Chapter 9 Vocab Flashcards
language
A system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning.
grammar
A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.
phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise.
phonological rules
A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds.
morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of language.
morphological rules
A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.
syntactical rules
A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.
deep structure
The meaning of a sentence.
surface structure
How a sentence is worded.
fast mapping
A phenomenon whereby children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure.
telegraphic speech
Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists mostly of content words.
nativist theory
The view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.
genetic dysphasia
A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence.
aphasia
Difficulty in producing or comprehending language.
concept
A mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli.
family resemblance theory
The theory that members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category members but may not be possessed by every member.
prototype
The “best” or “most typical member” of a category
exemplar theory
A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of the category.
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 undisturbed.
rational 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.
frequency format hypothesis
The proposal that our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur.
availability bias
The tendency to mistakenly judge items that are more readily available in memory as having occurred more frequently.
conjunction fallacy
An error that occurs when people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event.
representativeness heuristic
A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event.
framing effects
Phenomena that occur when people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed).
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.
prospect theory
The proposal that people choose to take risks when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains.
intelligence
The ability to direct one’s thinking, adapt to one’s circumstances, and learn from one’s experiences.
ratio IQ
A statistic obtained by dividing a person’s mental age by the person’s physical age and then multiplying the quotient by 100 (see deviation IQ)
deviation IQ
A statistic obtained by dividing a person’s test score by the average test score of people in the same age group and then multiplying the quotient by 100 (see ratio IQ)
two-factor theory of intelligence
Spearman’s theory suggesting that every task requires a combination of a general ability (which he called g) and skills that are specific to the task (which he called s).
fluid intelligence
The ability to see abstract relationships and draw logical inferences
crystallized intelligence
The ability to retain and use knowledge that was acquired through experience.
prodigy
A person of normal intelligence who has an extraordinary ability.
savant
A person of low intelligence who has an extraordinary ability.
emotional intelligence
The ability to reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance reasoning.
fraternal twins
(also called dizygotic twins) Twins who develop from two different eggs that were fertilized by two different sperm.
identical twins
(also called monozygotic twins) Twins who develop from the splitting of a single egg that was fertilized by a single sperm.
shared environment
Those environmental factors that are experienced by all relevant members of a household
nonshared environment
Those environmental factors that are not experienced by all relevant members of a household
