Chapter 9: Language & Thought Flashcards
Define: Grammar
A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages
Define: Language
A system for communication with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning
Define: Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise (th-e-b-o-i)
Define: Phonological Rules
A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds
Define: Morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of language (the-boy)
Define: Morphological Rules
A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words
Define: Syntactical Rules
A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences
Define: Deep Structure
The meaning of a sentence, deep reading
Define: Surface Structure
How a sentence is worded
Defined: Fast Mapping
The fact that children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure
Define: Telegraphic Speech
Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consist mostly of content
Define: Nativist Theory
Argued by Noam Chomsky: Language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.
Define: Language acquisition device
(LAD) A collection of processes that facilitate language learning
Define: Genetic Dysphasia
A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence
Define: Aphasia
Difficulty in producing or comprehending language
Define: Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
The proposal that language shapes the nature of thought
Define: Concept
A mental representation that group or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli
Define: Family Resemblance Theory
Members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category member but may not be possessed by every member - so to use the example of a bird, anything that has feathers and wings is categorized as a bird.
Define: Prototype Theory
The “best” or “most typical” member of a category
Define: Exemplar Theory
A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgements by comparing
Define: Category-Specific Deficit
A neurological syndrome that is characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, although the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undistrubed
Define: Ration Choice Theory
The classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two
Define: Availability Bias
Items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently
Define: Heuristics
A fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached
Define: Algorithm
A well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem
Define: Conjunction Fallacy
When people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event
Define: Representativeness Heuistic
A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event.
Define: Framing Effects
When people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed)
Define: Sunk-Cost Fallacy
A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation
Define: Prospect Theory
People choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains
Define: Frequency Format Hypothesis
The proposal that our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur
Define: Means-Ends Analysis
A process of searching for the meaning or steps to reduce differences between the current situation and the desired goal.
Define: Analogical Problem Solving
Solving a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem
Define: Reasoning
A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps in order to reach conclusions
Define: Practical Reasoning
Figuring out what to do, or reasoning directed toward action
Define: Theoretical Reasoning
Reasoning directed toward arriving at a belief
Define: Belief Bias
People’s judgements about whether to accept conclusions depending more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguemts are logically valid
Define: Syllogistic Reasoning
Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true
ex.
1. Some cats are blue
2. Randy is cat
Conclusion: Somethings that are not cats are blue
The combining of words to form phrases and sentences is governed by..
Syntactical rules
Language development as an innate, biological capacity is explained by…
Nativist theory
A collection of processes that facilitate language learning is referred to as…
A language acquisition device (LAD)
Damage to the brain region called Broca’s area results in…
Difficultly in producing grammatical speech
The linguistic relativity hypothesis maintains that…
Language shapes the nature of thought
The most typical member of a category is…
a prototype
Which theory of how we form concepts is based on our judgement of features that appear to be characteristic of category member but may not be possessed by every member?
Family Resemblance Theory
The inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, although the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed is call…
Category-specific Deficit
Making use of which of the following would most likely lead a solution to a problem?
An algorithm
People give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased because of…
Framing effects
The view that people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains describes…
Prospect Theory
People with damage to the prefrontal cortex are prone to…
Risky decision making
Miranda decides on a goal, analyzes her current situation, lists the differences between her current situation and her goal, then settles on strategies to reduce those differences. Miranda is engaging in…
Means-Ends Analysis
