Chapter 9 - Thinking and Language Flashcards by Bernadette Rama

What is thinking/cognition?

Refers to all mental processes that involve knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating

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What is a concept?

The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or people

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What is a prototype?

When you form concepts with mental images or typical examples

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What is an algorithm?

Step by step procedures or formulas

Ex. baking, surgery

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What is trial and error?

When multiple attempts are made to reach a solution

Ex. cooking, writing music, fixing a broken item

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What is a heuristic?

Thinking strategies that allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently

Ex. stereotypes, or throwing out a stat to prove your point

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What is insight?

Involves a sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem

Ex. Trivia answer, idea for a group project

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What part of the brain activates when insight strikes?

The right temporal cortex

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is confirmation bias?

A tendency to search for information that confirms a personal bias

Ex. anti vax, vaccinations

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is fixation?

An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is functional fixedness?

Think of things only in terms of their usual function

Ex. matchbox not being a candle holder

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is a mental set?

Predisposed to solve a problem the way you have in the past

Ex. J F M A _ ?

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is intuition?

Your gut feeling

Ex. siblings or dating?

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is a representative heuristic?

Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype

Ex. stereotypes, racism/sexism

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is an availability heuristic?

Judge information on how mentally available it is and so it must be commonplace

Ex. media influences

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is overconfidence?

Overconfidence is a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

Ex. sense of direction

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is framing?

Decisions and judgments may be significantly affected depending upon how an issue is framed or presented

Ex. numbers and percentages

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Obstacles in Solving Problems

What is belief perseverance?

The tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence

Ex. abusive relationships

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What is language?

Our spoken, written, or gestured words - the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others

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How many words after age 1 do we learn (on average)?

3,500 words a year -
60,000 words by the time we graduate highschool

Components of Language

What are phonemes?

Sets of basic sounds -
869 in human speech and 40 in English

Ex. Beat, 3 changes in sound

Components of Language

What are morphemes?

Combinations of phonemes with meaning

Ex. Preview, 2 in “pre” and “view”

Components of Language

What is grammar?

System of rules to communicate and understand the language

Ex. commas, capitalization

Components of Language

What are semantics?

Rules to derive meaning

Ex. “ed” means past

# Components of Language What is a syntax?

Order of words in a sentence | Ex. an adjective comes before a noun, "grey fox" not "fox grey"

# When do we learn language? What is the Babbling Stage?

Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, the beginning of productive language | Ex. "ah-goo"

# When do we learn language? What is the One-Word Stage?

Beginning at or around our first birthday, child starts to speak one word at a time | Ex. "Dada" or "dog", which may mean look at the dog out there

# When do we learn language? What is the Two-Word Stage?

Before the 2nd year, child starts to speak in two-word sentences | Ex. "Go car", means I would like to go for a ride in the car

# When do we learn language? What is telegraphic speech?

Child at two-word stage speaks like a telegram | Ex. "Go car", means I would like to go for a ride in the car

# When do we learn language? What are Longer phrases?

After telegraphic speech, (approx. age 3) children begin uttering longer phrases with syntactical sense | Ex. "Mommy go get ball"

# Explaining Language Development What is operant learning?

Skinner believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principiles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement

# Explaining Language Development What is inborn universal grammar?

Chomsky opposed Skinner's ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn

What is the critical period?

Childhood - children never exposed to any language (spoken or signed) by about age 7 gradually lose their ability to master any language

What happened to Genie?

Wild Child, neglected in her room until she was 13

How do we read language?

1. Visual Cortex 2. Angular Gyrus 3. Wernicke's area 4. Brocas area 5. Motor cortex

# How do we read language? What is the visual cortex?

Recieves written words as visual stimulation

# How do we read language? What is the angular gyrus?

Transforms the visual representations into auditory code

# How do we read language? What is Wernicke's area?

Interprets the auditory code

# How do we read language? What is Broca's area?

Controls your speech

# How do we read language? What is the motor cortex?

Pronounces the words

# Language and The Brain What is aphasia?

Impaired use of language as a result of damage to Broca's Area, Wernicke's Area, and/or the Angular Gyrus

# Language and The Brain What does damage to Broca's area cause?

Left frontal lobe, damage here is a struggle to speak, but can comprehend language

# Language and The Brain What does damage to Wernicke's area cause?

Left temporal lobe, damage here means speaking only meaningless words

# Language and The Brain What does damage to the Angular gyrus cause?

Can't read or read out loud, but can speak and understand

What is linguistic determinism?

Whorf suggested that language determines the way we think | Ex. Hopi people do not have the past tense for verbs

What is the bilingual advantage?

Expanded language = expanded thinking (longer attention spans)

What is a cognitive map?

Our thoughts without using language - our mental representations of the spacial environment, the world as we believe it to exist | Ex. your route from your locker to your classes

What are the common cognitive skills in humans and apes?

1. Concept Formation 2. Insight 3. Problem Solving 4. Culture