Language and Thought

Question 1

What is language?

Answer 1

The grouping of spoken, written, or gestured symbols used to convey information

Question 2

What are the four properties of language?

Answer 2

Symbolic, semantic, generative, structured

Question 3

What are phonemes?

Answer 3

Smallest speech units, distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another (e.g. pad and pat, bad and bat)

Question 4

What are morphemes?

Answer 4

The smallest lexical items of meaning or grammatical function that a word can be broken down to. They are also made up of prefixes (dis-, im-, co-, etc.) and suffixes (-ing, -ly, -ful, etc.)

Question 5

What are semantics?

Answer 5

Meaning of words and word combinations

Question 6

What is syntax?

Answer 6

A system of rules for arranging words into sentences

Question 7

What is Skinner’s Environmental Theory of Language?

Answer 7

Language is verbal behaviour - reinforcement mediated by another person. A speaker is more likely to ask for something in the future when they get what they asked for. A speaker is less likely to say something if they are punished for saying it.

Question 8

What is Chomsky’s Nativist Theory of Language?

Answer 8

There are similarities across the human species regarding the process of language development; children across cultures acquire nouns before verbs

Question 9

What is the emergentist perspective?

Answer 9

Bridges the gap between nativist and environmentalist (behavioural) approaches

Question 10

What is nativist?

Answer 10

Biological reasoning for language development

Question 11

What is behaviouralist?

Answer 11

Environmental/nurturing reasoning for language development

Question 12

What is Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 12

The inability or difficulty in producing speech

Question 13

What occurs when Wernicke’s area in the brain is damaged/undeveloped?

Answer 13

Speech is produced but does not make any sense; Wernicke’s area is responsible for speaking comprehension

Question 14

What are the 3 purposes of language?

Answer 14

1. To communicate thoughts, ideas, and feelings
2. Facilitate social communication
3. Connect abstract concepts to the real world

Question 15

What is the mental lexicon?

Answer 15

Where the brain takes storage of words and groups of related concepts

Question 16

What is Sapir-Whorf’s hypothesis?

Answer 16

The theory of Linguistic Relativity which posits that structural differences in language can alter one’s perception and understanding of reality

Question 17

What is problem-solving and what is the ability to problem-solve influenced by?

Answer 17

Problem-solving is the sequential process from the initial problem state to the desired end goal. The ability is influenced by the nature of the problem, approach, past experiences, general knowledge, and available strategies.

Question 18

What is mental fixedness?

Answer 18

The tendency to view an object as only having one function, the one that it is commonly used for, and neglecting to see the other possible uses

Question 19

What are heuristics?

Answer 19

Mental short-cuts that allow people to make fast, efficient decisions - not always accurate

Question 20

What is the Means-End Heuristic?

Answer 20

Keeping the end goal in mind (goal-state) and take whatever measures necessary to attain that goal

Question 21

What is the Availability Heuristic?

Answer 21

The rule of thumb is that we accurately estimate frequencies of events based on how difficult it is to think of them

Question 22

What is the Representative Heuristic?

Answer 22

Problem-solver mentally comparing something to our stored prototype of an event, object, or person - assume something belongs to a category because it seems like the prototype

Question 23

What are four ways to problem-solve creatively?

Answer 23

1. Preparation - Become familiar with the topic
2. Incubation Solving - Taking a break from effortful problem-solving
3. Illumination Problem - Insight or suddenly realizing the solution to the problem
4. Evaluation - Decide how good your solution is

Question 24

What is the confirmation bias in problem-solving?

Answer 24

Only paying attention to the evidence that supports the original position and ignoring the disconfirming evidence