies are able to perceive phonemes of every language, even if they’re not needed for their native language.
Are able to distinguish between sounds.
Young babies can understand many more phonemes than older children or adults.

Question 9

Cooing Period

Answer 9

Around 2 months old.
Begin to make non-crying vocalization consisting of mostly vowels.
May also produce brief consonant-like sounds.

Question 10

Babbling Period

Answer 10

Around 6 months old.
Babies produce meaningless sounds that don’t work as a form of communication, but allow the baby to experiment with vocalizations and gradually approach language.

Question 11

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 11

2 years old.

Toddler sentences.

Question 12

Grammatical Morphemes

Answer 12

Words that can be dropped from sentences without impacting the understanding of the phrase.

Question 13

Linguistic Relativity

Answer 13

The belief that people who speak different languages think differently

Question 14

Functional Fixedness

Answer 14

The tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use

Question 15

Mental Set

Answer 15

When people get locked into a particular line of thinking when trying to solve a problem.

Question 16

Unnecessary Constraints

Answer 16

When people impose their own contraints on the problem when in reality no contraints exist

Question 17

Availability Heuristic

Answer 17

Basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind

Question 18

Representativeness Heuristic

Answer 18

Basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical case of the event

Question 19

Ignoring Base Rates

Answer 19

Ignoring information about the broad likelihood of a particular category or type of event

Question 20

Conjunction Fallacy

Answer 20

Occurs when people estimate the odds of two uncertain events happening together as greater than the odds of either event happening alone

Question 21

Framing Effect

Answer 21

The fact that decisions are based on how the issues are presented or how choices are structured.

Question 22

Critical Period

Answer 22

A window of time in development when certain influences are necessary for the development of the brain

Question 23

Sensitive Period

Answer 23

A point in development when the brain is more vulnerable to influences

Question 24

Child-directed speech

Answer 24

Speech with exaggerated emotional responses spoken at a slower pace. basically baby talk.

Question 25

Agrammatism

Answer 25

A neurological condition where the patient is incapable of using words in grammatical sequence

Question 26

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 26

believes that the vocabulary available for objects or concepts in a language influences how speakers of that language think about them

Question 27

Dysexecutive Syndrome

Answer 27

Impairments in the ability to control and direct mental activities