Language & Problem Solving

Question 1

Skinner & Verbal Behaviour

Answer 1

attempt to explain how language is produced within a behaviourist framework; process of reinforcement and punishment

Question 2

Chomsky & Syntactic Structures

Answer 2

challenged Skinner; based on observations that are hard to account for. when language is being acquired, language acquirer follows structure to language that may not be directly taught, but is acquired by individual via that exposure to language

Question 3

syntax

Answer 3

the grammatical arrangement of words within a sentence

Question 4

semantics

Answer 4

the meaning of words and sentences

Question 5

morphology

Answer 5

the structure and organization of morphemes (meaning units) within a language

Question 6

phonology

Answer 6

the systematic use of sound in the generation of language

Question 7

pragmatics

Answer 7

relates to the implicit social rules involved in language

Question 8

phonemes

Answer 8

basic building blocks of language, sounds you can make in culture you are in

Question 9

morphemes

Answer 9

phonemes combined together that give meaning; smallest unit of language to which meaning can be ascribed

Question 10

phonemic restoration effect

Answer 10

on the basis of the cue, infer that the word is longer than it is; given length of the beep can infer a different phoneme came before

Question 11

transitional probablities

Answer 11

when analyzing linguistic info, have a good idea of whether current focus is something signaling the start or middle of a word
- certain pairs of sound are more likely to belong to the same word while others belong to different words

Question 12

word frequency effect

Answer 12

norms have published looking at the relative frequency of words in language, we process more frequent words faster

Question 13

context effect

Answer 13

speeded processing for words consistent with the context of the sentence

Question 14

lexical ambiguity

Answer 14

multiple interpretations of words can be available at once

Question 15

phoneme exchange

Answer 15

language slips are not random but lawful; exchanges tend to take place when a consonant-vowel pair can be exchanged with one another

Question 16

word exchange

Answer 16

full exchanges of words have to be syntactically lawful; most common switch are nouns for nouns and verbs for verbs

Question 17

word substitution

Answer 17

words are replaced when they are of the same category and similar phoneme length

Question 18

language development

Answer 18

• cooing (3-5 weeks)
• babbling (4-6 months); understanding of consonant-vowel relationship
• language-specific utterances (6-18 months); experience and environment is more apparent
• telegraphic speech (24 months onward); acquisition of language rules

Question 19

N400

Answer 19

amplitude of the N400 modulates as a function of semantic congruency; the higher the N400, the weirdest answer generated. flexibility of interpretation

Question 20

P600

Answer 20

largest P600 for sentence that is syntactically incorrect; amplitude modulates as a function of syntactic congruency

Question 21

insight solution

Answer 21

solutions arrived at via insight produced more frontal lobe activity

Question 22

non-insight solution

Answer 22

solutions arrived at via non-insight produced more occipital lobe activity

Question 23

release from functional fixedness

Answer 23

discard prior beliefs of what objects do/functions

Question 24

situationally produced mental set

Answer 24

once you have a mental set, it’s hard to see more efficient solutions to the problem