Language & Thought Flashcards
What is thinking?
Manipulating mental representations for a purpose
What are mental models?
Representations that describe, explain or predict the way things work
What does categorisation involve?
Recognising an object as a member of a category
What is a concept?
A mental representation of a category
What are defining features?
Qualities that are essential/necessarily present in order to classify objects as members of a category
How can objects be categorised?
By comparison with defining features and by similarity/dissimilarity to prototypes
What is a prototype?
An abstraction across many instances of categories (i.e. a typical example of a category of things)
How are many concepts organised?
Hierarchically
What does efficient thinking require?
Choosing the right level of abstraction in a hierarchy of concepts
What are the three levels of categorisation in a hierarchy?
- Superordinate: Category members share few common features (e.g. mammal)
- Basic: Broadest, most inclusive level, category members share common attributes (e.g. dog)
- Subordinate: Category members share specific attributes (e.g. kelpie)
At which hierarchy level do people categorise most quickly?
Basic
True or false: Categorisation is a functional process
True
What is reasoning?
The process by which people generate and evaluate arguments and beliefs, typically to try to solve problems
What are the two types of reasoning?
Inductive and deductive
What is inductive reasoning?
Reasoning from specific observations to generate propositions, relies heavily on probabilities
What is deductive reasoning?
Drawing a conclusion from a set of assumptions or premises (e.g. syllogisms)
What does a syllogism consist of?
Two premises that lead to a logical conclusion, e.g.
A. All dogs have fur
B. Kelly is a dog
Conclusion: Kelly has fur
What is analogical reasoning?
The process by which people understand a novel situation in terms of a familiar one
What is analogical reasoning influenced by?
The similarity of the situations, the ease of mapping their elements and the reasoner’s goals
What is problem solving?
The process of transforming one situation into another to meet a goal
What is the difference between a well-defined and an ill-defined problem?
A well-defined problem has a correct answer and applying certain procedures leads to a solution.
An ill-defined problem often has an unclear solution (no one correct answer)
What are three problem solving strategies?
Algorithms (systematic procedures), mental simulation (mental rehearsal) and hypothesis testing (educated guess/testing)
What is functional fixedness?
Restricting the use of an object to its usual uses
What is mental set?
The tendency to keep using the same problem solving techniques that have worked in the past
What is confirmation bias?
The tendency for people to search for confirmation of what they already believe, overlooking information that contradicts their belief
How can irrelevant/misleading information affect problem solving?
When problems are complex it is easier to focus on irrelevant/misleading information
How can assumptions affect problem solving?
By preventing certain solutions
How can barriers to problem solving be overcome?
Restructure the problem and represent it in a novel way
What is decision making?
The process of weighing the pros and cons of different alternatives in order to make a choice
What is the weighted utility value?
A combined judgement of the importance of an attribute and the extent to which a given option satisfies it (e.g. $5 for lunch = cost of different options is given a higher weighting)
What is expected utility?
A combined judgement of the weighted utility and the expected probability of obtaining an outcome
What is explicit cognition?
Conscious manipulation of representations
What are heuristics?
Cognitive shortcuts that allow for rapid, but sometimes irrational, judgements/choices
What is a representativeness heuristic?
Probability of an event is based on how similar it is to a typical prototype of that event
What is an availability heuristic?
Events more easily remembered are judged as more probable
What is bounded rationality, or satisficing?
People are rational within the bounds imposed by their environment, goals and abilities - leads to making good-enough judgements, rather than optimal judgements
What is implicit cognition?
Cognition outside of awareness (i.e. unconscious)
‘Aha’ experiences are an example of what type of problem solving?
Implicit
What is the framing effect?
Decisions are influenced by how a decision is stated
What encourages a risk-aversion strategy?
A choice framed in terms of gains
What encourages a risk-taking strategy?
A choice framed in terms of losses
What are expected emotions?
Emotions people predict they will feel for a particular outcome
What are immediate emotions?
Experienced at the time of the decision
What are the two types of immediate emotions?
Integral (associated with a decision) and incidental (unrelated to the decision)
What does connectionism, or parallel distributed processing, suggest?
Most cognitive processes occur simultaneously through the action of multiple activated networks
What is language?
The system of symbols, sounds, meanings and rules for their combination that constitutes the primary mode of communication among humans
What does the Whorfian hypothesis of linguist relativity suggest?
Language shapes thought
What are the four properties of language?
Symbolic, semantic, generative and structured
What are the two unique features of language?
Hierarchy and rules
What are phonemes?
The smallest speech units, e.g. th
What are morphemes?
The smallest units of meaning, e.g. -ing
What are phrases?
Groups of words that act as a unit and convey meaning
What are sentences?
Organised sequences of words that express a thought or intention
What are semantics?
The rules that govern the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences
What is syntax?
The rules that govern to placement of words and phrases in a sentence
What is syntax an aspect of?
Grammer
What is discourse?
The way people ordinarily speak, hear, read and write in interconnected sentences
How do people represent discourse?
- Exact wording
- Gist/general meaning
- Suspended reality (e.g. ‘imagine you are..’)
- Communication
- Conversation
What does non-verbal communication include?
- Vocal intonation
- Body language
- Gestures
- Physical distance
- Facial expressions
- Touch
- Non-verbal vocalisation (e.g. throat clearing)
What is the concept of universal grammar?
An innate, shared set of linguistic principles that underlies the grammatical forms found in all cultures
