Language and Thought 1 Flashcards
What is cognition?
How we “think”.
- It encompasses a broad range of how we think, problem solve, anticipate, believe in things, creativity, integrate emotion into thoughts etc.
- Past experiences, beliefs, emotion, creativity, language, problem solving
What is a concept?
Group/categories of shared features of related objects, events, or stimuli
What is a prototype?
The best example of a concept. Possesses many, if not all of the characteristics of the category.
What is the relationship between prototype and new information?
Our prototype influences how we relate to new pieces of information. This is because your prototype is very closely matched to the overall concept.
What are category judgments?
The closer the new fruit is to the prototype, the better example of a fruit it would be considered. (does this new example belong to the category) based off of the category’s prototype
How do concepts and prototypes influence how we think about the world? (looking for a specific word)
We make probability judgements by comparing an object or event with its prototype?
How are concepts useful to us? What type of memory do they work off of? Are the concrete or abstract? Agreed upon?
concepts help us organize the world. They are informed by semantic memory. Concepts can be concrete or complex/abstract. Agreed upon (laws of a society) or individual (what you look for in a class)
What are examples of concrete concepts?
Fruit, clouds
What are examples of complex/abstract concepts?
Psychology, Pythagoras’ theorem, schmimon
What are natural concepts?
Experienced in the world. Ex: snow, fruit, birds.
- can construct an understanding of it through direct observation.
What are artificial concepts?
Understood through a set of propertied/characteristics. Build on one-another. The area of a square/pythagoras’ theorem/ dictionary definitions
What are schemas?
clusters of interrelated concepts that interact to help us understand the world. Further help us organize and interact with the world
What are the 2 types of schemas?
Role schemas and event schemas
What is a role schema?
How a person should behave based on their categorization
(Ex: seeing Simon in the grocery store doesn’t match my role schema)
What are event schemas?
Cognitive scripts: what do you do in certain events?
What do we do when we’re uncertain about event schemas?
We look to others.
What is an example of an event schema?
When in an elevator you expect people to stand facing the opening of the door.
What is an example of an event schema?
When in an elevator you expect people to stand facing the opening of the door.
What is an example of a situation that has a more flexible event schema?
The bar has some more flexible event schemas so there is more room for you to influence your cognitive script
Does our culture relate to the way we relate to things constructed by language?
Yes.
What is language?
a system with communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules (grammar) and that convey meaning.
What are phonemes? How many are there in english?
Smallest unit of language. 44 different phonemes in English.
What are phonetic rules?
How we combine phonemes to produce sounds . Ex: PH = f
What are morphemes?
the smallest meaningful units of language that convey meaning.
What are phonemes that are also morphemes?
a is a phoneme and a morpheme. Ex: I ate a pie.
What are morphological rules?
How we combine morphemes to remix words. Ex: s goes at the end of the sentence to make it plural.
What do we use grammar for?
To construct language.
What are 2 ways we use grammar to construct language?
-semantics (what words mean)
- Syntax (how words are organized)
What are the 2 perspectives for language acquisition?
behaviourist, nativist.
What is the behaviourist perspective of language acquisition?
We learn language through reinforcement (baby learns that saying mumma gets a good reaction)
What is the nativist perspective of language acquisition?
innate, biological capacity for language
What facts about language acquisition support nativists?
- It is more difficult to learn a language after puberty
-Initial language leaves lasting traces in the brain
-Similar language development irrespective of culture
What are people who believe in the combination of behaviourist and nativist principles?
interactionists
How many phonemes are babies able to make at birth?
babies are born with the ability to make all phonemes form all languages
What language milestones are expected at 0-4 months?
can tell the difference between all possible speech sounds (phonemes), cooing, especially in response to speech
What is telegraphic speech?
Throw ball- no function morphemes, only content morphemes 18 months
When do kids lose the ability to produce every phoneme?
6 months
