Chapter 9 - Language and Thought Flashcards

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1
Q

what is language?

A

a system for communication with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning

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2
Q

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

A

grammar

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3
Q
  • is more complex than other forms of communication
  • involves words representing intangible things
  • used to think and conceptualize
    these are all characteristics of:
A

human language

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4
Q

what are the two basic characteristics of human language?

A
  • phoneme
  • morpheme
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5
Q

what is a phoneme?

A

the smallest unit of sound recognized as speech

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6
Q

what is a morpheme?

A

the smallest unit of meaning in a language

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7
Q

true or false: morphemes have both morphological and syntactical rules

A

true

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8
Q

what are the three main characteristics of language development?

A

1) children learn language at an astonishing rate
2) children make few errors while learning to speak
3) children’s comprehension of language develops faster than their production

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9
Q

true or false: infants are unable to distinguish between all human phonemes

A

false, they can; however, this ability dissipates by age 6 months

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10
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: can tell the difference between speech sounds; coos, expecially in response to speech

A

0-4 months

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11
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: babbles consonants

A

4-6 months

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12
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: understands some words and simple requests

A

6-10 months

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13
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: begins to use single words

A

10-12 months

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14
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: has vocabulary of 30-50 simple words

A

12-18 months

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15
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: two word phrases are ordered according to syntactical rules, vocabulary consists of 50-200 words, understands rules

A

18-24 months

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16
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: has vocabulary of about 1000 words, produces phrases and incomplete sentences

A

24-36 months

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17
Q

at what age does this language milestone occur: vocabulary grows to more than 10000 words, produces full sentences, shows mastery of grammatical morphemes

A

36-60 months

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18
Q

occurs when children map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure:

A

fast mapping

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19
Q

devoid of function morphemes and consists mainly of content words:

A

telegraphic speech

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20
Q

as children learn grammar, they tend to ____________ rules

A

overgeneralize

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21
Q

the orderly progression of language development might depend on:

A
  • general cognitive development
  • experience with a specific language
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22
Q

what is the behaviourist explanation for language development?

A

language is learned through operant conditioning and imitation

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23
Q

what are the limitations of a behoviourist explanation to language?

A
  • parents spend little time teaching language
  • children generate more than simply what they hear
  • errors made cannot be explained through conditioning or imitation
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24
Q

what is the nativist explanation/theory for language development?

A

language is an innate biological capacity

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25
Q

the collection of processes that facilitate language learning, associated with nativist theory:

A

universal grammar

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26
Q

what are the interactionist explanations for language development?

A
  • social interactions play a crucial role in language development
  • social experience interacts with innate, biological language abilities
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27
Q

what is broca’s area?

A

part of the left frontal cortex in the brain responsible for language production

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28
Q

what is wernicke’s area?

A

part of the left temporal complex in the brain responsible for language comprehension

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29
Q

what is aphasia?

A

difficulty in producing or comprehending language

30
Q

“word salad” and echolalia are common symptoms of:

A

wernicke’s aphasia

31
Q

one part of the brain is responsible for a specific function:

A

localization of function

32
Q

two related mental processes are shown to function independently of each other. so damage to area A does not effect area B:

A

double dissociation

33
Q

true or false: the right hemisphere of the brain does not contribute to language processing or comprehension

A

false, the right hemisphere does have some capacity for processing verbal meaning

34
Q

bilingual individual’s tend to have a later onset of ________ diesease

A

Alzheimer’s

35
Q

learning a second language seems to increase the ability of the _________ to handle linguistic demands

A

left parietal lobe

36
Q

true or false: bilingual people tend to have higher grey matter density in their lower left parietal region than monolingual people

A

true

37
Q

what are some limitations apes exhibit when comprehending and using human language?

A
  • limited vocabulary
  • limited conceptual repertoire
  • limited understanding of grammar
38
Q

being blind from birth alters typical development of brain specialization, which allows regions normally devoted to vision to be co-opted for language processing. this is part of the:

A

developmental specialization hypothesis

39
Q

absence of visual input at any time of life reveals the hidden ability of visual centres to become involved in language processing. this is known as the:

A

unkmasking hypothesis

40
Q

language shapes the nature of thought:

A

linguistic relativity hypothesis

41
Q

who developed the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

A

Benjamin Whorf

42
Q

either thought or language ability can be severely impaired while the capacity for the other is spared. what does this say about the linguistic relativity hypothesis?

A

that it is only “half right”. while language can influence thought, it is not the only factor

43
Q

what is a concept?

A

a mental representation that groups or categories share features of related objects, events, or other stimuli

44
Q

something that must be true of the object to belong to the category:

A

necessary condition

45
Q

something that, if it is true of the object, proves it belongs to the category:

A

sufficient condition

46
Q

new objects classified by comparing them to the “best” or “most typical” member of a category:

A

prototype theory

47
Q

category judgements are made by comparing a new instance with stored memories for some other category cases:

A

exemplar theory

48
Q

these parts of the brain are primarily involved in forming prototypes:

A

left hemisphere and visual cortex

49
Q

these parts of the brain are mainly active in recognizing exemplars:

A

right hemisphere, prefrontal cortex, and basal ganglia

50
Q

a neurological syndrome that is characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category:

A

category-specific deficit

51
Q

the classical view that decisions are made by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying by two:

A

rational choice theory

52
Q

people are good at estimating the ________ of an event

A

frequency

53
Q

people are poor at tasks that require thinking in terms of ________

A

probabilites

54
Q

items more readily available in memory are judged as having occured more frequently:

A

availability heuristics

55
Q

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

A

heuristics

56
Q

the well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem; in contrast to heuristics:

A

algorithm

57
Q

a mental shortcut that involves making a judgement by comparing an object or event with a prototype of the object or event:

A

representativeness heuristics

58
Q

when people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either as an individual event:

A

conjunction fallacy

59
Q

people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased:

A

framing effects

60
Q

people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation:

A

sunk-cost fallacy

61
Q

when people belive that they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future:

A

optimism bias

62
Q

is optimism bias greater in North America or Eastern cultures?

A

North America

63
Q

when people choose to take on risks when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evalating potential gains:

A

prospect theory

64
Q

people with prefrontal lobe damage do not show _________ during risky decision making

A

emotional reactions

65
Q

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

A

means-end analysis

66
Q

when the same stragety can be applied to solving two different problems:

A

analogical problem solving

67
Q

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

A

reasoning

68
Q

judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid:

A

belief bias

69
Q

occurs when repeated exposure to a statement increases the likelihood that people will judge the statement to be true:

A

illusory truth effect

70
Q

an illusion that occurs when people overestimate the depth of their understanding, where reasoning and truth assessment may be undermined:

A

illusion of explanatory depth