Test #3 Flashcards
What do scientists believe in terms of our acquiring of language?
Scientists believe that humans have evolved an innate capacity for acquiring language.
They believe language and memory evolved at same time
What does the Surface structure of language refer to?
What does the Deep structure of language refer to?
Surface Structure: how symbols are combined (syntax)
Deep Structure: the underlying meaning of those symbols (semantics)
What’s the 5-rank hierarchy of the arrangement of language elements?
Demonstrate using the word ‘players’
phoneme (pley + ēr + z) –> morpheme (play + er + s) –> words (players) –> phrase –> sentences
Top-Down Processing vs. Bottom-Up Processing
~how it influences us understanding and producing language ~
Top-Down Processing: our concepts and ideas changing the way we perceive things we read or hear
- eg, Speech Segmentation - relies on our existing knowledge of the language to know when the word begins and ends - eg, Pragmatics - the knowledge of social context to communicate properly
Bottom-Up Processing: individual elements are combined to form a unified perception
How do biological factors influence language acquisition in children?
The steps of it
LAD
Children have a LAD= language acquisitor device which is an innate mechanism that switches different grammar rule on/off.
In infancy, babies can perceive all the phonemes of every language.
6-12 months, their speech discrimination narrows to include only the sounds of their language.
4-5 yrs, have learned simple grammatical rules for combining words
How do social learning factors influence language acquisition?
Provided that the child is exposed to a linguistic environment (LASS= language acquisition support system) during a sensitive period (early childhood to puberty), their innate mechanisms (LAD) will permit the learning and production of language.
aka, when LAD and LASS interact mutually, normal language development occurs.
It’s not an imitative process because children’s language is different from adult.
What factors affect the learning of a second language and its effects on thinking?
Is there a sensitive or critical period for learning it?
How does bilingualism affect the brain?
It appears a second language is most easily mastered and fluently spoken if learnt during a sensitive period (early childhood to mid-adolescence).
Bilingual children tend to perform better than monolingual children on cognitive tasks.
The languages share a common neural network if learned to a high proficiency.
Does research support the view that apes can acquire human language?
At best, apes are able to communicate with symbols at a level of a human toddler. So they don’t think they can learn syntax.
Distinguish between Deductive reasoning and Inductive reasoning.
Why is deductive most valid?
Why is Inductive bad?
Deductive: we reason from general principles (gravity exists) to a conclusion (thus, i’ll roll down this hill) about a specific case.
- most valid because the conclusions cannot be false if the premises are true.
Inductive: reasoning from specific facts/observations to a general principle. (this guy John’s eyes are blue. Thus, all Johns have blue eyes)
- cannot yield certainty.!!!
What are the 3 ways that deductive reasoning can be unsuccessful?
1) failure to select the proper info
2) failure to apply rules properly in novel situations
3) belief bias: the tendency to abandon logical rules in favour of personal beliefs
What are the 4 steps for Problem Solving
1) understanding the nature of the problem
2) establishing initial hypotheses or potential solutions
3) testing the solutions against existing evidence to rule out hypotheses that do not apply
4) evaluating results
What are problem-solving schemas?
How do you get expertise?
Problem-solving schemas: shortcut methods for solving specialized classes of problems. They are stored in long-term memory.
Expertise comes from acquiring a range of successful problem-solving schemas through training and practical experience, and knowing when to apply them.
Distinguish between Algorithms and Heuristics.
Algorithms are formulas/procedures that guarantee correct solutions.
Heuristics are general problem-solving strategies (may or may not provide correct solutions). -ex, consonants are usually at ends of words.
Describe the means-ends analysis and sub-goal analysis.
Mean-ends analysis: commonly used heuristic in which you identify your current situation and desired state, and what it will take to get there.
Sub-goal analysis: another heuristic where you make intermediate steps to get to goal
What are the representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristic.
The Representativeness heuristic: the tendency to judge evidence according to whether it’s consistent with an existing concept/schema. “What does it look/seem like?”– this person is a thug because he matches schema
The Availability heuristic: the tendency to base conclusions and probability judgements on what is readily available in memory. – if it comes to mind easier, it’s more probable to us
Explain Confirmation Bias and Overconfidence.
Their relationship
Overconfidence contributes to confirmation bias.
Confirmation Bias: the tendency to look for evidence that will confirm what we believe rather to disprove it.
Overconfidence: the tendency to overestimate one’s correctness, knowledge, beliefs.
What are some factors that inhibit and facilitate creative problem solving?
What is incubation?
Divergent thinking facilitates it, by generating new ideas or variations on existing ideas.
Functional Fixedness interferes with creative problem solving, by blinding us to new ways of using an object or procedure.
