Language and Thought Flashcards
What is language?
The grouping of spoken, written, or gestured symbols used to convey information
What are the four properties of language?
Symbolic, semantic, generative, structured
What are phonemes?
Smallest speech units, distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another (e.g. pad and pat, bad and bat)
What are morphemes?
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.)
What are semantics?
Meaning of words and word combinations
What is syntax?
A system of rules for arranging words into sentences
What is Skinner’s Environmental Theory of Language?
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.
What is Chomsky’s Nativist Theory of Language?
There are similarities across the human species regarding the process of language development; children across cultures acquire nouns before verbs
What is the emergentist perspective?
Bridges the gap between nativist and environmentalist (behavioural) approaches
What is nativist?
Biological reasoning for language development
What is behaviouralist?
Environmental/nurturing reasoning for language development
What is Broca’s aphasia?
The inability or difficulty in producing speech
What occurs when Wernicke’s area in the brain is damaged/undeveloped?
Speech is produced but does not make any sense; Wernicke’s area is responsible for speaking comprehension
What are the 3 purposes of language?
- To communicate thoughts, ideas, and feelings
- Facilitate social communication
- Connect abstract concepts to the real world
What is the mental lexicon?
Where the brain takes storage of words and groups of related concepts
What is Sapir-Whorf’s hypothesis?
The theory of Linguistic Relativity which posits that structural differences in language can alter one’s perception and understanding of reality
What is problem-solving and what is the ability to problem-solve influenced by?
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.
What is mental fixedness?
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
What are heuristics?
Mental short-cuts that allow people to make fast, efficient decisions - not always accurate
What is the Means-End Heuristic?
Keeping the end goal in mind (goal-state) and take whatever measures necessary to attain that goal
What is the Availability Heuristic?
The rule of thumb is that we accurately estimate frequencies of events based on how difficult it is to think of them
What is the Representative Heuristic?
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
What are four ways to problem-solve creatively?
- Preparation - Become familiar with the topic
- Incubation Solving - Taking a break from effortful problem-solving
- Illumination Problem - Insight or suddenly realizing the solution to the problem
- Evaluation - Decide how good your solution is
What is the confirmation bias in problem-solving?
Only paying attention to the evidence that supports the original position and ignoring the disconfirming evidence
