Chapter 9: Language & Thought Key Terms

Question 1

Human language:

Answer 1

A communication system specific to Homo sapiens; it is open and symbolic, has rules of grammar, and allows its users to express abstract and distant ideas.

Question 2

Syntax:

Answer 2

The rules for arranging words and symbols to form sentences or parts of sentences in a particular language.

Question 3

Grammar:

Answer 3

The entire set of rules for combining symbols and sounds to speak and write a particular language.

Question 4

Protolanguage:

Answer 4

Very rudimentary language; also known as pre-language; used by earlier species of Homo.

Question 5

Cooing:

Answer 5

The first sounds humans make other than crying, consisting almost exclusively of vowels; occurs during the first 6 months of life.

Question 6

Babbling:

Answer 6

Sounds made as a result of the infant’s experimentation with a complex range of phonemes, which include consonants as well as vowels; starts around 5–6 months of age.

Question 7

One-word utterances:

Answer 7

Single-word communication (such as “mama,” “dada,” “more,” or “no!”) that occurs around 12 months of age.

Question 8

Two-word utterances:

Answer 8

Phrases children put together, starting around 18 months, such as “my ball,” “mo wawa,” or “go way.”

Question 9

Sentence phase:

Answer 9

The stage when children begin speaking in fully grammatical sentences; usually age 2½ to 3.

Question 10

Mirror neurons:

Answer 10

Nerve cells that are active when we observe others performing an action as well as when we are performing the same action.

Question 11

Child-directed speech:

Answer 11

Changes in adult speech patterns—apparently universal—when speaking to young children or infants; characterized by higher pitch, changes in voice volume, use of simpler sentences, emphasis on the here and now, and use of emotion to communicate messages.

Question 12

Nativist view of language:

Answer 12

The idea that we discover language rather than learn it, that language development is inborn.

Question 13

Language acquisition device (LAD):

Answer 13

An innate, biologically based capacity to acquire language, proposed by Noam Chomsky as part of his nativist view of language.

Question 14

Linguistic determinism hypothesis:

Answer 14

The proposition that our language determines our way of thinking and our perceptions of the world; the view taken by Sapir and Whorf.

Question 15

Cognition:

Answer 15

Mental processes involved in acquiring, processing, and storing knowledge.

Question 16

Mental representation:

Answer 16

A structure in the mind—such as an idea or image—that stands for something else, such as an external object or thing sensed in the past or future, not the present.

Question 17

Visual imagery:

Answer 17

Visual representations created by the brain after the original stimulus is no longer present.

Question 18

Mental rotation:

Answer 18

The process of imagining an object turning in three-dimensional space.

Question 19

Category:

Answer 19

A classification created by perceiving similar features in objects, ideas, or events and treating them as if they are the same.

Question 20

Prototypes:

Answer 20

The best-fitting examples of a category.

Question 21

Concept:

Answer 21

A mental grouping of objects, events, or people.

Question 22

Concept hierarchy:

Answer 22

An arrangement of related concepts in a particular way, with some being general and others specific.

Question 23

Reasoning:

Answer 23

The process of drawing inferences or conclusions from principles and evidence.

Question 24

Deductive reasoning:

Answer 24

Reasoning from general statements of what is known to specific conclusions.

Question 25

Inductive reasoning:

Answer 25

Reasoning to general conclusions from specific evidence.

Question 26

Casual inferences:

Answer 26

Judgments about causation of one thing by another.

Question 27

Confirmation bias:

Answer 27

The tendency to selectively attend to information that supports one’s general beliefs while ignoring information or evidence that contradicts one’s beliefs.

Question 28

Heuristics:

Answer 28

Mental shortcuts for making complex and uncertain decisions and judgments.

Question 29

Representativeness heuristic:

Answer 29

A strategy we use to estimate the probability of one event based on how typical it is of another event.

Question 30

Base rates:

Answer 30

How common an event or trait occurs in the general population.

Question 31

Availability heuristic:

Answer 31

A device we use to make decisions based on the ease with which estimates come to mind or how available they are to our awareness.

Question 32

Conjunction fallacy:

Answer 32

An error in logic that occurs when people say the combination of two events is more likely than either event alone.