Language and thought

Question 1

Language

Answer 1

A system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning.

Question 2

Grammar

Answer 2

A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.

Question 3

Phoneme

Answer 3

The smallest units of speech that distinguish one word from another.

Question 4

Phonological rules

Answer 4

A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce words.

Question 5

Morphemes

Answer 5

The smallest meaningful units of language.

Question 6

Morphological rules

Answer 6

A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.

Question 7

Syntactic rules

Answer 7

A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.

Question 8

Telegraphic speech

Answer 8

Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists mostly of content words.

Question 9

Novel strategy

Answer 9

Examining the acquisition of English by internationally adopted children who did not know any English prior to adoption

Question 10

Nativist theory

Answer 10

The view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.

Question 11

Universal grammar

Answer 11

A collection of processes that facilitate language learning.

Question 12

Broca’s area

Answer 12

located in the left frontal cortex and is involved in the production of the sequential patterns in vocal and sign languages

Question 13

Wernicke’s area

Answer 13

located in the left temporal cortex, is involved in language comprehension

Question 14

Aphasia

Answer 14

Difficulty in producing or comprehending language.

Question 15

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 15

The idea that language shapes the nature of thought.

Question 16

Prototype theory

Answer 16

The concept that we classify new objects by comparing them to the “best” or “most typical” member (the prototype) of a category.

Question 17

Exemplar theory

Answer 17

The concept that we make category judgements by comparing a new instance with stored memories of other instances of the category.

Question 18

category-specific deficit

Answer 18

A neurological syndrome characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, even when the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed.

Question 19

Rational choice theory

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

availability heuristic

Answer 20

A rule of thumb that items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently.

Question 21

heuristic

Answer 21

A fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached.

Question 22

Algorithm

Answer 22

A well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem.

Question 23

representativeness heuristic

Answer 23

A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event with a prototype of the object or event.

Question 24

conjunction fallacy

Answer 24

Thinking that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event alone.

Question 25

framing effects

Answer 25

A bias whereby people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is framed.

Question 26

sunk-cost fallacy

Answer 26

A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation on the basis of what they have previously invested in the situation.

Question 27

Optimism bias

Answer 27

A bias whereby people believe that, compared with other individuals, they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future.

Question 28

Prospect theory

Answer 28

The theory that people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains.

Question 29

Means-ends analysis

Answer 29

A process of searching for the means or steps to reduce differences between the current situation and the desired goal.
1. Analyze the goal state (i.e., the desired outcome you want to attain).
2. Analyze the current state (i.e., your starting point, or the current situation).
3. List the differences between the current state and the goal state.
4. Reduce the list of differences by

Question 30

analogical problem solving

Answer 30

The process of solving.a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem.

Question 31

functional fixedness

Answer 31

The tendency to perceive the functions of objects as unchanging.

Question 32

Reasoning

Answer 32

is a mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps in order to reach conclusions.

Question 33

belief bias

Answer 33

The idea that people’s judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid.

Question 34

syllogistic reasoning

Answer 34

Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true.

Question 35

​​illusory truth effect

Answer 35

An error in reasoning that occurs when repeated exposure to a statement increases the likelihood that people will judge that statement to be true.

Question 36

illusion of explanatory depth

Answer 36

An illusion that occurs when people overestimate the depth of their understanding.