Final Flashcards
What is thinking?
Any mental ability or processing of information
What is a cognitive miser?
Cheap with their mental energy
What is top down processing?
Filling in the gaps of missing information using our own experiences and background knowledge
What is bottom up processing?
Our brains only process the information it receives, and constructs meaning from it slowly and surely by building up understanding through experience
What is decision making?
The process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives
What is paralysis by analysis?
When our brains can get overwhelmed by excessive information
What is framing?
Is the way the question is formulated that can influence the decisions people make
What is problem solving?
Generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal
What are algorithms?
Step by step procedures
What are the three obstacles to solving problems?
Salience of surface similarities, mental sets, and functional fixedness
What is salience of surface similarities?
We tend to focus our attention on the surface-level properties of a problem
What is a mental set?
Once we find a solution that’s dependable, we often get stuck in that solution mode
What is functional fixedness?
It is the difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used for another
What is language?
Is a system of communication that combines symbols, such as words or gestural signs
What are phonemes?
The sounds of our language
What are morphemes?
The smallest units of meaningful speech
What is syntax?
The grammatical rules that govern how we compose words into meaningful strings
What are extralinguistic information?
Elements of communication that aren’t part of the content of language but are crucial to interpreting its meaning, such as facial expressions and tone of voice
What is semantics?
Which is meaning derived from words and sentences
What are dialects?
Are variations of the same language used by groups of people from specific geographic areas
What is babbling?
Any intentional vocalization that lacks specific meaning
What is overextension?
When children apply words in a broader sense, such as calling all men ‘daddy’
What is under extension?
When children apply the word in a narrower sense, such as thinking that the word ‘cat’ only applies to their pet cat
What is the one-word stage?
When children use individual words to convey entire thoughts
What is sign language?
A type of language developed by members of communities with hearing loss that allows them to use visual rather than auditory communication
What is being bilingual?
Being proficient and fluent at speaking and comprehending two distinct languages
What is homesign?
A system of signs invented by children with hearing loss of hearing parents who receive no language input
What is generative?
It allows an infinite number of unique sentences to be created by combining words in novel ways
What is the nativist account?
It is a language acquisitions theory that suggest children are born with some basic knowledge of how language works
What is a language acquisition device?
A hypothetical construct in the brain in which nativists believe knowledge of syntax resides
What is the social pragmatics account?
It proposes that children infer what words and sentences mean from context and social interactions
What is the general cognitive processing account?
It proposes that children’s ability to learn a language results from general skills that children apply a variety of activities