Incubation: the phenomenon in which a problem is being worked on in your brain subconsciously, and so randomly a solution pops into your brain after we’ve already put it aside.
What are thoughts at the brain level and at the mind level?
Brain level: thoughts are patterns of neural activity
Mind level: thoughts are propositional, imaginal, or motoric mental representations.
What are concepts and how do they enter into propositions?
Concepts are mental categories/classes that all share certain characteristics. We put classify things in concepts based on how similar they are to the PROTOTYPE– the most familiar/typical member of that class.
Propositional thought involves the use of concepts in the form of statements. (propositions: statements that express ideas; “It’s time for bed”, “I’m hungry”)
- chimps have NO propositional thought
What roles do schemas play in knowledge acquisition and expertise?
What are scripts?
Knowledge acquisition can be viewed as a process of building schemas (=mental frameworks in LTM). Experts are able to use the appropriate schema, which they’ve developed from experience, thus in LTM.
Scripts (a type of schema) provide a framework for understanding sequences of events.
How do you define wisdom?
What are some (5) components of wisdom?
Wisdom is a system of knowledge about the meaning and conduct of life.
5 Major components:
- rich factual knowledge
- rich procedural knowledge
- understanding of lifespan contexts=friends, work, fam, leisure
- awareness of the relativism of values and priorities (differs across cultures)
- ability to recognize and manage uncertainty
What are mental images?
Does research support the view that mental images are perceptual?
Mental image - representation of a stimulus that originates from the brain rather than external sensory input.
Mental images of objects seem to have properties analogous to actual objects (rotatable, can visually scan them). Research overall has more support to the imagery-as-perception view.
What is our working definition of Intelligence?
Intelligence is the ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively, and to deal adaptively with the environment.
What is the psychometric approach to intelligence?
What’s the newer approach to this?
It attempts to map the structure of intellect and establish how many different classes of mental ability underlie test performance.
The Cognitive Processes Approach: focuses on the specific thought processes that underlie mental competencies
How is factor analysis used in the study of intelligence?
Factor analysis (used in psychometric approach) is a statistical technique that can be applied to correlations among test scores to identify clusters that correlate to each other and therefore are assumed to have common underlying factors, such as verbal ability or mathematical reasoning.
What did Spearman believe about intelligence? (g)
What led Thurstone to view intelligence as specific mental abilities?
Spearman: intelligence is determined by specific cognitive abilities and a general underlying intelligence (g)
Thurstone: intelligence is a set of specific abilities – because he found distinctions btwn verbal and spatial abilities
Differentiate between Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence.
Indicate their relation to aging and types of memory.
Over our lifespan we show a progressive shift from using fluid to crystallized intelligence as we attain wisdom.
Crystallized: ability to apply previously learned knowledge to current problems (LTM) === this intelligence increases with age.
Fluid: ability to deal with novel problem-solving situations for which personal experience does not provide a solution. = this decreases with age
Describe Carroll’s three-stratum psychometric model
- mental abilities are represented as 3 levels, with general intelligence at top, and highly specific cognitive and perceptual skills at base. (they all come from the g factor== a single unitary factor)
- best combo of all the previously invented models of psychometric representation of human cognitive abilities
How to calculate IQ
IQ=(MA/CA) x100
mental age– they capabilities compared to standard age capabilities
How much do family and school environments contribute to intelligence?
How does the weight of these factors change throughout lifespan?
How does the weight of these factors change depending on class?
Intelligence is determined by interacting both these factors. Heredity establishes a rxn range for intellectual potential. Environment affects the point within that range that will be reached
Shared family environment accounts for 1/4-1/3 of the variance during childhood, but the effects dissipate as we age. While heritability effects on intelligence increases in adulthood.
But the weight of genes versus family environment changes: in impoverished fams, shared env>genes. affluent fams: genes>shared environment
What effects have been shown in early-intervention programs for disadvantaged children?
These intervention programs have positive effects on later achievement and life outcomes if they begin early in life and are applied intensively. but have little effect when applied with middle- or upper-class children, or after school begins.
What sex differences exist in cognitive skills?
Men tend to score higher than women on certain spatial and mathematical reasoning tasks.
Women perform slightly better on tests of perceptual speed, verbal fluency, mathematical calculation, and fine-motor coordination.
What factors allow gifted people to become eminent?
Gifted people (IQ in the 150s) achieve eminence have a high level of interest and motivation in this activity.
How do causal factors differ for mild and profound intellectual disability?
Cognitive disability can range from mild to profound.
Genetic factors seem unimportant in profound intellectual disabilities, but play an important role in mild disability, which is why they run in families.
Name the four major components of emotions
The primary components of emotion are:
- the eliciting stimuli (internal or external)
- cognitive appraisals
- physiological arousal
- expressive and instrumental behaviours
